Full Idea
The heart of every emotion is its value judgements, its appraisals of gain and loss, its indictment of offences and its praise of virtue, its often Manichean judgement of 'good' and 'evil'.
Clarification
'Manichean' here means polarised
Gist of Idea
The heart of an emotion is its judgement of values and morality
Source
Robert C. Solomon (The Passions [1976], 7.6)
Book Reference
Solomon,Robert C.: 'The Passions (1993 ed)' [Hackett 1993], p.209
A Reaction
He adds blame and excuse. Some of our strongest emotions can just be identifications, rather than judgements, as when we learn of someone else's triumph or disaster. On the whole I agree, though. This is important for Aristotelian virtue theory.
Related Idea
Idea 4375 Evaluations are not disguised emotions; instead, emotion is a type of evaluation [Achtenberg]