So when people say both Fe and Fi are “sentiment-based,” they mean that both are functions that evaluate reality through felt value, rather than impersonal analysis.
But the key difference between Fe and Fi is where that value comes from and how it becomes “real.” Fe (Extraverted Feeling) sees sentiment as shared alignment. Fe treats sentiment as something that exists between people, meaning that value to them is derived from the external (social/objective) world. Value is validated externally and meaning emerges through mutual recognition, the “ideal” is harmonized relational order. So Fe asks "What maintains connection, cohesion, shared understanding? What emotional standard should we uphold together?" Fe doesn’t just have values—it tries to stabilize them socially. So what one can look for if one thinks someone is Fe is if they are framing value as something that must be collectively held. That’s the root. Worth noting that Fe doesn’t need agreement to have values—it just naturally orients toward alignment and shared standards.
Fi (Introverted Feeling) sees sentiment as inner congruence. Fi treats sentiment as something that exists within the individual. For them value is validated internally and meaning emerges through personal resonance. The “ideal” is authentic alignment with self. So Fi asks "Does this feel true to me? Is this congruent with my internal sense of self? Am I being authentic?" So a common thing of Fi is to protect the integrity of their internal valuation from external override. That’s pure Fi structure.
You can compress everything down to this: Fe is oriented toward external alignment whereas Fi is oriented toward internal alignment. Worth noting that while Fe prioritizes shared validation, it doesn’t require it absolutely in the same way that while Fi prioritizes inner validation, it can still care about others and be interested (and often in) in others. So Fe can still hold personal values and Fi can still care about others’ input, it's just moreso when push comes to shove do they rely on sort of external criteria.
They both can seem similar on the surface than people think, this is where confusion happens. So for example, both Fe and Fi can say things like “Be kind”, “Be compassionate”, “Be a good person” but they mean different things structurally. Fe's vision of it would be “We should be kind because that’s what sustains us together" while Fi's vision of it is “I should be kind because that’s what feels true to who I am and I believe in the goodness of humanity, I want to stay in touch with that innocence" (or not, you will find many cynical Fe and Fi types, for instance but it's still rooted in that process, MBTI is about process and not conclusions themselves but there are correlations but correlation is not causation). So Same word (“kindness”), different source of authority.
So basically Fe frames reality in terms of shared sentiment and collective alignment. Final takeaway is that “Sentiment” in both cases = value judgments grounded in feeling (both Fe and Fi). But Fe is relational sentiment (value lives between people) while Fi is subjective sentiment (value lives within the individual).
Examples of Fe:
Hemsworth: “We trick ourselves into thinking we can do it all alone and it’s just me against the world, and so on. Then you realise, no, we are nothing without each other, and we are nothing without connection and collaboration, and unity and community. ... [And I hope that] we keep that in mind – [that] we appreciate those things [and] don’t take them for granted.”
[Asked how to be a successful broadcaster:]
King: "Share ... how you feel. ... [That way] the viewers are all in [your] boat: We're going through this together."
Houston: "I feel I have a responsibility to everybody. [My] music has a major impact on people's minds, on the way they think and the way they feel."
Jackman: "For me, life is about deepening [my] connection [with others] and deepening my level of service."
Harrelson: "My best skill in this whole deal is as a conduit to try to bring people together, because it's in our unity that we'll have the greatest strength."
Tyson: "[We should] not only teach people what science is and what it does, but also why it should mean something to them, and why it matters to society and everything that we hold dear."
De la Rocha: "[When I] participated in [activism I] felt more community based. ... I was part of a collective voice and not on my own as an artist. Something about that attracted me."
Examples of Fi:
Smith: "Most people feel so conditioned, so oppressed by everything that goes on around them that they just give in. You have to refuse to give in."
Rousseau: "At this time my imagination took a turn which helped to calm my increasing emotions; it was, to contemplate those situations in the books I had read, which produced the most striking effect on my mind; to recall, combine, and apply them to myself in such a manner, as to become one of the personages my recollection presented, and be continually in those fancied circumstances which were most agreeable to my inclinations; in a word, by contriving to place myself in these fictitious situations, the idea of my real one was in a great measure obliterated. This fondness for imaginary objects, and the facility with which I could gain possession of them, completed my disgust for everything around me, and fixed that inclination for solitude which has ever since been predominant."
Kierkegaard: "I am not a logician, and I have only one category [by which to live my life]. But I assure you that it is the choice of both my heart ... and my soul's delight."
Camus: "For years I've wanted to live according to everyone else's morals. I've forced myself to live like everyone else, to look like everyone else. I said what was necessary to join together, even when I felt separate. And after all of this, catastrophe came. Now I wander amid the debris, I am lawless, torn to pieces, alone and accepting to be so, resigned to my singularity and to my infirmities. And I must rebuild a truth - after having lived all my life in a sort of lie."
Kafka: "You can achieve nothing if you forsake yourself."
Keenan: "[As an artist] you just go with your heart. ... That's pretty much the goal of any artist, I think: To follow his heart."
Spears: "I don't like defining myself. I just am."
Lavigne: "I'm ... very clear on who I am and what I like and don't like."
Hepburn: "I never think of myself as an icon. What is in other people's minds is not in my mind. I just do my thing."
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