We’ve probably heard “being emotional” as a criticism of someone’s argument and reason as a boon to seeking truth. Although we know the feeling of regret from actions taken under the influence of strong “emotion,” this attitude has made us come to believe that emotion and reason are opposite, one being irrational and the other truth-seeking. We have accepted this for a long time, and certainly people still talk as if it were inarguably true. But looking closer we find that emotion and reason work together.
An in-depth discussion will happen elsewhere, but put briefly, reason depends on our emotions to propel it. As biological creatures we require something to motivate us, we would not spend energy to do something that does not have potential to fulfill some of our needs. But just because our thinking is motivated by something besides truth, does not mean that it should be discarded or that there is no way to make it better.
We know through the difference between emotion and instinct that emotion supports our intellect in both good ways and bad. Understanding this can help us navigate our way not only to better thinking, but more meaningful thinking which supports our emotional needs as well as intellectual endeavors.
Experiencing the Emotionality in All Thoughts
We will start this investigation off with an exercise. If we were to sit and observe our thoughts without forcing them here or there, we would notice a pattern in what comes up. I often notice that I plan things in my head for what I want to accomplish. I also notice that, although the content is rational, the thoughts are not neutral—they contain an anxiety that I will not remember everything I must do. No matter how neutral or “intellectual” the thoughts may be, they are still propelled by something emotional.
When observing your thoughts, you may find this too. See them as they come as if someone else was thinking them and you may understand the subtle emotions that drive your thinking.
Thinking and concentrating costs energy and that energy is biological, not rational. Emotion tells us where to start thinking and emotion or a fatigue or loss of motivation tells us when to stop and draw a conclusion. The conclusion is the important part of the conscious thought.
“Here’s what I’ve noticed about thoughts that intrude when I’m trying to focus on my breath: they often seem to have feelings attached to them. What’s more, their ability to hold my attention—in other words, to keep me enthralled, to keep me from noticing that they’re holding my attention—seems to depend on the strength of those feelings.”
– Robert Wright in Why Buddhism Is True
Why We Want an Emotional Intellect
Noticing that emotion is what drives all intellectual thought should not leave us with a feeling of disgust at how we have yet to become totally rational. This should allow us to accept the reality of our intellectual pursuits as being motivated by our emotions, goals, and attitudes. It is how we use this understanding that gives us our ability to think pragmatically.
Ultimately, it is not a dry neutral truth that we care about. We want, and we cannot help wanting, a useful truth, which will at some point in the future benefit us from knowing it. This is the basic description of pragmatism. This is how we get classic ideas like “reason is the slave to the passions” from David Hume and “a belief is a preparation for action” from Alexander Bain. Upon reflecting on this Simon Blackburn concludes that “we want true beliefs largely because we want to act successfully.”
It is not from emotion that irrationality necessarily comes. The irrationality can come when we deny that thinking is always an emotional activity. We solidify our polarized beliefs when a detractor seems emotional in their arguments against us. We think, “at least I am not basing my beliefs on emotion.” We can become irrational by pursuing emphatically an overly logical conclusion thinking that it has come from a place of perfect rationality, without any human motive. But in reality you were propelling your thoughts by a need for recognition of one’s intellectual peers. In reality, you just dug your field deeper into the ground, just to add to its tomes of information.
Finally, we should want some conscious emotion to be involved because it can give us the moral compass in which we can contribute to our community and use thought in meaningful ways. It is the emotions involved in our intellectual pursuits that keep it within a standard of moral principles and interest for people.
“Without the guidance of passions, reason has neither principles nor power.”
Robert Solomon
Denial of Emotion
What might be most important is the emotional awareness of our thinking and ambitions. If we cannot understand the source of our thinking, we may never know how it is filtering our thoughts. The philosopher looking for posterity is unlikely to restate simple truths because he wants something new to impress his peers. I think looking past the old truths is an error in thinking. This philosopher could decide to loosen the grip of his posterity goal so that he may see these other treasures of thought.
We must also question the motives we have for intellectual pursuits as we might for our altruistic pursuits. It is not that rationality or altruism do not exist, but it is not often the sole motivator for meaning in one’s lives. By claiming the desire for pure rationality or goodness, we reduce our motives to something which does not cover the whole of our motives, allowing those unconscious motives to influence us without restraint.
When talking to someone who professes to be concerned about the suffering of the world, Jiddu Krishnamurti asks, “Are you really concerned, or are you merely ambitious to do something?”
“So few of us are honest in our thinking. We want to be successful, either directly for ourselves, or for the ideal, the belief with which we have identified ourselves.”
Krishnamurti
Again, our motives are not evil, but we can hide them and so create dishonesty. We can get around this by embracing the emotional intellect. We must accept the fact that we are emotionally motivated, and that it is not only mandatory, but it is also desirable. Reasoning through emotional means is what gives reason meaning in our lives. If you can discover a good for the world through rational thinking, why should you ignore the slightly selfish reasons for your pursuit. Letting motives work when you think they are not can result in worse.
Calmness and Emotional Health
However, we cannot forget the lessons of the old myth of emotion and reasons. It still requires a calm mind. Emotion, as we know it, abides by patterns of habit, which can become more and more deeply rooted. Habits of emotion can result in habits of thinking and perceiving. That is detrimental to open-minded reasoning. If we only think in very limited ways because of our feelings, we are getting no closer to truth. In this way, emotion comes into conflict with our pragmatic desire for a truth. If we are near-sighted in our emotion, we are near-sighted in our thinking.
Emotionality can send us down a predictable and selective path of thinking. If our thinking only happened with high emotions, our thoughts would become extreme and polarized. We would not be able to rationally come down from some event, instead we would ruminate on it. We would not see alternative perspectives on the event. It is in calmness that we can think just as how in low-salience situations we are able to consider a wider scope.
This means that it is not the denial of emotions that makes for rationality, but a greater focus on emotions. Good thinking becomes akin to emotional well-being.
