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SAAM TRIVEDI, Emotional Truth by de sousa, ronald, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Volume 70, Issue 2, May 2012, Pages 239–241, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6245.2012.01515_5.x
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de sousa, ronald. Emotional Truth. Oxford University Press, 2011, xviii + 319 pp., $60.59 cloth.
At least since the publication in 1987 of his first book, The Rationality of Emotion, Ronald de Sousa has been firmly established as one of the absolutely first‐rate thinkers on the emotions. The recent publication of his book Emotional Truth (versions of each of the seventeen chapters have been previously published in various places) should thus be hailed by those seriously interested in the emotions. There is not enough space here to discuss everything in a volume as wide‐ranging and remarkably impressive as Emotional Truth, but below is a quick and very rough summary of some of de Sousa's central claims. Drawing on the etymological connections of the word ‘truth’ to words such as ‘trust’ and ‘truce,’ de Sousa claims that there is a generic notion of truth that has broader connotations (of fidelity, authenticity, and loyalty) than the concept of strict, propositional truth, which alone is sanctioned by contemporary philosophy; a true portrait, for example, is faithful, and a true friend loyal. Claiming then that there are two aspects to emotional truth, how well emotions reflect the world, as well as our own selves, de Sousa suggests that emotional truth can tell us about things (such as beauty, morality, love, death, sex, knowledge, desire, coherence, and happiness) essential to our existence as social beings. Emotions, he argues, can both ground and also sometimes undermine our values; when taken holistically, they serve as the ultimate judges of conflicting values.
