750 words or more; due by midnight on Friday, November 6.
Evaluate the ways in which emotion might enhance and/or undermine reasoning as a Way of
Knowing.
Join us for our live blog session on Friday, November 19 at 7:15 Mountain Time (GMT-7:00) to be a part of this discussion.
Join us for our live blog session on Friday, November 19 at 7:15 Mountain Time (GMT-7:00) to be a part of this discussion.
Emotions affect our reasoning either to enhance or undermine it as a mean of knowing. Emotions often influence most of the actions and decisions we make. We get knowledge through several ways, but reasoning is the most commonly used along with the emotions that influence it.
ReplyDeleteReason is a logical form of thinking to discover new knowledge. Reasoning is when there are two or more pieces of information that are true used to imply another statement and therefore conclude it is also true. For instance, a friend had been coughing and sneezing quite a few times in the past few days. Now she has been absent for two days. These two statements are both correct and now we might infer she is ill. Another illustration can be I had a chocolate bar on my desk. When I came home, it was gone. The only person that was left alone in the house was my brother; therefore he must have eaten it. It also includes using our minds as drawing boards to make connections between events. We may use our senses to get a piece of information and then imagine what happened. An example may be a person was in their front yard and saw smoke from a house not too far away. At the same moment a firefighter rushed by. Our brain serves as a drawing board where we have put two pieces of information that we perceived from our senses to imagine what happened. Reason is also thinking about what is best in certain circumstances to make the right decisions. It is using our common sense to judge what the best action to take in the situation we’re in. These decisions are often contradicted and influenced by emotions.
Emotions are a major component of human’s lives. They are how we express our feelings towards others and certain subjects. We express our emotions to others through our actions. Our actions are influenced by our feelings. If we’re depressed we don’t talk to anyone or if we love someone we show our affection by giving them a hug. Furthermore, emotions come from feelings. When someone feels sweaty that feeling may cause disgust, or before lunch the feeling of hunger can create the emotion of anxiety. There are many levels of emotions. They can be categorized in many ways and can be a complex mixture of other emotions. There are basic emotions like happy, sad, content, love, fear, anger, jealousy, and anxiety. Complex emotions can be developed by a mixture of other emotions. Nervous, for example, can be a mixture of fear and anxiety. Love is the most complex emotion for there are many kinds of love. There can be friendships, companions, romance, and motherly love.
(First Part)
L.F.
However, these emotions are constantly changing because of certain circumstances that may cause emotional imbalance. A person may be in constant depression because they lack another emotion like love. The things going on in their lives may cause them to feel depressed or unsuccessful. It can become very serious if they begin to commit suicide. Psychological intervention may be required in order to solve the emotional imbalance. Emotions are a component of the affects on reasoning.
ReplyDeleteEmotions enhance or undermine reasoning as a way of knowing. We may feel we want to do something because it is what we feel like doing but our head says no because it’s wrong. Instead of doing my homework I feel like sleeping or watching TV. I know I have to complete it so I decide to leave my emotions aside. At times we listen to our emotions instead of reasoning. There was a woman that woke up one morning and reason told her she needed to go to work like always, but a feeling told her she had to stay home .She decided to listen to her feeling and stay home. Later she found out the roof of the building where she worked at caved in. We can’t control our emotions it’s like an instinct to feel a certain way in what we consider at a reasonable moment. We tend to have emotions about the things we know but also from the ones we don’t know. We have fear or terror of the unknown but we have that fear because we have never experienced it. Fear is an emotion that can prevent us from knowing and having experience. The fear of rollercoasters will prevent us from getting on thus never knowing what it really feels like. We can feel dizzy after a very twisty rollercoaster because now we know what it’s like. It is reasonable to have our emotions assist us in getting knowledge.
There are several emotions and different ways of reasoning that improve and diminish our way of knowing.
(Second Part)
L.F.
In our human lives we use our emotions for many different things. Such as, evaluating the way our loved ones act when they are in a bad, good and/or sad mood, but we may also use our emotions in our pursuit of knowledge and in our way of knowing. One example that we may use our emotions in the way of knowing is when a random person comes up to you and tells you that Oprah Winfrey is a man in disguise and you are a diehard Oprah fan. You don’t believe this person because you are emotionally attached to her and you believe she is a good person who is in fact not a man, but instead a woman who is successful and who seems to have a body of a woman who is mature. Another example that is not so farfetched is if you are a Christian and go to church, then suddenly you ask the pastor if Catholicism is the same as Christianity, you are very touchy about the subject and you are emotionally connected to the religion since you were brought up that god is everything and Christianity is the only religion that is “right”. The way you feel towards other religions emotionally may not get in the way of knowing because you don’t know how these other religions belief systems. Anyways, the pastor goes on to tell you “Yes, Catholicism is very similar to Christianity and many other religions are similar also. All other religions say “DO NOT BE MEAN, BE KIND TO ONE ANOTHER!”.” You are astonished to hear the pastor say these words you don’t understand why he just doesn’t say “CHRISTIANITY IS THE ONLY RELIGION THAT IS RIGHT AND YOU BETTER GET THAT STRAIGHT BOY!” The pastor then gives you this look like you don’t understand what he is talking about. You don’t respond. The pastor asks you if you understand what he is trying to say. You say “I don’t really understand why you said this isn’t Christianity the one religion.” You feel as if your heart has just been ripped out straight from your chest and has just been stomped on and beaten to a bloody pulp and alcohol has been poured all over it. The pastor then realizes your way of thinking he tells you not to get so offended and not to let your emotions to get the way of thinking because if you let your emotions get in the way you may never realize how many more things that are out in the world that are just simply amazing and beautiful in their own certain way and that you may never find these things beautiful if you let your complicated emotions get in the way. You are still trying to comprehend the response to your question, but you instead take these replies into consideration. Now you are starting to understand what the pastor is trying to say. A couple of months later you go into a synagogue and you ask the Rabi if Christianity is the same Judaism. Then Rabi responds “Yes, it is all religions are pretty much base on each other. All religions pretty much say “Treat others the way you would like to be treated.” Why do you ask this question son?” You respond to the Rabi “That’s what I thought you would say and I ask this question because I want to test my emotions on how I feel about a different religion and as I walk through the synagogue, I realize how beautiful it is. I must tell you that before I wouldn’t have wanted to walk through here because I thought I would FEEL weird and misplaced due to my emotions toward this religion, but now that I think about it I don’t understand why I felt like this? It feels good and I must tell you I’m embarrassed that I told you.” He responds to you saying “Don’t feel embarrassed my child, do not feel embarrassed or neglected in any sort of way we are here to make you feel safe.” You leave the synagogue and you feel better about what you just did. The story that I just explained to you shows you how your feelings can get in your way of knowing a certain type of religion such as Judaism. You felt as if you had to be into just one religion and have a close mind, but after the pastor talks to you, you realize that you were wrong about almost everything an you now realize that many things are beautiful.
ReplyDelete-Amanda C.
http://imjas.blogspot.com/2009/11/depending-on-who-you-are-emotions-can.html
ReplyDelete-J James
http://toniklein.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeletehttp://ashleylynfunk.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-emotions-help-and-hinder-quest-for.html
ReplyDelete-Ashley F.