Person
Every book Ralph Adolphs recommended on podcasts
Ralph Adolphs’s most recommended books
- The Book of Human Emotions by Tiffany Watt Smith
- Descartes' Error by Antonio Damasio
- The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin
- The Variations of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Volume 1 by Charles Darwin
- What Emotions Really Are by Paul E. Griffiths
Ralph Adolphs brings a rigorous neuroscientific perspective to podcasts like the Huberman Lab, focusing specifically on the neuroscience of emotions, behavior, and psychological regulation. During his podcast appearance, Adolphs discussed several pivotal texts in emotion research and philosophy. He enthusiastically recommended Tiffany Watt Smith's The Book of Human Emotions, praising it as a comprehensive dictionary of emotion words spanning different languages. To contextualize philosophical arguments surrounding whether emotions truly exist, Adolphs brought up Paul E. Griffiths's What Emotions Really Are and Antonio Damasio's foundational work Descartes' Error. He also referenced historical texts, such as Charles Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals and The Variations of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, to explain the core dimension of valence. Finally, he mentioned his own co-authored book with David J. Anderson, The Neuroscience of Emotion, to outline the shared features that help define emotional responses.
Books recommended by Ralph Adolphs
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The Book of Human Emotions
The Book of Human Emotions by Tiffany Watt Smith is an engaging dictionary-style exploration of how different cultures and eras have defined and experienced human feelings.
Recommended“There's a great book uh Tiffany Watts Smith has a book I think it's called the book of human emotions which is basically like a little uh dictionary an entry from a toz of all the different emotion words in different languages”
Where to get it
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Descartes' Error
Descartes' Error by Antonio Damasio is a foundational work in neuroscience that examines how emotions are deeply intertwined with human reasoning and decision-making.
Discussed“If you have no emotions as we know from Antonio Damasio's original work in his book Daycart's error uh which he put out just as I was starting as a posttock in Iowa 1994”
Where to get it
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The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin is a classic scientific text examining the evolutionary origins and universal nature of emotional displays across species.
Discussed“Some are further apart and the simplest dimension which is one that Charles Darwin already mentioned in his book the expression of the emotion in man and animals he called it principle of antithesis is veilance which is approach or avoid pleasant or unpleasant this basic veilance dimension.”
Where to get it
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The Neuroscience of Emotion
Discussed“And so David Anderson and I did that in our book a decade ago or so now the neuroscience of emotion where we listed some features of emotions that helps to answer the question”
Where to get it
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The Variations of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Volume 1
The Variations of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Volume 1 by Charles Darwin is a foundational scientific work exploring how traits are altered through selective breeding and domestication.
Discussed“Some are further apart and the simplest dimension which is one that Charles Darwin already mentioned in his book the expression of the emotion in man and animals he called it principle of antithesis is veilance which is approach or avoid pleasant or unpleasant this basic veilance dimension.”
Where to get it
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What Emotions Really Are
Discussed“Paul Griffith's philosopher wrote a book some years ago, I think 97 or so, what emotions really are, uh, where he first kind of made the claim that, well, they don't really exist”
Where to get it
Books Ralph Adolphs wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neuroscience of Emotions & Tools for Improving Emotion Regulation | Dr. Ralph Adolphs | Huberman Lab | 2026-08-17 | 6 |