14 Emotions
Read Aristotle's account through seven emotion pairs, plain-language explanations, and everyday examples.
Rhetoric II.1 · 1378a — An account of the passions
Emotions are those experiences through which people come to differ in their judgments, and which are accompanied by pain and pleasure—for example, anger, compassion, and fear.
Aristotle undertook an early systematic analysis of emotion in Western philosophy. Emotions are not simply enemies of reason; they arise through the ways we see and evaluate a situation.
A dictionary of seven emotion pairs
Open a card to explore why a feeling arises and how it appears in everyday life. Fourteen refers to the classical grouping presented here, not a claim that all human feelings fit into fourteen categories.
Angerorgē↔ Gentleness · Calm (praotēs)
In plain language
What makes us angry in this account is not simply a loss, but the humiliation of feeling that someone has treated us as insignificant or easy to dismiss. That is why imagining a satisfying act of retaliation can bring a peculiar pleasure alongside the hurt.
An everyday situation
Someone cuts ahead of you in a queue, or openly laughs at and dismisses your suggestion in a meeting. You feel your blood begin to boil.
Classical definition · Based on Rhetoric II
A desire, accompanied by pain, for visible revenge in response to an undeserved slight against oneself or one's associates. It also involves the pleasure offered by the prospect of revenge.
Anger is directed at a particular person who has slighted us, not at humanity as a whole. A speaker can arouse anger by persuading an audience that the other party has unfairly looked down on them.
Friendship · Lovephilia↔ Hatred · Hostility (misos)
In plain language
Genuine friendship and love are not a matter of liking someone because we stand to benefit. They involve wanting the other person to flourish without expecting a reward. Hatred, by contrast, wishes for the other person's destruction itself.
An everyday situation
You cheer as if it were your own achievement when a friend gets a job or passes an exam. When something painful happens to them, you sit beside them and cry together without needing to say anything.
Classical definition · Based on Rhetoric II
Wishing good things for another person for that person's own sake. It is a state in which we sincerely rejoice in a friend's success and share the pain of their failures.
Hatred can be directed beyond an individual toward an entire kind of person, such as fraudsters. This distinguishes it from anger toward a particular person.
Fearphobos↔ Confidence · Boldness (tharsos)
In plain language
Tomorrow morning's performance review or interview can bring on a cold sweat more readily than a vague future ten years away. Fear arises from a vivid imagining that something terrible is about to happen to us.
An everyday situation
You submit a report containing a mistake to your manager. During the ten minutes you wait for approval, your heart pounds as though it might burst.
Classical definition · Based on Rhetoric II
Pain or disturbance arising from an image (phantasia) of an impending destructive or painful evil. What frightens us is not a vague, distant danger, but an evil that seems close at hand.
Even fear has a social dimension. We fear people with unjust power, arrogant people, our rivals, and those whom we have injured.
Shameaiskhynē↔ Shamelessness (anaiskhyntia)
In plain language
Shame is the pain of fearing, ‘What if other people see me as a terrible person?’ Knowing embarrassment can express a conscience that wants to live rightly.
An everyday situation
A lie is exposed on the spot, or you make a disastrous verbal slip in front of others. Your face turns bright red and you wish you could disappear into the smallest hiding place.
Classical definition · Based on Rhetoric II
Pain arising from imagining that one's faults will be exposed to others and damage one's reputation. A warrior who has fled feels shame because their cowardice has become visible.
Shame presupposes a sense of good and bad, and of honor. In this account, the ability to feel shame is itself a sign of a moral disposition.
Kindness · Favorkharis↔ Ingratitude (akharistia)
In plain language
An unconditionally kind gesture moves us and brings the thought, ‘I really want to return that kindness.’ Taking such help for granted and forgetting it is what we call ingratitude.
An everyday situation
Lost and bewildered in an unfamiliar town, you meet a local person with no connection to you who kindly walks you all the way to your destination. A deep, overflowing gratitude rises in your chest.
Classical definition · Based on Rhetoric II
A disposition of heartfelt gratitude toward someone who offers help without being asked, acting not for their own advantage but purely for the recipient's sake.
This is not an item in the modern six-basic-emotions model. Its presence here shows how central the exchange of kindness was to emotional life in ancient civic communities and personal relationships.
Compassioneleos↔ Indignation · Righteous Anger (nemesis)
In plain language
Your heart aches for someone suffering unfairly: ‘How hard this must be. I could be in that situation too.’ The feeling that arises when a fraudster lives in luxury, by contrast, is indignation.
An everyday situation
You hear that a neighbor who worked honestly despite difficult circumstances has suffered an unforeseen accident. You wipe away tears and feel an urge to contribute whatever small donation you can.
Classical definition · Based on Rhetoric II
Pain at seeing a destructive misfortune fall upon a good person who does not deserve such suffering. It depends on recognizing that something similar could happen to oneself or one's family.
Indignation, by contrast, is the pain of seeing an undeserving, bad person prosper. Both emotions are linked in this account to a moral character that asks whether a situation is fair.
Envyphthonos↔ Emulation · Aspiration (zēlos)
In plain language
A former classmate or colleague who started alongside you suddenly becomes very successful, and it stings. Wanting to pull their success down is envy; gathering yourself with ‘I want to do something wonderful too’ is healthy emulation.
An everyday situation
A friend who began preparing at the same time as you passes an exam or gets promoted first. You offer congratulations while feeling a sharp little ache and sadness in one corner of your heart.
Classical definition · Based on Rhetoric II
A bitter pain at the good fortune of peers whose circumstances resemble our own. The pain is not so much that we want the advantage ourselves, but that the other person has it.
Emulation (zēlos), arising from a similar comparison with one's peers, instead prompts action: ‘I should work hard and reach that level too!’ It is presented as a healthy and good emotion.