Abstract

In recent years, research on modeling the human mind has been progressing rapidly in Japan, which has provided a framework for programming the mind in the current development of artificial intelligence. Despite the skepticism about this subject, it is possible to model the mind according to the same pattern as long as people feel the same way when placed in the same situations and if they can understand the feelings of others when placed in specific situations. In addition, as people tend to understand other’s emotions by applying some model of the mind, the existence of such a model for understanding people’s emotions is not surprising. Therefore, this book introduces the main ideas of the model of the mind, indicating that the human mind is inevitably equipped with various emotions. In other words, this model yields several qualitatively different impulses defined as human emotions. Currently, the field of research that analyzes this model of the mind is called the “economics of emotions,” which is expected to become a unified theory applied across the humanities and social sciences. There is no human mind left that cannot be modeled by the economics of emotions as this concept focuses on the human mind as a whole. In this regard, this book (published in 2022 in Japan) touches on the key points discussed in the economics of emotions. While this book aims to present an overall picture to readers intending to study the economics of emotions, it will also help them organize the overall contents, whose English translation will be published in 2024.