I've been thinking about this lately, and I want to get different people's perspectives.
I read The Birth of Tragedy (by Nietzsche) for my Theory and Criticism in The Arts class last semester. It was about the role of Apollinian (logical) and Dionysian (emotional) tendencies in the formation of Attic Tragedy (art). It got me thinking about the relationship between logic and emotion. We had to write personal responses for our reading in this class. I've posted parts of my response to Nietzsche's essay below for some background:
"Nietzsche argues an interesting kind of dualism between Apollinian and Dionysian tendencies. First he establishes a dichotomy between the two, then he explains how each run parallel to the other as essential parts in the formation of Attic tragedy. He tells us that Apollo rules the world of dreams as the deity of light. Apollo grants clarity of sight with “measured restraint” of such illusions, providing a firm grasp of reality and “freedom from the wilder emotions.” When Nietzsche speaks of Apollo, he speaks of logic. On the other hand, he claims that the nature of the Dionysian emerges at the collapse of this grasp on logic and controlled restraint. It is the spirit of intoxication, the freedom that results from handing the spirit over to emotion. Nietzsche has set the forces of logic and emotion in opposition.
[...blah, blah, blah...]
"Nietzsche’s argument broke down when he started to commend the dual nature of Aeschylus’ Prometheus. He says that it is both Apollinian and Dionysian in nature because its central message states, “all that exists is just and unjust and equally justified in both.” This statement wrongly alienates logic and emotion from one another. By suggesting this kind of duality between the forces of reason and feeling, Nietzsche sets the two in opposition. In this act of pitting the two principles against each other, he inevitably implies that one is better than the other. Equality is no longer possible, and Nietzsche's logic nullifies all that he has been arguing about the interplay of emotion and logic.
I've gone back and forth on this issue since I wrote the above response. People always talk about logic and emotion like they're polar opposites. For example, certain personality tests will tell you that you're either ruled by logic or emotion...you're either a "thinker," or a "feeler." (Just a side note: this bothers me as someone who falls in between the two preferences.) But can't emotion influence a person's logic (and their logic, their emotions)? Isn't emotion a cognitive process, experienced in the same mind as logic?
So my question: do you think that logic and emotion are completely unrelated to each other ("mutually exclusive," to borrow a favorite phrase of Kelsey's :), or are they inseparable?
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And now, completely unrelated:
With her pro photo skills, Mae Leah took some headshots for me to use for the Met Opera National Council Auditions this fall (a competition I'm entering to gain some audition experience). I don't have them all yet, but here are a couple. I'm not sure which one I want to use, and I don't have all of them yet, but I like them so far. I'm wondering which should I use out of these three:
4 comments:
I really like what you said about logic and emotion, particularly in regards to "certain" personality tests ;)
Sometimes a sense of logic or justice informs an emotional response, and both are equally important in determining how to act.
LOVE the pictures. All of them. But if I absolutely had to pick just one, I would pick the first.
First: The third photo is my favorite.
Second: I'm not sure it's even as clear cut as you make it out to be in your question. Is there no middle ground between mutual exclusion and inseparability? I definitely don't think that they are the first, but I would argue that they aren't necessarily the second either.
I think, as with any skillset, that balance is the key. In my opinion, weakness result from overdeveloping certain strengths, and since most people have a preference (I would also probably argue that the "certain personality test" would use this language rather than "ruled by", if we were going to argue about that) for either logic or emotion, the temptation is to rely on that preference more strongly in decision-making, resulting in underdevelopment of the other faculty.
Having said this, I agree with SG above in saying that a well-developed sense of logic can help inform an emotional response. I'm sure she would also agree with me that a strong sense of emotion can be the catalyst for a logical process as well. It's when one of these two processes is wielded to the extreme exclusion of the other that things get messy.
Not to say that every single decision need be an extreme analysis by two separate methods - for any given day-to-day example I think logic-minded and emotional people come to the same conclusions. It's when the thinkers refuse to allow that any non-strictly-rational action could be beneficial or the feelers become addicted to their sense of compassion that these things become problems.
I feel like / think that I always end up typing way way too much in these comments... is this more than you bargained for?
haha...I love how everything comes back to myers-briggs...yeah, I agree about justice informing an emotional response.
and yeah mike, you're right about balance. I guess the relationship between logic and emotion isn't as simple as I made it sound in my question. (and no, I like your long comments, mike!)
(and about the pictures...thanks! I think I might go with the third one, but with the coloring of the first one.)
Yeah! Good post.
I think logic in its essence, is factual and completely devoid of emotion.
But since humans are imperfect, we cannot process logic without throwing in our emotions too.
In theory they are separate, in practice they cannot be separated.
And I am between and F and T too!
So, often, I am torn.
& I like all of the pictures too!
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