Wojciech, 

I do not know who is society in this case. And what is emotional intelligence? Is it the capacity to manipulate other persons?

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Hello Béatrice. I was thinking about people who are not into psychology and know this concept only from mass media.

Dear Wojciech,

J. Panksepp, L. Biven, in Their book "The Archeology of Mind" say: "...... .we hope that what will come out will be very useful

to the most in their search for understanding of themselves and of others

and to recognize ... .the emotional reactions to the world ".

In their common structure composed of belief, evaluation and feeling, comparatively I consider emotions as a means that links man to  "... the quality of a thing whereby it is of value, ... that possesses the characteristics that give value to something or exhibits the properties where the value is, "and later the philosopher states that" .... our maximum responsiveness to value, its content and its profile you through the emotions ".

Now, in considering only a chapter - as important – of the vast and complex theme of emotions, ranging from arising, their cognitive value or to their relationship with rationality, I feel that I need to dwell on the ability of the emotions to allow a 'tight integration between the physical and the psychological component of man, which is a measure of the adequacy of the response to the value of things. All this to report in the first place the functional role of emotions as elements that reinforce existing social standards within a cultural system through the support they give to the beliefs and values expressed by the system itself.

In this supporting role of social norms we can talk about emotions as regulators of socially desirable or undesirable behavior. A given society will tend - then - to promote the emotional expressions that are considered functional to the maintenance of a given moral and social order and to contain those emotions contrary to them.

On the insight from new strands of thought within the sciences of man that recognize and accept inside their schemes of analysis the possibility of altruistic structures beside those of a mere egoistic sort, acknowledgment of “pure” altruism as the predisposition of man to empathy is progressively apparent. The human being seems to be inclined by his nature to carry a feeling of a strong identification with other fellows, such to render possible a deep understanding of the state of other people’s mind [1]. This stream of thought has become a proper ground for those economists unsatisfied by the neoclassical approach and has shown how such an emotional incitement can be the reason of the predisposition of an individual to altruistic actions.

There would be much more to say on emotion (intelligence),as far as your request of   bibliography is concerned and I’d suggest you to go to the end of the book I quoted at the beginning  and choose among an endless list, starting for instance from Barrett, J. (2006), ‘Emotions as natural kinds? ’, in Perspectives on Psychologcal Science, 1, pp. 105-120.

Good luck for your research and best regards,

Gianrocco

[1] See, for example, Singer, T., Fehr, E., The neuroeconomics of mind reading and empathy, American Economic Review,  95(2): 340-345