 From the preceding arguments by the Buddhist philosophers Dharmakīrti, Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla it becomes clear that Buddhist philosophers do not operate with the psychological category “emotion”; at least not in the way that other Indian (and Western) philosophers do. For example, Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla do not consider love and hatred to be irrational because they involve non-cognitive feelings that do not represent an external reality. Kamalaśīla in particular makes it clear that for him love and hatred do not require a relationship to objects in the external world. He argues that not having an external object is a salient feature of love and hatred. In Western philosophy of mind we often use the presence or absence of an object of love in order to distinguish between rational and irrational love. Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla, however, do not use this distinction in order to argue that love and hatred should be eliminated. As Buddhists, their concern lies with the afflictions that prevent the mind from becoming liberated and whatever mental state is an affliction ought to be eliminated. Emotions then are vijñānas and as such they always have an object. This position stands in contrast to philosophical traditions, be they Indian or Western, in which feelings and emotions are often distinguished from cognitions because they lack an object.