Reason and Emotion

In this book, Macmurray develops with exceptional clarity his views on reason and emotion as interdependent, rather than opposed aspects of human personality. Underlying the lectures collected in this volume and giving them their unity is Macmurray’s conviction that the contrast we habitually draw between "reason" and "emotion" is false and leads to the erroneous conclusion that our emotional life is irrational and must remain so. The proper contrast, Macmurray stresses, lies between "intellect" and "emotion", while "reason", as that which makes us human, expresses itself in both.