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Zhu Xi on Emotional Ambivalence

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Abstract

This article discusses the phenomenon of emotional ambivalence, especially in the moral context. After a nuanced classification of the phenomenon that facilitates accurate evaluation and treatment, it argues that Zhu Xi 朱熹 acknowledges the phenomenon and can provide insights particularly into cases that involve conflicting moral emotions. In light of Zhu, the criterion of motivational harmony rather than motivational unity can more pertinently account for the motivational state of the virtuous persons facing moral emotional ambivalences. This can avoid a certain mystery concerning the status of the nonoptimal emotion and its motivation to action in some of those cases.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Si-Mian Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities, East China Normal University, Humanities Building No. 3, 500 Dongchuan Road, Minhang District, Shanghai, 200241, China

    Yat-hung Leung

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  1. Yat-hung Leung
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Correspondence to Yat-hung Leung.

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Leung, Yh. Zhu Xi on Emotional Ambivalence. Dao 22, 277–295 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-023-09882-y

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