Read How I Met Your Mother and Philosophy for Free Online Page B

don’t want to suggest that we’re completely responsible for every emotion, as cognitivists tend to say, but I do think we’re responsible to some extent. We can’t control the things that happen to us. We cannot even control our direct affectiveresponses towards them. But we can control how we deal with our emotions, just like Barney does.
    On the other hand, I also don’t want to argue that Barney’s entire character should be an example for everyone. He has some serious flaws too. Barney treats women with disrespect, he is sometimes very egotistical, and he can act really childish.
    Yet, from Barney, we can all learn the importance of taking control over our emotions. How little or how great the control over our emotions may be, we have the power to awesomize them. Instead of losing out to self-pity and complaining, we have to take responsibility for how we deal with our emotions. We can shape our expressions in such a way that emotions aren’t drawn into negativity, but awesomized into positivity. By being creative with our narratives, we can turn our existence into a story of awesomeness. Responsibility and power lie in our hands. So, the next time you feel sad, just stop being sad and be awesome instead. 2

    1 I feel obliged to give you some references so that you don’t think I’m making this stuff up. In Deeper than Reason , Jenefer Robinson summarizes a lot of contemporary science of emotion in order to understand emotions as processes. Most prominent figures in the science of emotion are: Joseph LeDoux, Robert Zajonc, Richard Lazarus, and Antonio Damasio. A good book on emotion and narrative is Peter Goldie’s The Emotions .
    2 I am grateful to Annelies Monseré, Violi Sahaj, and Alex Schuurbiers for their useful remarks.

3
    Me! Me! Me!
    T HOMAS A INSWORTH
    Charity? You’re seriously talking to me about charity? Dude, I am Mr. Charity. I frequently sleep with sixes, chubsters, over-thirties. . . . I am the Bill and Melinda Gates of the sympathy bang.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  —B ARNEY S TINSON in “False Positive”
    The good person must be a self-lover.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  —A RISTOTLE , Nicomachean Ethics , Book IX, Chapter 8
    K ids, in “The Playbook,” Barney has just broken up with Robin, and is determined to resume his philandering ways. He does so with the help of the Playbook, a black leathery tome full of scams, cons, hustles, hoodwinks, gambits, flim-flams, strategems, and bamboozles that he has devised to pick up chicks and give ’em the business.
    Barney’s series of seductions culminates in the grandiose meta-play, the Scuba Diver. Lily has discovered the existence of the Playbook, and her disgust is exacerbated when Barney uses it on a work colleague whom she had intended for Ted. In retaliation, she has stolen it and is threatening (Bond-villain style) to post the contents on the internet. Defiantly, Barney announces he is going to perform one final play, the Scuba Diver. Lily tells Marshall to post the Playbook online, but is surprised to discover that it includes no mention of a play called “The Scuba Diver.” Down in MacLaren’s bar, the whole How I Met Your Mother gang finds Barney in a booth, dressed in full scuba gear.
    He reveals that he plans to seduce the blonde at the bar, but, when questioned about the Scuba Diver, he breaks down and confesses that he has taken his break-up with Robin worse than they had realized. His recent behavior has been his way of coping. Lily and the others persuade the blonde that Barney is a good guy, and that she should give him a chance and go for coffee with him. Only after they have left does Lily receive a text from Barney, telling her to look under the table, where they discover the missing page of the Playbook, which contains the Scuba Diver. The page reveals that all the preceding events in the episode—the