The only part I object to what you wrote is emotions shouldn’t interfere with cognition.
This is an ideal which Objectivists believe in, but it is difficult/impossible to actually achieve. I’ve noticed that as I’ve gotten older, emotions interfere with my cognition less and less and I am happy about that. You can define cognition how you wish, but given the number of people who see it as separate from emotion it’s probably worth having a backup definition in case you want to talk to those people.
RE: emotions, affect, moods. I do think that emotions should be considered when making rational decisions, but they are not the tools by which we come to decisions, here’s an example.
If you want to build a house to shelter your family, your emotional connection to your family is not a tool you will use to build the house. It’s important to have a strong motivation to do something, but that motivation is not a tool. You’ll still need hammers, drills, etc to build the house.
I believe we can and should use drugs (I include naturally occurring hormones) to modify our emotions in order to better achieve our goals.
This is an ideal which Objectivists believe in, but it is difficult/impossible to actually achieve. I’ve noticed that as I’ve gotten older, emotions interfere with my cognition less and less and I am happy about that. You can define cognition how you wish, but given the number of people who see it as separate from emotion it’s probably worth having a backup definition in case you want to talk to those people.
RE: emotions, affect, moods. I do think that emotions should be considered when making rational decisions, but they are not the tools by which we come to decisions, here’s an example.
If you want to build a house to shelter your family, your emotional connection to your family is not a tool you will use to build the house. It’s important to have a strong motivation to do something, but that motivation is not a tool. You’ll still need hammers, drills, etc to build the house.
I believe we can and should use drugs (I include naturally occurring hormones) to modify our emotions in order to better achieve our goals.