There is a tradition of common sense philosophy that rejects the possibility that reason is able to have or generate any interest by itself. Hume spoke for many when he said: “Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.”[1] Like Hume, many people conceive of reason as separate from emotion, and needing the emotions in order to resolve upon a course of action, or even as playing no real part in how we decide. Think, for instance, of how readily the phrase “cold and calculating” is associated with “rational.” Think of how smoothly the Vulcans in Star Trek fit into our stereotype of the rational person:…

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