Reason and Emotion: Ayn Rand's Solution to a 2000 Year-old Problem November 21, 2008

Dr. Edwin Locke, Dean's Professor Emeritus of Leadership and Motivation a the University of Maryland presentation will present the Objectivist view of emotions, a view which integrates reason and emotion, and which holds that emotions stem from an individual's value-judgments—conscious or subconscious.

In this lecture, Dr. Locke briefly traces the historical roots of the mind-body dichotomy, from Pythagoras through Freud and Skinner. He then describes the various forms of this dichotomy, with reason versus emotion being the archetypical form. He contrasts current views with the Objectivist view, which shows that emotions are not antithetical to reason but rather stem from an individual’s conscious or subconscious ideas. Through a concrete series of examples, Dr. Locke demonstrates how alleged reason-emotion conflicts are actually conflicts between ideas (some of which are subconscious). He discusses different ways in which reason and emotion are related, and also draws a distinction between the functions of the faculties of emotion and cognition.

This is a free event. Special thanks to the Ayn Rand Institute. Co-sponsored by the Texas Union Student Events Center.

Official Website: http://www.reasonguy.com