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YOU ARE WHAT YOU WILL: KANT, SCHOPENHAUER, FACIAL EXPRESSION OF EMOTION, AND AFFECTIVE COMPUTING1
Author(s) -
Smith John
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
german life and letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1468-0483
pISSN - 0016-8777
DOI - 10.1111/glal.12169
Subject(s) - physiognomy , face (sociological concept) , facial expression , field (mathematics) , reading (process) , psychology , expression (computer science) , cognition , cognitive psychology , cognitive science , philosophy , linguistics , computer science , sociology , communication , mathematics , neuroscience , anthropology , pure mathematics , programming language
Recent developments in the cognitive sciences have advanced the techniques of reading emotions on the human face. Paul Ekman has formalised the study of ‘micro‐expressions’, universal ways in which emotions are embedded and expressed in the human face, and the field of ‘affective computing’ has employed software to allow facial expressions of emotion to be read and evaluated by digital technology. Such developments raise fundamental philosophical issues concerning the relationship between external physical signs on the body and internal, otherwise invisible characteristics of human nature. While this relationship lies at the heart of the centuries‐old field of physiognomy in general, this essay explores discussions of it by Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) and Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860).