A PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH TO WILLIAM LYALL’S INTELLECT, THE EMOTIONS AND THE MORAL NATURE
by
GABRIEL FURMUZACHI April 2001
Abstract
In their work The Faces of Reason: An Essay on Philosophy and Culture in English Canada 1850-1950, Leslie Armour and Elizabeth Trott consider that the Canadian way of doing philosophy uses reason in an accommodationist manner.
I propose in this work that William Lyall’s Intellect, the Emotions and the Moral Nature represents a splendid example of the accommodationist use of reason.
The Maritimes philosopher advances the idea that emotions have a cognitive value, a claim which I support by trying to put Lyall’s ideas in a modern framework offered by French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre.
Latent in Lyall’s work can also be found a theory of metaphor which I try to revive with the help of French philosopher Paul Ricoeur.
Thus, following Lyall, emotions and reason are always in a balance and they work together in order to give us a more consistent and fuller grasp of reality.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. WILLIAM LYALL
AN OVERVIEW OF WILLIAM LYALL’S PHILOSOPHY
Philosophy in Canada
Lyall the Philosopher, Lyall the Romantic
Lyall’s Method
Lyall’s Understanding of the Intellect
Emotions, Morality and Being
INTELLECT, EMOTIONS AND IMAGINATION
II. ON EMOTION
FOUR THEORIES OF EMOTION
The Feeling Theory
The Behaviorist Theory
The Psychoanalytic Theory
The Cognitive Theory
FROM LYALL TO SARTRE AND BACK
Sartre: Imagination and Emotions
The Magical World
Lyall and Sartre
III. ON METAPHOR
FOUR THEORIES OF METAPHOR
The Emotive Theory
The Comparison Theory
The Iconic Signification Theory
The Verbal Opposition Theory
TURBAYNE, WHEELWRIGHT AND METAPHORICAL REALITY
Turbayne and The Myth of Metaphor
Philip Wheelwright’s Metaphor and Reality
Epiphor
Diaphor
ENTER RICOEUR!
Reference: Metaphors and Reality
Imagination
LYALL AND METAPHORS
The Emotive Dimension