Some cognitive scientists have taken the moral of the…
““Some cognitive scientists have taken the moral of the story to be that logic is not enough. To get a behaviorally adroit and resourceful agent, you have to supplement your cognitive system, with its perceptual subsystems and memory subsystems and inference subsystems and the like, with an emotional subsystem (or two or three or more). But we-along with others (e.g., Damasio 1994; de Sousa 1987; Elster 1996; Frank 1988)-want to draw an even more radical conclusion: Emotions are not a set of important subsystems sitting alongside the cognitive subsystems; in the brain, emotions rule. We mean this literally. All control in the brain, all prioritizing, all organizing, all demoting and promoting, starting and stopping, enhancing and squelching within cognitive processes, is done by what we refer to as the cognitive emotions or, more precisely, the epistemic emotions.⁴ These are a set of emotions that, together, have the effect of encouraging the mental behaviors that constitute a certain form of reasoning and epistemic assurance.””
About This Quote
This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.
emotions dominate cognition, shaping reasoning and prioritization; integrating affective systems is essential for intelligent behavior
In simple terms: feelings guide thought and action
Key Takeaway
balance emotion and reason
Themes
cognitive science
emotion
reasoning
Mood
analytical
philosophical
Type
Moral of the story:0
Science:1
Cognitive Emotions:1
Cognitive Subsystems:0
Emotional Subsystem:1
Subsystems Brain:0
Conclusion Emotions:0
When to use this quote
- AI design
- psychology research
- personal decision making
Key Concepts
epistemic emotions
integrated cognition
Questions to Reflect On
- how do emotions influence your choices?
- when is rational analysis preferable?
A Different Perspective
over‑reliance on emotion can bias judgment