Introduction to Volume IV: transformations

Nineteenth-century Europe was a time of transformation. The political revolutions that marked the end of the eighteenth century opened up new questions about the nature of governance and the polity. Emotions were also being shaped by new sciences of the body. Eighteenth-century thinkers had previously recognised the importance of ‘nature’ in encouraging certain types of human behaviour, like parental love, but evolutionary science brought much further-reaching implications for the operation of emotions. Emotions were increasingly interpreted through the eyes of science but they retained an important cultural function. Emotional experiences were still pursued for pleasure, and they guided moral behaviour. The influence of the culture of sensibility could still be seen at the beginning of the century, when many Europeans retained a belief in the importance of sympathy to communication. Manuscript records survive for top emotions scientists, as well as their published writings.