Emotion, Character, and Responsibility

This collection of essays explores why emotions are important in our conception of a person's character and in our own conception of self. Chapter topics include caring, loyalty, sincerity, shame, guilt, embarrassment and self-deception. The text is intended for clinicians, social psychologists interested in the study of emotion and interested general readers.

Table of Contents:
1: Introduction 2: Emotion, Responsibility, and Character 3: On the Captivity of the Will: Sympathy, Caring, and a Moral Sense of the Human 4: Sincerity: Feelings and Construction in Making a Self 5: Loyalty as Good and Duty: A Critique of Stocker 6: In Defense of Shame: Shame in the Context of Guilt and Embarrassment 7: On Knowing Self-Deception 8: On the Possible Nonexistence of Emotions: The Passions

Review :
"Sabini and Silver explore the relationship between emotions and judgments about moral character. Observing that people base evaluations of moral character on both a person's actions and the emotions the person shows, the authors comment on the reality that people are said to be responsible for their actions whereas emotions are believed to be involuntary. The book examines the implications of the fact that moral character arises from factors people can control and others they cannot. The eight chapters include material on specific emotions, such as shame and guilt, and on relations between emotion and action, such as sincerity and loyalty. Each chapter presents hypothetical cases as discussion topics from which the authors deduce principles relevant to the assessment of moral character. . . . Recommended as a useful . . . addition to an academic library serving upper-division undergraduate and graduate programs in psychology and philosophy."--Choice "Sabini and Silver explore the relationship between emotions and judgments about moral character. Observing that people base evaluations of moral character on both a person's actions and the emotions the person shows, the authors comment on the reality that people are said to be responsible for their actions whereas emotions are believed to be involuntary. The book examines the implications of the fact that moral character arises from factors people can control and others they cannot. The eight chapters include material on specific emotions, such as shame and guilt, and on relations between emotion and action, such as sincerity and loyalty. Each chapter presents hypothetical cases as discussion topics from which the authors deduce principles relevant to the assessment of moral character. . . . Recommended as a useful . . . addition to an academic library serving upper-division undergraduate and graduate programs in psychology and philosophy."--Choice