Reason Over Passion

The Social Basis of Evaluation and Appraisal

By Evan Simpson
Categories: Philosophy
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Ebook (PDF) : 9780889206120, 174 pages, January 2006

Description

"Reason is not passion's slave." Rather, the author argues, reason appraises the cultural appropriateness of passion, thus directing our attitudinal behaviour. He refutes those theories of value which correspond philosophically to societies described by Jean-Jacques Rousseau: societies of "honour without virtue, reason without wisdom, pleasure without happiness." His argument, which takes into account traditional philosophic positions, is divided into five parts: Attitudes, Evaluation, Characterization, Culture, Morality.