DavidV Posted November 17, 2005 Report Share Posted November 17, 2005 (edited) From d'Anconia Online, cross-posted to EgoSphere: Emotionalism means "to rely on or place too much value on emotion."* Emotionality is "emotional nature or quality." * One is a practice, the other a characteristic. When reading about Ayn Rand's fictional heroes and villains, one learns that the heroes base their actions on a process of reason, while the villains base their actions on a process of non-reason--one learns that at the root of every action taken by these characters is the completion of a mental process that is either reason-based or not. One vicious form of a non-reason-based thought process is emotionalism, or, the practice of using emotions alone as a basis for action. Engaging in emotionalism is quintessential James Taggart. Clearly, however, that emotionalism is wrong doesn't mean that emotionality as such is wrong. Why would a characteristic of man be wrong? That's like saying "having ten fingers is wrong." Yet I've encountered a few... http://ObjectivismOnline.com/blog/archives/000472.html Edited November 17, 2005 by softwareNerd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softwareNerd Posted November 17, 2005 Report Share Posted November 17, 2005 The reason vs. emotion dichotomy is pretty commonly held. Perhaps one reason for this is because it is commonly experienced as a dichotomy. E.g., "I really know I should exercise, but I just don't have the enthusiasm", "I lost my cool and screamed at him, and now I'm in a worse situation than before", "I really want to do that, but I know it's bad for me/wrong", "I know I ought not to feel jealous in this situation, but I do!", "I knew he'd be violent again, but I got carried away and let him move back in". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaloNoble6 Posted November 17, 2005 Report Share Posted November 17, 2005 That's a good point, and the root of why it's experienced as a dichotomy is because emotions go unexamined. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softwareNerd Posted November 18, 2005 Report Share Posted November 18, 2005 I suppose if the person is being rational, they should examine the emotion. On the other hand, if they're being irrational, the emotion may be telling them the right thing; and they really must examine their reasoning. So, the contradiction between reason and emotion is a sign that one needs to examine either or both, in order to reconcile the two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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