I’m rather conflicted in my response to this… ADBOC, I suppose. (Agree denotatively but object connotatively.)
On the one hand, I agree with you that emotion distorts reasoning—especially negative emotion. However, it’s the desire to suppress negative emotions that powers most “motivated reasoning”—i.e., we try to explain away our fears and setbacks.
But this means that pretending to not feel negative emotions, leads to precisely the distortion you seem to be saying you’re concerned about.
In contrast, we have no reason to explain away positive emotions, nor do we generally feel the need to randomly make up explanations to feel good about—if we feel good, we generally just feel it, and are maybe motivated to DO something about it. (We don’t normally sit around reasoning about it, unless we also have some fear about being happy… in which case it’s the fear that motivates the reasoning.)
So while your statement is literally true—negative emotions motivate distorted reasoning, and positive emotions don’t necessarily encourage ANY reasoning… that doesn’t mean that suppressing or ignoring emotions is actually useful!
To engage and eliminate negatively-motivated reasoning, it’s necessary to first face the facts behind the emotion in question. You can’t be an emotional illiterate, and still be rational.
“But this means that pretending to not feel negative emotions, leads to precisely the distortion you seem to be saying you’re concerned about.”
If I may make a suggestion: I highly recommend reading Diane Duane’s “Spock’s World”. There is an extensive discussion of the difference between mastering one’s emotions and merely pretending that they don’t exist.
I’m rather conflicted in my response to this… ADBOC, I suppose. (Agree denotatively but object connotatively.)
On the one hand, I agree with you that emotion distorts reasoning—especially negative emotion. However, it’s the desire to suppress negative emotions that powers most “motivated reasoning”—i.e., we try to explain away our fears and setbacks.
But this means that pretending to not feel negative emotions, leads to precisely the distortion you seem to be saying you’re concerned about.
In contrast, we have no reason to explain away positive emotions, nor do we generally feel the need to randomly make up explanations to feel good about—if we feel good, we generally just feel it, and are maybe motivated to DO something about it. (We don’t normally sit around reasoning about it, unless we also have some fear about being happy… in which case it’s the fear that motivates the reasoning.)
So while your statement is literally true—negative emotions motivate distorted reasoning, and positive emotions don’t necessarily encourage ANY reasoning… that doesn’t mean that suppressing or ignoring emotions is actually useful!
To engage and eliminate negatively-motivated reasoning, it’s necessary to first face the facts behind the emotion in question. You can’t be an emotional illiterate, and still be rational.
“But this means that pretending to not feel negative emotions, leads to precisely the distortion you seem to be saying you’re concerned about.”
If I may make a suggestion: I highly recommend reading Diane Duane’s “Spock’s World”. There is an extensive discussion of the difference between mastering one’s emotions and merely pretending that they don’t exist.