there is some counteraction he could or should or might be able to take. If he were firmly, fully convinced that no
action was possible, he might feel sadness or regret, but not fear. (Observe that fear always involves uncertainty: if
a person knows clearly what action to take and is able to take it, he does not feel fear.)
Sometimes, the emotions a person feels, and the action implications they entail, are very abstract; the value-
response is, in effect, metaphysical in character. A person may respond to some great achievement or to a great
work of art, and draw emotional inspiration from it: he sees in it an expression of man's creative power, he sees the
triumph of man's efficacy, he sees the heroic, the noble, the admirable—and this sight provides emotional fuel for
the pursuit of his own values.
It is interesting to observe that both profound happiness and profound suffering are experienced as "metaphysical."
Implicit in a feeling of profound happiness is the sense of living in a "benevolent" universe, i.e., a universe in which
one's values are attainable, a universe open to the efficacy of one's effort. Implicit in profound suffering is the
opposite feeling: the sense of living in a universe in which one's values are unreachable, a universe in which one is
helpless, where no action is worth taking because nothing can succeed.
Unresolved contradictions in a man's values lead to psychologically destructive consequences. The action tendency
inherent in emotional responses is pertinent to an understanding of this issue.
Contradictions cannot exist in reality. But a man can hold ideas, beliefs, values which, with or without his
knowledge, are contradictory. Contradictory ideas cannot be integrated; they sabotage the integrative function of
man's mind and undercut the certainty of his knowledge in general.
The disastrous consequence of holding contradictory values is the short-circuiting of the value-emotion-action
mechanism. A man is hit by two contradictory and conflicting impulses to action. He knows or senses, in effect,
that the impossible is being demanded of him. The more profound the values involved, the worse the psychological
disaster—if the conflict is evaded and repressed rather than identified and resolved.