sentimentalism

1. A predilection for the sentimental.
2. An idea or expression marked by excessive sentiment.

noun

The quality or condition of being affectedly or overly emotional: bathos, maudlinism, mawkishness, sentimentality. Informal mush, mushiness, schmaltz, schmaltziness, sloppiness. Slang sappiness. See feelings.

1. The position in moral theory especially associated with Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, and Hume, that sees ethics as founded upon human sentiments, such as sympathy. It was especially defined in opposition to the view that ethics is the deliverance of reason or revelation.

2. The emotionally extravagant and shallow indulgence of feelings.

Sentimentalism is used in different ways:

• Sentimentalism (philosophy) - a theory in moral epistemology concerning how one knows moral truths (also known as moral sense theory)
• Sentimentalism (literature) - a form of literary discourse

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