Emotion as a Way of Knowing

1. Emotion as a Way of Knowing

2. For Enlightenment thinkers, emotion was seen pretty much exclusively as an impediment to reason, and that’s when the rational/emotional duality was born. • It can also be argued that without emotion it would be impossible to makes sense of the world. • And what about intuition?

3. I. Emotion as Obstacle to Knowledge • Strong emotions can certainly distort the other three ways of knowing. Can you think of examples of how emotion might get in the way of each of the following? • Perception • Reason • Language

4. A. Rationalizations • When we feel strongly about something we are more likely not to reason in an objective way, but to rationalize our pre-existing prejudices. Consider the following fable from Aesop:

5. “Driven by hunger, a fox tried to reach some grapes hanging high on the vine but was unable to, although he leaped with all his strength. As he went away, the fox remarked, 'Oh, you aren't even ripe yet! I don't need any sour grapes.' People who speak disparagingly of things that they cannot attain would do well to apply this story to themselves.”

6. The story suggests that if we have a particular emotional attitude about something, we may make up bad reasons to justify it. This kind of behavior is quite common. • More specifically, we tend to rationalize when there is cognitive dissonance: when we believe two things simultaneously that are contradictory. (Smoking example.) • We also rationalize when we exhibit confirmation bias.

7. B. Irrational Behavior • The above are examples of emotions distorting our beliefs, but strong emotions can also result in us making poor decisions. • For example, we say things that we don’t mean when we are angry, or we give into temptation when we should exercise self-control.

8. Would it be better if we simply did not experience emotions? If we viewed the world in a completely rational and balanced way? • The Stoics: apathy.

9. II. Emotion as a Source of Knowledge • When we think of people who “lack emotion” or are “cold,” we tend to just mean people who are more in control of their emotions. • In fact, studies demonstrate that the Stoic ideal is not practical:

10. Studies by Antonio Damasi demonstrate that the lives of patients with brain damage disintegrate because they end up not being able to make decisions. • His speculation is that emotions actually help us to make rational decisions because they narrow down the range of options.

11. This position argues that even though we tend to think of reason and emotion as two different, incompatible things, in practice they are closely related. • Some questions for consideration: Since you got out of bed this morning how much time have you spent thinking instead of feeling? Can you ever feel literally nothing?

12. It is probably more useful, therefore, to think of the relationship between reason and emotion as less of a duality and more of a continuum. When you are doing math you’re at one end of the spectrum, and when you have an angry outburst you are at the other end.

13. Furthermore, rather than thinking of the two as being opposed, it might make more sense to say that our emotions themselves can be more or less rational. • Fear of a snake in my room becomes irrational when I discover it is just a power cord. Anger at Won Bin for something he said about me should disappear when I realize that I misunderstood what he said.

14. In this sense, we might say that an emotion that is sensitive to the real nature of a situation is more rational than one that is not. • This is how Aristotle defines it: “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.”

15. Finally, it is also true that even given this scale we all experience irrational emotions. • I know that horror movies are fake and that grass snakes are harmless, but they still frighten me. I know that flying is safer than driving, but I am less afraid to drive. • Perceptual examples.