SOC SCI H1F Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Satisficing, Motivated Reasoning, Phineas Gage
19 Feb 2019
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Document Summary
Cannot entirely remove emotion from the reasoning process. Impossible to have pure reason without emotion as a human being. Relationship between reason & emotion has been recurrent topic long discussed by philosophers. Rationality works best when there are no major emotional disruptions upsetting the thinking process. Rational thinking taking place in conscious mind is never free from the potential influence of the emotions** Whatever their quality & quantity, emotions are an intrinsic part of the deliberative process. Psychoanalysis has further taught us that intellect is feeble & a tool of instincts & affects -> we are all compelled to behave according to command of emotional attitudes. Norman brown: freudian axiom that the essence of man consists in desiring. Potential danger of strong emotion working against reasoning. To emotions within boundaries that work for us -> need to have self-awareness. Story of the samurai & the monk illustrates potentially combative relationship between reason (ego) & emotion (id)
