Critical Person-in-Environment Transitions Across the Life Span精品.pdfVIP

5 E M OT I O N A L U N I V E R S A L I S M A N D E M OT I O N A L E G A L I TA R I A N I S M In order for us to get a sense of what is involved in evaluating emo- tions, we need to have a deeper discussion of moral theory. In chap- ter 3 we saw that emotions need to be understood and evaluated—they often even involve their own self-evaluation. Then, in chapter 4 we saw that many emotions are moral in nature but still need to be evalu- ated and acted on. This chapter will focus on the specific processes by which we should evaluate our emotional experiences, and the next two chapters will focus on the phenomenological dimension of vicious and virtuous characters and qualities in general. Kantian moral theory is often explained in terms of the different formulations of the categorical imperative, or the moral law, especially 1 the first two. This chapter will be roughly divided between these two moral rules, explaining them and their relevance to our emotional lives.2 The first formulation is often called the “Universal Law formu- lation” and it runs thus: “Act only according to that the maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a uni- versal law” (G 421). Following Arendt, I liken Kant’s universalism to the notions of personal and political transparency. Kant places a great deal of emphasis on transparency, which begins with self-transparency or conscientiousness, but this fact is often missed because attention is diverted by the too fine of a point Kant puts on the injunction not to lie. In terms of conscientiously evaluating our emotions, we find that feelings and ideas can be repressed either because they are selfish or because they are not fully understood. Emotional denial can also take the form of a lack of moral courage. Kant’s emotional universa