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26 May 2022

Ar Event - Evolving emotions: getting a feel for the world

Last Saturday, May 21st, Ar Events returned to the Champalimaud Foundation Auditorium after a more than two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the title “Evolving emotions: getting a feel for the world”, the event was a celebration of women in science – who for most of our History were deemed unfit for the job for having no control over their emotions – emotions which were until recently considered, from Plato to Descartes and beyond, to be an hindrance to rational thought.

Ar Event: Emotions rule!

Today, the general view about the role emotions play in our lives has radically evolved, and the importance of emotions throughout the animal kingdom has finally been recognised. Charles Darwin already intuited 150 years ago when he wrote that emotions are “a universal means of communication” across the animal kingdom. As for us humans, we now know that emotions literally shape every aspect of our lives, including things as unique to our species as rationality and morality.

This change of paradigm has, in particular, rendered obsolete the idea (which predominated for centuries) that women’s “excessive” emotionality is an obstacle to