Emotional Rationality as Practical Rationality

Karen Jones (The University of Melbourne)

One strand in common sense thinking puts emotions entirely outside the scope of rationality assessment. Everyone has heard statements like, “But, that’s how I feel” - uttered as if that ended the conversation. Emotions, we might think, are subjective in a way that puts them outside the scope of rationality assessment.

But there is a contrasting strand in commonsense thinking, a strand that is loquacious in its criticism of our own and of others’ emotions. Jealousy can leap ahead of evidence; we can despair when yet there is grounds for hope; we can be enraged by merely petty annoyances; our emotions can further our ends or function as “sand in the machinery of action.”

In this talk, Dr Jones examines this second strand in our commonsense thinking and argues that emotions are subject to a distinctive kind of rationality assessment and that we can, and should, strive to regulate our emotions so that we become emotionally rational.