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Emotions and Knowledge

Emotions and Knowledge. 1)Emotions as an obstacle to knowledge. Traditional view - battle between reason and emotion. 1)Emotions as an obstacle to knowledge. Traditional view - battle between reason and emotion

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Emotions and Knowledge

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  1. Emotions and Knowledge

  2. 1)Emotions as an obstacle to knowledge • Traditional view - battle between reason and emotion

  3. 1)Emotions as an obstacle to knowledge • Traditional view - battle between reason and emotion • What does the clip above tell us about the relative importance of reason and emotion? • What does it also tell us about when the film was made!?

  4. Smoking

  5. Smoking • Even faced with such compelling evidence many people still smoke. • Why?

  6. Rationalisations - actions • If we know something is bad (eg, smoking), we can manufacture bad reasons to justify this behaviour – the discomfort or negative emotions we feel due to the conflict between our actions and beliefs lead us to rationalise our actions. • ‘ I am familiar with the evidence that smoking is bad for me, but I smoke. I know loads of people who smoke and they are fine. Nothing bad will happen to me. I don’t even believe the evidence anyway.’

  7. Rationalising beliefs • Imagine: Your friend holds an emotional prejudice against immigrants. • His tendency to rationalise can lead to a self-confirming belief system about immigrants - Biased perceptions – he notices only lazy immigrants - fallacious reasoning – he makes hasty generalisations - emotive language – he concludes that immigrants are ‘bone idle’ and ‘useless’ These factors reinforce the original prejudice and make it difficult to be objective

  8. Irrational Behaviour • Think back to your last argument with someone. Can you remember saying something in the ‘heat of the moment?’ • Turbulent emotions can distort our ability to think clearly and behave intelligently. • Stoics advocated a state of mind called apathy – without passion – in which the mind could mirror reality in a calm and untroubled way. • Can you imagine a life without human emotions?

  9. Emotions – the positives • Could it be argued that our emotions make us human? • Brain damage patients with damage to their emotional centers find it very difficult to make decisions. Can you think why? • Antonio Damasio has explored this idea..... • Is it a question of finding a balance between reason and emotion? Keeping our emotions under control?

  10. Emotionalintelligence • Seinfeld: EmotionalIntelligence - Self Management – YouTube

  11. Emotions as way of knowing intuitions

  12. After the clip…. • What are intuitions? • Have you ever made a decision based on your intuitions? • How reliable do you think intuitions are? • Are there any factors which increase this reliability? • Malcolm Gladwell – ‘Blink’

  13. Reasoningessay • Is adversarial argument the best way to decide someone’s innocence. Discuss. (800 words maximum)Dueaftertheholiday.

  14. Somepoints • Thejustice system tries to make a decisionoverguiltorinnocenceusingreasoning • Isthe ‘adversarial system’ thebestway to do this (Discussadvantages and disadvantages) • In whatwaysmight ‘emotion’ interferewiththisprocess? • Other systems?

  15. a few more points on our judgements and decision making for you to think about....

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