What exactly we mean when we say the word “solitude” is still up for debate in the research world. Defining solitude using the experiences of ordinary people – and not just the musings of the poets and prophets we met in the last chapter–was an important objective in our research and writing. In an attempt to create a definition that we and other researchers could share, we had to pin down its basic components, to build a better picture of the nature and conditions of solitude as many people experience it. When and how does it happen? Where does it happen and why? When is it good or bad, or neither? With the generous input of many people from around the world, we were able to describe solitude in an accurate and inclusive way.

On the surface and on the basis of twenty-first-century criteria, Galileo and Shakespeare live in different worlds: One is in science and the other is in art. But at a deeper level, Galileo and Shakespeare have a foundational similarity: They both rely heavily on thought experiments. Besides, in their era science and art were not separated in the unhealthy way they are today. Thought experiments have been essential and central to the development of both science and art. Contemporary psychology has focused exclusively on experimentally discovering the “causes” of behavior, even though much of a person’s behavior is normatively regulated rather than causally determined. Closer ties with literature and a fuller appreciation of thought experiments will enable psychology to better understand normatively regulated behavior.

Chapter 2 examines social science approaches to understanding emotions and their educational implications. It explores fields that study human personal and social life empirically, drawing out patterns and relationships that can inform policy and practice, in education and other fields. Its main task is to introduce, and juxtapose with the mainstream, alternative perspectives on educating emotional virtues which have thus far been left off the table, to highlight the insights of the politics of emotions for emotional virtues education. The first section examines psychological views of emotions as applied in education. The methodology and orientation toward emotions in these approaches are explored at length. The second section of this chapter introduces approaches and views related to the politics of educating emotions, which include insights about emotions developed in social psychology, sociology, feminist theory, cultural studies, and related areas.