The ontological emotion as a component of the concept strenuous mood: William James between Tolstoy and Chautauqua

Abstract

For the time in which James has the experience of the Chautauqua community, he reads Tolstoy. While the flatness of this community and his entire nation seems to him regrettable, he feels revived inside by the veracity of Tolstoy. The Russian writer produces an ontological emotion that has authority over the subject and intensifies the existence. Although for some minds the presence of evil is inevitable, the strenuousness produced by this ontological emotion puts us in Michael Archangel´s position portrayed by Guido Reni. Our goal is to reveal a series of connections that appear by linking James with some of his sources to show, first, that James aims to produce this ontological emotion as it did Tolstoy, and second, that the ontological emotions can be understood as a component of the strenuous mood.