Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: RE: Emotions vs. rational thinking

[Diane Margolis (diane]

At the risk of self promotion, may I second Racheli's argument that the
dichotomy between rational and emotional is false and at the same time
recommend my book (The Fabric of Self: a Theory of Ethics and Emotions,
Yale, 1998) which makes the same point D'Amasio does, but from a
sociological basis.  I trace the way different ethical systems draw
different boundaries around the self which we monitor with our emotions.  In
Western cultures, the rise of rationality as a valued approach (and the
distrust of emotion) coincided with the rise of commercial markets and
capitalism.  In many ways cohousing is an attempt to value and return to
more communal, personal, and emotional ways of living with each other as
opposed to the individualistic, cookie-cutter, and "rational" ways of the
market.

Diane Margolis
----- Original Message -----
From: "Racheli&John" <jnpalme [at] attglobal.net>
To: <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2001 11:34 AM
Subject: [C-L]_RE: Emotions vs. rational thinking


> ** Reply to note from "Brian Baresch" <baresch [at] earthlink.net> Tue, 04 Sep
2001 01:06:03 -0500
>
> >From Racheli
>
> The dichotomy between "rational" and "emotional" is
> simply false: *There is no such thing* as rational thinking
> which doesn't involve emotions.  (I realize that many have
> strong emotional attachment to this distinction, which might
> make it difficult to give it up :)) ...
>
> Research has shown that when people don't have access
> to emotional input (which happens, for example, in cases
> of certain types of brain injury), they are not able to
> make rational decisions.  For those who are interested
> in this subject, I recommend Antonio D'Amasio's
> "Descartes' Error".
> A more recent book by D'Amasio, which I haven't read yet,
> is called: "A Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion
> in the Making of Consciousness" (published by Harcourt).
> "D'Amasio draws of years of clinical research to make the
> argument that consciousness arises from our ability to map
> relations between the self and others *through our emotions*"
> (emphasis added).
>
> R.
>
>
>
>
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