Reason without Feelings? Emotions in the History of Western Philosophy

Abstract

The paper critically analyzes the interplay between reason and emotions in the history of Western philosophy, as an inadequately ambivalent interrelationship of contrast, control and conflict. After the analysis of the philosophies of emotions and passion amongst the most important philosophers and philosophical works of classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, the paper presents ideas on this interrelationship within the framework of modern philosophy, or during the so-called Age of Reason. Finally, the paper analyzes the character of emotions in the contemporary philosophy, while examining possibilities for the history of (philosophy of) emotions and feelings, but also the possibilities for overcoming the undue opposition of reason and emotions, which was present in the dominant Western philosophical tradition.

U ovom radu se kritički analizira uzajamni odnos razuma i emocija kroz istoriju zapadne filozofije, kao neprimereno ambivalentni međuodnos kontrasta, kontrole i konfilkta. Nakon analiziranja filozofija emocija i strasti među najuticajnijim filozofima i filozofskim delima antike i srednjeg veka, u radu se izlažu ideje o ovom međuodnosu u okvirima moderne filozofije, tj. tokom takozvanog Doba razuma. Na kraju, u radu se analizira karakter emocija u savremenoj filozofiji i ispituju se mogućnosti za istoriju (filozofiju) emocija i osećanja, ali i mogućnosti za prevazilaženje neumerenog suprotstavljanja razuma i emocija, koje je prisutno u dominantnoj zapadnoj filozofskoj tradiciji.