Sanity has emotional components and reasoning components.

In both vectors the most notable sign is correct assessment of the present situation.

Emotionally this means that emotions are appropriate to the actual dynamics of the situation in which one finds oneself. Curiousity is part of this because it is how you observe what is going on a round you and learn more about it.

It is less sane to be mad about a long-past situation. It is less sane to be wildly cheerful about a sad situation while it is going on. It is less sane to be full of fear when there is nothing to fear in the present. It is less sane to have no fear when facing danger. These are examples of emotional sanity of greater and lesser degrees.

In reasoning, using wrong data or a messed up sense of what is important, or dropping out the true sequence of events, or getting married to a false idea such as a generalized conviction that all Muslims are psycho or all women are control freaks is less sane than reviewing the information you are using for correctness, completeness, reasonable sequence, applicability, a correct sense of importances compared against positive purposes, and so on. When these things get screwed up, thinking goes cross-eyed and strange answers to problems are arrived at.

Another indication of sanity is the continued willingness to communicate, to discover new facts, and to compare viewpoints (curiousity again). Without these traits one individual tends to end up in a solitary individuated bubble of own opinion, and not fully engaged with others, which puts him out of the common mesh of agreements. This is a good way to get declared insane, whether one is or not.


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