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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNe_nMlLBig

1- Strongly Agree2 – Agree3 – Strongly Disagree4. Disagree

Go to the part of the room that best reflects your opinion on the matter.

What does it mean when we say to someone ‘be reasonable’ rather than emotional.

Does this mean reason has priority over emotion in matters of truth and knowledge?

Primary Emotions

Happiness Sadness Fear Anger Surprise Disgust

Emotions are various internal feelings and external forms of behaviour.

Emotions are essentially physical in nature and bodily changes come before, and cause, emotional changes.

The theory suggests that if you mimic the appropriate physical symptoms you can generate the corresponding emotion.

For example – If you smile you will feel happy, and if you scowl you will feel angry.

Look at the following images – Do they affect your feelings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqPAuotjkM4&feature=related

James-Lange theory ignores the fact that our emotions have a mental as well as a physical aspect.

Humans unlike animals experience social emotions such as ambition, contempt, embarrassment, envy, gratitude, jealousy, pride, shame and sympathy.

These are affected by our beliefs. Not only do our emotions affect our beliefs

but our beliefs affect our emotions. The fear of the snake turned out to be

unwarranted when you realised it was just rope.

Emotions provide energy for the pursuit of knowledge.

People have a passion for something that drives them and inspires them in their quest for knowledge.

Fuel for other types of knowledge in the scientific, artistic, ethical, mathematical, and historical areas of knowledge.

Strong emotions can sometimes distort the three other ways of knowing

Perception – this is often coloured by our strong emotions consider the saying ‘love is blind’.

Reason – This can often be overlooked when you hold passionate beliefs leading people to be less open minded. A type of ‘Im right your wrong’ mentality.

Language – A person in the grip of a powerful emotion is likely to use very emotive and slanted language.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54oCJK0-X2E When rational discussion and debate turns into an

emotional outburst.

When we are in the grip of strong emotions, we tend not to reason in an objective way but to rationalise our pre-existing prejudices

Watch - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp0QbZWY67s

A tendency to rationalise can lead a person to develop an illusory but self confirming belief system.

Henry has an emotional prejudice against immigrants. His prejudice will probably lead to the following:

Biased Perception – He notices only lazy immigrants and overlooks hard working ones.

Fallacious Reasoning – He makes hasty generalisations from his own limited experience.

Emotive language – He concludes that immigrants are ‘bone idle’, ‘scroungers who don’t know the meaning of hard work.’

The above factors will reinforce the original prejudice and make it difficult for Henry to be objective. He will need to examine his original prejudice if he is to avoid prejudiced assumptions.

Emotions can not only distort our beliefs but can also lead us into making poor decisions.

We may react angrily to something and say something we immediately regret.

Or given in to temptation when it would have been better to exercise self control.

Since turbulent emotions can distort our ability to think clearly and behave intelligently, you might think that the ideal situation would be one in which we did not have any emotions at all and could look at the world in a balanced and objective way.

However, is it possible to imagine a human life without any emotions?

It is difficult to imagine a meaningful human life without any emotions.

Recent studies have shown that if you didn’t have any emotions your life would quickly disintegrate.

Although we tend to think of reason and emotion as completely different either – or things, it probably makes more sense to say that there is a more-or-less continuum of mental activity running from the very rational to the very emotional.

For example – When you are engrossed in a mathematical problem you are at one end of the continuum, and when you lose your temper you are at the other end.

We use ‘intuition’ to describe not only flashes of creative insight but also our ‘sixth sense’ hunches about things.

We can distinguish between 3 types of intuitions.

Core intuitions – our most fundamental intuitions about life, the universe and everything.

Subject-specific intuitions – the intuitions we have in various areas of knowledge such as science and ethics.

Social intuitions – our intuitions about other people, what they are like, whether or not they can be trusted etc

Emotions are relevant in the search for knowledge. They provide energy that fuels intellectual pursuits

as well as play a central role in our mental lives. Some of our deepest beliefs about the world seem

to be as much intuitive matters of the heart as rational matters of the head.

We must also be aware that emotions can sometimes be an obstacle to knowledge.

Strong emotions can cloud our judgment and tempt us to find bad reasons to justify our pre-existing prejudices.

Intuitions do not have any magical authority and cannot always be trusted.

It is worth keeping in mind that having strong convictions about something does not in itself guarantee that it is true.

Perception- To what extent do emotions colour our perceptions?

Reason – Are we driven more by reason or emotion?

Ethics – Is ethics more a matter of the heart than of the head?

The Arts – Is art the language of the emotions? Do the arts provoke emotions or purge them?

Language – Is language used more to describe or persuade?

Natural Sciences – What does Biology tell us about the emotions?

EmotionLinking Questions