Emotion as a Way of Knowing

1. TaK - Emotion Emotion as a Way of Knowing

2. TaK - Emotion An enemy of reason? or An important precondition for knowledge?

3. TaK - Emotion What are emotions for?

4. Do you think that Emotion is often looked at with suspicion? If so, why? TaK - Emotion

5. TaK - Emotion • Emotion (noun) • A mental state that arises spontaneously rather than through conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes; • a feeling

6. TaK - Emotion Emotion Reason Opposition?

7. TaK - Emotion Emotion Reason Opposition?

8. TaK - Emotion “We think and name in one world, we live and feel in another” Marcel Proust Do you agree?

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10. TaK - Emotion Emotion Reason Balance?

11. TaK - Emotion Emotion Reason Balance?

12. TaK - Emotion Emotion and Reason Emotion Reason Furious Getting annoyed Solving a maths problem Not ‘either – or’, but ‘more - or – less’

13. TaK - Emotion Why are we attracted to some human faces but not to others?

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15. TaK - Emotion Without emotion … We would feel neither approval nor disapproval; attraction or repulsion; like or dislike… Everything would be of equal value No part of the world more important than any another… There could be no interest in any human relationship, in any work, in any play… With no emotions, can there be goals?

16. TaK - Emotion “Nothing great is accomplished in the world without passion” Hegel

17. To what extent are we able to control our emotions? Has anyone ever said to you, “Stop crying, you’re being irrational!” “You have no reason to be angry!” “There is no reason to be afraid!” Which emotion is the hardest to control? TaK - Emotion

18. TaK - Emotion “Anyone can be angry – that is easy. But to be angry with the right person to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way – that is not easy.” Aristotle

19. TaK - Emotion Primary or Universal Emotions Happiness Sadness Fear Anger Surprise Disgust

20. TaK - Emotion Secondary or Social Emotions (Socially conditioned) Embarrassment Jealousy Guilt Pride

21. TaK - Emotion Secondary or Social Emotions (Socially conditioned)

22. TaK - Emotion Background Emotions (frequently not conscious) • Well-being / Malaise • Calm / Tension • Fatigue / Energy • Anticipation / Dread

23. TaK - Emotion An Emotion Wheel designed by Robert Plutchik in 1980. Eight basic emotions with their opposites. Combinations: Optimism is composed of Anticipation and Joy. It’s opposite is Disapproval. etc

24. TaK - Emotion Knowing emotion through perception How does she feel? How do you know? The title is ‘Absinthe’ Does that affect your understanding and interpretation of the picture?

25. TaK - Emotion • Emotions as an obstacle to knowledge • Perception – “love is blind”? • Reason – “my theory right or wrong!” • Language – use of slanted language – “Oh, you can be so stupid!”

26. Rationalisations TaK - Emotion Biased Perception Fallacious Reasoning Powerful Emotions Experiences Emotive Language • Bill sees some people he assumes are immigrants standing on the street corner… • He feels irritated and angry … • He notices only lazy immigrants and overlooks hard-working ones … • He makes hasty generalisations from his own experience… • He concludes that immigrants ‘are idle’ and ‘don’t know the meaning of hard work!’ … • The above factors reinforce the original prejudice and • make it difficult for Bill to be objective.

27. TaK - Emotion Emotions as a source of knowledge Have you ever been in a situation where you had to choose between two equally attractive options? How did you come to a decision?

28. TaK - Emotion What role do you think is usually played by emotion when people decide which universities to apply to?

29. TaK - Emotion • Intuition • Core intuitions - our most fundamental intuitions about life the universe and everything. • All human beings are created equal • My friends are not aliens • Murder is wrong • Life is not a dream • The laws of Physics will not break down tomorrow • Things we consider to be ‘obvious’

30. TaK - Emotion • Intuition • Subject-specific intuitions – the intuitions we have in various areas of knowledge such as science and ethics • Imagine you are standing on a flat plain holding a bullet in one hand, and a loaded gun in the other. • If you fire the gun horizontally, and drop the bullet at exactly the same time which of the two bullets will hit the ground first?

31. TaK - Emotion • Intuition • Educated Intuition • ‘Eureka!’ moments

32. TaK - Emotion • Intuition • Social intuitions – our intuitions about other people, what they are like, whether or not they can be trusted etc

33. TaK - Emotion Paul has arranged to meet Tom at 3pm. Tom arrives at 3.02pm and apologises for being late. Rather than accept the apology, Paul starts screaming and shouting about Tom’s lack of consideration and completely loses his self-control.

34. TaK - Emotion The hospital phones Jane with terrible news. Her husband has been assaulted and is lying unconscious in Intensive Care. “Oh dear”, she says, “that is annoying! I was hoping to play tennis this afternoon, but I suppose I had better come and visit him.” Showing too little emotion is, perhaps, as irrational as showing too much

35. TaK - Emotion Imagine that you are presented with a special gift: a machine - the “Happiness Machine” – that can give you wonderfully positive emotions. All you have to do is hook yourself up ... and switch it on. But there’s a price: once the machine is switched on, you will not remember anything that happened before switching on the machine. Ever again. Do you want to switch the machine on? Why?

36. Some key points: • The emotions are relevant to the search for knowledge because they provide us with energy, affect our thinking and are sometimes used to justify our beliefs • The six primary emotions of happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust are found in all cultures • Emotions are sometimes an obstacle to knowledge. Strong emotions can color our perception, distort our thinking and inflame our language • Rather than think of reason and emotion as opposites, it may make more sense to say that our emotions can themselves be more or less rational • Intuition is an immediate insight into something – sometimes valuable, sometimes to be treated with caution. TaK - Emotion

37. TaK - Emotion Questions… • How might it be said that all decisions and therefore actions are based on emotion?  Why is it we rely on these feelings as a higher form of certainty than raw, objective empirical data? • What are the flaws in relying solely on emotion as a way of knowing? • Despite these flaws, how do we integrate emotion to create justified true belief? • In what areas of knowledge is emotion important?

38. TaK - Emotion What is the role of Emotion in your IB subjects?

39. TaK - Emotion ToK Essay Prescribed Title 2008: “There can be no knowledge without emotion .... until we have felt the force of the knowledge, it is not ours” Discuss this vision of the relationship between knowledge and emotion.

40. TaK - Emotion Reason Are we driven more by reason or emotion? Maths How important is intuition in mathematics? Language Is language used more to persuade or describe? Ethics Is ethics more a matter of the heart than the head? Natural Sciences What does biology tell us about the emotions? Emotion Arts Do the arts provoke emotions or purge them? Human Sciences How much of a problem is bias in the social sciences? History What role does empathy play in the historian’s work?