Self-Expression

Mitchell S. Green presents a systematic philosophical study of self-expression - a pervasive phenomenon of the everyday life of humans and other species, which has received scant attention in its own right. He explores the ways in which self-expression reveals our states of thought, feeling, and experience, and he defends striking new theses concerning a wide range of fascinating topics: our ability to perceive emotion in others, artistic expression, empathy,expressive language, meaning, facial expression, and speech acts. He draws on insights from evolutionary game theory, ethology, the philosophy of language, social psychology, pragmatics, aesthetics, and neuroscience to present a stimulating and accessible interdisciplinary work.

It may well be yet another forty years before something of similar nature on this subject is written., '[An] eminently clear, forceful, well-argued, and much-needed contribution... genuinely illuminating... Green has produced a deep, rewarding, and absorbing book that is nothing short of the next major step on a subject central to human self-understanding., 'Expression' has far too long been presupposed but not explained. In this respect Green's book helps to fill a gaping hole in the literature... Green has written an intriguing book full of insights on each and every subject he brings up, and regardless of one's philosophical interests, one stands to be provoked., yet to learn a lot.

Mitchell S. Green is NEH/Horace Goldsmith Distinguished Teaching Professor of Philosophy, University of Virginia