I argue that being moved is a distinct emotion and that this emotion has privileged links with happiness. First, I explain how emotions may generally be thought to contribute to happiness, i.e. why we may think that emotions are finally good for the individual who experience them. Second, I try to make it plausible that being moved is a distinct emotion, in particular that what moves us is the goodness (a thin value) of a particular core positive value (a thick value such as generosity, love, friendship, solidarity, beauty, etc.). In admiration, say, I react to the beauty of x, in being moved I react to the goodness of the beauty of x. In the third part, I explain the senses in which being moved in particular contribute to happiness. More specifically, I present reasons for thinking that, being experiences of the goodness  of core positive values, episodes of being moved can be thought of as episodes of happiness. As such, they are finally good for one.

Julien A. Deonna is associate professor in philosophy at the University of Geneva and project leader at CISA, the Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences. His research interests are in the philosophy of mind, in particular the philosophy of emotions, moral emotions and moral psychology. In addition to many articles in the area, he is the co-author of In Defense of Shame (OUP, 2011) and TheEmotions: a Philosophical Introduction (Routledge, 2012). Recently, he has been interested in discovering what we refer to by the expression ‘being moved’.

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