The Puzzle of Accommodation: Why Emotions Diminish

The book explores the puzzle of how emotions, such as grief and anger, can diminish over time while the reasons for these emotions remain unchanged. The author argues that while emotions are responses to specific objects or events, they also have a functional role depending on the kind of creatures we are. This leads to a double vision, where there is a perspective on the object of the emotion and an empirical perspective on the emotion itself. The author proposes that this double vision cannot be fully integrated, leading to a puzzle of accommodation. The book discusses various responses to the puzzle such as pragmatist and hard line views but ultimately defends the idea that the puzzle cannot be fully resolved. The author concludes that while the diminishment of emotions is reasonable, it is in a way that cannot be fully grasped.