Journal of Philosophy of Emotion Podcast · Journal of Philosophy of Emotion

JPE Book Symposium: Propelled: How Boredom, Frustration, and Anticipation Lead Us to the Good Life, Part 1

·1 hr 52 min·3 clips

The good life is something we actively strive for and bring about, not something that happens to us

The episode begins with a narrow claim: boredom, frustration, and anticipation can be sources of value. Rather than treating them as mere obstacles on the way to pleasure, the episode asks whether they can help move a person toward the good life, and it does so by distinguishing pleasantness, unpleasantness, and the kind of value that only becomes clear afterward. That matters from the start. The episode is framed as a contribution to the literature on negative emotions, with one contrast drawn to aesthetics, where unpleasant experience is often discussed as part of art's appeal even when it would be unwelcome in ordinary life. The comparison is not decorative. It helps clarify a central problem: whether these states are appreciated while they are happening, or whether their worth becomes visible only afterward, once the episode has already changed our orientation. That distinction comes up again. The episode notes that art and real life come apart here because art usually gives greater distance from unpleasant experiences and typically places us in circumstances where we are not directly involved. By contrast, the episode often talks about the value of boredom, frustration, and anticipation for our life whether or not we recognize that value ourselves, and it does not necessarily focus on enjoying or even seeking out those experiences. In ordinary situations, the same person who is bored or frustrated is also the one who must act, which means the value of the experience is tied up with agency and with the chance of being pushed out of habitual thinking. The closing point sharpens the claim further: if suffering and witnessing injustice are expected as par for the course, they may fail to produce the dissonance or practical disorientation that makes frustration strongly propulsive. What may be needed to snap out of deep frustration is an encounter with something hopeful, beautiful, or righteous enough to create an interpretive framework that makes the frustration effective rather than merely repetitive. The result is a careful account of how these unpleasant moods can matter not because they are comfortable, but because they can reorient attention, interpretation, and action.

As heard by us

A patient case for how unpleasantness, distance, and ambivalence can still propel the good life.

The episode frames boredom, frustration, and anticipation as part of a larger case for the good life. It is most persuasive when it sets the value of unpleasant experience in art against its value in ordinary life, and when it notes that some things only make sense in hindsight…

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Why you'd press play

For when annoyance might be telling you something useful.

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