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Full Idea
One can question the idea that emotions are non-rational, fickle and flighty; on the contrary, emotions normally seem to be very apt.
Gist of Idea
Emotions are usually very apt, rather than being non-rational and fickle
Source
Owen Flanagan (The Problem of the Soul [2002], p. 16)
Book Ref
Flanagan,Owen: 'The Problem of the Soul' [Basic Books 2003], p.16
A Reaction
This is the modern view of emotion which is emerging from neuroscience, which is greatly superior to traditional views, apart from Aristotle, who felt that wisdom and virtue arose precisely when emotions were apt for the situation.
| 5963 | Some say emotion is a sort of reason, and others say virtue concerns emotion [Plutarch] |
| 17203 | Minds are subject to passions if they have inadequate ideas [Spinoza] |
| 4864 | An emotion is only bad if it hinders us from thinking [Spinoza] |
| 12935 | Every feeling is the perception of a truth [Leibniz] |
| 23939 | We fail to see that reason is a network of passions, and every passion contains some reason [Nietzsche] |
| 23937 | It is reason which needs the anchorage of passions, rather than vice versa [Solomon] |
| 23947 | Dividing ourselves into confrontational reason and passion destroys our harmonious whole [Solomon] |
| 23958 | The supposed irrationality of our emotions is often tactless or faulty expression of them [Solomon] |
| 5335 | Emotions are usually very apt, rather than being non-rational and fickle [Flanagan] |
| 23967 | Some emotions are direct responses, and neither rational nor irrational [Goldie] |
| 23971 | Emotional thought is not rational, but it can be intelligible [Goldie] |