10/10/2026
Philosophers' Café: Using Anger for Good
Why do we get angry, and is anger necessarily a bad thing? “Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody’s power and it is not easy” (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book II). This was the second session of this fall’s Philosophers’ Café series, led by Ryan Martin on October 7.
Ryan Martin, Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of Psychology at UW-Green Bay, author and speaker, opened with a talk defining what anger is. To show how anger can turn us into different people, he described being at a sporting event where the officials were making egregiously bad calls and the fans around him were growing angry. The fans were right about the calls, he said, but as their anger grew, what they said became less rational, and the anger spread to other fans. The players and coach, he noted, handled their own frustration more appropriately. Whether it is unfairness, vulnerability, or distress, anger is based on the receiver’s interpretation of the situation. Several of the questions focused on how anger is expressed in modern society, mainly through social media and online interactions. The audience and Ryan worked through how social media directs people to posts that will get them to interact more. Social media makes it easier to express anger online, as you hide behind the screen and are not face to face with another individual.
Audience members asked several questions about anger. Two highlighted questions were: How does one manage anger? And why does anger exist the way it does? One way to confront anger is to take a moment, breathe, and count to ten, a strategy Ryan recalled learning from a PSA as a kid. It works, though it is one of many approaches. Rather than suppressing anger, people can recognize what causes it and find healthier ways to respond. The history of anger helps us understand why it exists the way it does. Ryan explained that humans evolved with anger because of the circumstances they once lived in. The immediate response of fight or flight allowed them to fight back against predators or anything trying to harm them. By understanding anger, we see that it can be healthy or unhealthy, and that one of the ways it works well is in response to unfairness and injustice, where it reflects what we care about. Anger is not always harmful, but how we choose to act can be.
Next up: Wednesday, October 21, 5:00–6:30 PM, Fireside Room, Mauthe Center. Chris Diehm, Director of the Environmental Ethics Program at UW-Stevens Point, presents “Does an Examined Life Need Nature? Yes!” Open to the public.
