Sound Sentiment

What does it mean for emotion to be well-constituted? What distinguishes good feeling from (just) feeling good? Is there such a distinction at all? The answer to these questions becomes clearer if we realize that for an emotion to be all it seems it must be responsible as well as responsive to what it is about. It may be that good feeling depends on feeling truly if we are to be really moved moved in the way that avoids the need for constant fretful replenishment and reinforcement. To be sound emotions may need to be capable of genuineness depth and other kinds of integrity. And that in turn may require certain virtues of mind such as truthfulness temperateness and even courage that are more familiar at the level of action. The governing aim of this book is to demonstrate that there can be problems of a structural kind with the adequacy of emotions and the emotional life.