ABSTRACT
In this paper, I compare Brentano favourably with two “rationalist” philosophers, one of whom (Parfit) suggests that feelings simply lie outside the domain of reasons altogether; the other (Nussbaum) brings them into the domain of reason only by thinking of them as judgments. Brentano saw feelings as dispositional states that act to incubate desires, motivations, and eventually actions. Like Ryle, he places the phenomenology of feelings on a comfort/discomfort or like/dislike axis, seeing them as getting full expression only when we take steps towards something (if they are likes) and away (if they are the reverse). I argue that this makes feelings eminently assessable in terms of both being subject to reasons and states that themselves provide reasons for the reactions of others.
