The only part I object to what you wrote is emotions shouldn’t interfere with cognition. I think they already are a part of cognition and it’s a bit like calling “quantum physics is weird”. Perhaps you meant “emotions shouldn’t interfere with rationality” in which case I’ll observe that it doesn’t seem to be a popular view around lesswrong. Also observe, I used to believe that emotions should be ignored, but later came to the conclusion that it’s a way too heavy-handed strategy for the modern world of complex systems. I’ll try to conjecture further, by saying, cog, psychologists tend to classify emotion, affect, and moods differently. AFAIK, it’s based on the temporal duration it exists with short—long in order of emotion, mood, affect. My conjecture is emotions can and should be ignored, mood can be ignored ( but not necessarily should) and affect should not be ignored, while rational decision-making.
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.
The only part I object to what you wrote is emotions shouldn’t interfere with cognition. I think they already are a part of cognition and it’s a bit like calling “quantum physics is weird”. Perhaps you meant “emotions shouldn’t interfere with rationality” in which case I’ll observe that it doesn’t seem to be a popular view around lesswrong. Also observe, I used to believe that emotions should be ignored, but later came to the conclusion that it’s a way too heavy-handed strategy for the modern world of complex systems. I’ll try to conjecture further, by saying, cog, psychologists tend to classify emotion, affect, and moods differently. AFAIK, it’s based on the temporal duration it exists with short—long in order of emotion, mood, affect. My conjecture is emotions can and should be ignored, mood can be ignored ( but not necessarily should) and affect should not be ignored, while rational decision-making.
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.