Robert C. Solomon

Robert C. Solomon was an American philosopher who taught at the University of Texas at Austin for more than thirty years. He worked on Continental thought, especially existentialism, Nietzsche and Hegel, and became known for his theory of emotions. In The Passions (1976) he argued that emotions are judgements, ways of engaging with and evaluating the world, for which we bear some responsibility. He also wrote on love, business ethics and spirituality, and his introductory textbook The Big Questions, in later editions co-written with his wife Kathleen Higgins, is widely used.

Key ideas

• Emotions are judgements: they are ways of evaluating the world, not blind feelings.
• Because emotions involve judgement, we are partly responsible for them and can cultivate them.
• Romantic love is a historically shaped emotion, not something found unchanged in every age.
• Business ethics should draw on Aristotle's virtues, treating business as a practice within a community.
• Spirituality, rightly understood, is a thoughtful love of life that is compatible with scepticism.

Major works

• The Passions (1976)
• The Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy (1982)
• In the Spirit of Hegel (1983)
• About Love (1988)
• What Nietzsche Really Said (1998, with Kathleen Higgins)
• Spirituality for the Skeptic (2002)

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