David Hollister has thought intently about both intellectual and emotional commitment. He was a high school teacher in the 1960s, who later served nineteen years in the Michigan house of representatives, where he was consistently recognized as a top legislator. In 1993 he ran a successful campaign for mayor of Lansing, and then was elected for a second term in a landslide win. He now leads a new state department on labor and economic growth.
Hollister contrasts those who are intellectually committed with those who are emotionally committed. Intellectually committed people grasp the significance of whatever change is being proposed in historical terms. Hollister wrote, ‘‘These people have a sophisticated understanding of the interrelationships, the nuances, and the subtleties of the situation.’’ People who are emotionally committed have a different air: ‘‘Those with the emotional commitment are the traditional activists. They are highly motivated and are anxious ‘to get involved’ to try to change conditions.’’
However, says Hollister, intellectual and emotional commitment each have limitations. The intellectually committed may not be able to move beyond thought and into action. The emotionally committed, lacking broad perspective, may not fully understand the goals to which they are committing themselves and so may engage in action that is thoughtless and off target. The values and limitations of intellectual and emotional commitment summarizes the value and limitations of both intellectual and emotional commitment.
So intellectual commitment by itself may breed understanding but inaction, while emotional commitment by itself may produce action that runs amok. However, gaining both intellectual and emotional commitment—winning both minds and hearts—in the service of the same purpose offers the promise of great results. Jacob Bronowski acknowledged this in The Ascent of Man:
Yet every man, every civilization, has gone forward because of its engagement with what it has set itself to do. The personal commitment of a man to his skill, the intellectual and the emotional commitment working together as one, has made the Ascent of Man.
For sustained change of any kind, other than that of the lowest order, the combination of intellectual and emotional commitment is the minimum commitment needed.