Can emotions be rational?
Emotions are feelings or moods of an individual. It is a mental state that is related to tones temperament and personality. Emotions are a mode of expression. We express our feelings through emotions. Emotions come from the heart and so we often say that a very emotional person thinks from her heart. This simply means that this person is ruled by her emotions and she listens to her heart rather then her mind. Her emotions usually take over her reasoning but emotions and reasoning are, to some extent related. If it were true that emotions were without reason then the concept of emotions would have been stupid and held no importance. It is true that there is a reason for every single emotion felt as one doesn’t just feel a particular emotion at a time without knowing why they are feeling so. If one is happy there is a reason why they are happy. They have probably done something nice and so are feeling good about it or they might be with someone they love and so are happy about it. Thus reasoning plays a very important role in emotion.
We can yet wonder whether this same emotion, which has a reason behind it, is rational? We cant say for sure that the emotion is rational but there are certain things which determine whether they are rational or not. Culture, judgment, concepts, etc. influences the rationality of an emotion. Idt depends on whether an emotion is right or not in a particular culture. If according to that culture it is perfectly alright to express a particular emotion at a particular time them the emotion can be called as rational but if the culture believes that such an emotion shouldn’t be expressed at the time then it is said to be irrational. Eg. It is completely rational to cry on the death of a loved one. While at the same time some cultures might believe that it is irrational to cry on the death of your pet as a pet isn’t considered as a loved one in that culture. It is also universally believed that it is completely irrational to laugh or be happy when a loved one dies. Circumstances also influence our emotions as the circumstance determines whether the emotion is rational or not. If I am in a position where my son is in jail and it is my daughters birthday at home, it is rational for me to be sad and cry for my son rather then smile and be happy for my daughter. It is the circumstance that forces me to behave in this way. Often emotions aren’t even in our hands and it is a feeling that overcomes us when we are in a particular situation or circumstance. It isn’t in my control to be happy or sad as if it was why would I ever choose to be sad. I’d always be happy then but the emotions of anger, jealousy, grief, are all a part of life. the rationality of emotions simply depends on our beliefs, the way we think about them. If we think our emotion to be completely rational then our emotion is rational. No one can challenge our emotions as only we know how we are feeling and what is going on inside us. At the same time if we begin to believe that our emotion is stupid and senseless, our emotion will be stupid and senseless i.e. irrational. Our perceptions on our emotion or the way we perceive our emotions in part determine what they really are. if we see a painting and feel happy on seeing it and believe that it is inappropriate to feel happy on seeing the painting and that we don’t have a reason for feeling happy, our emotion becomes irrational. But if we believe that it is appropriate to feel happy on seeing the painting as we have a reason behind our happiness as the painting might have had happy colours which made me happy or could have reminded me of something in turn making me happy, the emotion becomes rational. Thus our emotion becomes rational when we believe it to be so. Our emotions actually reflect our thoughts and they are actually a way in which we express our thoughts. It is true that our emotions also lead us to our thoughts and so emotions and thoughts are inter-related and dependent on each other. If we take history as an example, when we think of Hitler, we think of the millions of jews he tortured and killed and all the concentration camps that were set up because of him. All these thoughts lead us to an emotion, a feeling of sadness, grief and bitterness. These emotions are the results of our thoughts and if those thoughts hadn’t crossed our minds, we would have never been overcome by these emotions. Then it is these emotions that lead us to new thoughts, where we begin to feel hatred for Hitler and begin to think of him as an awful man who was inhuman and harsh.
In this way it is a continuous cycle of emotions and thoughts. Neither can do without the other. Thus emotions can be ration, depending on our thoughts and what we think about them.
http://www.friesian.com/emotion.htm
http://science.jrank.org/pages/9109/Emotions-How-Rational-Are-Emotions.html
Monday, April 26, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
tok reflection
In our last tok class, we compared reason and emotion. reason is logical and rational thinking while emotions are feelings. we thne discussed the difference between a person ruled by emotion and a person ruled by reason. i then realsied ow difficult it is to choose between them as the more i thought the more i felt that i was a person governed by both reason and emotion. i felt this because at times i am governed by emotion and my reaction is instinctive while at times i am more reasonable and weigh out my option before making a decision. when i sit and analyze myself, i gather that i am the type of person who can be influenced by both love and religion. we also read the article, 'In hiding from humanity: disgust, shame, and the law' by Martha C. Nassbaum and discussed it's knowledge issue. we came to the conclusion that the knowledge issue is, 'the appropriateness of an emotional reaction' and that it deals with the perception of two different people from two different times and cultures dealing with emotions like grief and sorrow on someone's death. the most exciting part of the lesson was the quiz we did at the end of the class to determine whether we are ruled by emotion or reason, the head or the heart. this quiz included questions like do you cry in sappy movies or books? etc. the number of no's and yes' determined whether we were determined by emotion or reason. i got an equal number of yes' and no's and so i was ruled equally by both emotion and reason. thus i came to the conclusion that my previous assumption was right and that in reality i am governed by both emotion and reason. therefore this tok class helped me analyze myself and come to a conclusion about myself.
Monday, April 12, 2010
How does the way in which we describe something affect the way we see it?
How does the way in which we describe something affect the way we see it?
Language is a very important part of every human being. Language is the way we put our thoughts into words. Without language we wouldn’t be able to express ourselves so easily. Thus without language, we can’t have an education, get a job, have a social life, etc. language is so fundamental to our experience and is so deeply a part of every human being that it is actually extremely hard to imagine life without language. Language is a basic mean of communication and without language we won’t be able to communicate with one another. Language is more then just words, it’s a culture and so there are thousands of languages in the world. It is also true that two people speaking in two different languages do think to some extent, differently. A word in one language won’t have an equal in another language as the people speaking that language are from another culture and don’t find it necessary to use that word. Hence every translation of a word will never give you the exact meaning of the word because every individual language is clouded by the word.
The way in which we describe things definitely affects the way we see it as language shapes thought. Language plays a major role in the way we see things. When we see something, we name it and begin to describe it. That description is imprinted in our minds and whenever we think of that thing we think of its description. It is then that description that determines the way we see that thing eg. When one sees a zebra, one describes it as white with black stripes and so one sees the zebra as black with white stripes but if one describes it as a black zebra with white stripes then one begins to see it as a black with white stripes.
Sometimes we only see that that we want to see or that that is important to us. When we describe something, it is obvious that we have noticed that thing and thus perceived it. This thing therefore in some way becomes important to us and we then begin to see that thing in a particular way but something that we haven’t described is something that we haven’t noticed or that isn’t important to us and so we conveniently ignore that thing. In this way we don’t see that thing at all. This can also be seen as confirmation bias which is a type of thinking where one tends to notice what confirms one’s belief and ignore, overlook and undervalue what’s contradictory to his or her belief.
We describe something according to how we think that thing is and so our description of that thing is actually describing the way we see that thing. eg. a painting might have a different meaning to me as it will to someone else. Each one sees things differently and so one painting can have several interpretations. The way I see the painting is actually the way I describe it. If I describe the brown and blue in a painting as sand and sea then I begin to see it as sand and see but that does not mean that it is sand and sea for everyone. That is the way I perceive the painting and my perception leads me to my truth. thus for me the truth is that the brown in the painting is sand and the blue is the sea. Someone else might see the same painting and say that the brown and blue in the painting are life and death. That’s the way he or she describes the painting and thus sees it. His or her perception of the painting leads her to her truth which is different from my truth. It is our descriptions and perceptions that are different and so the way we see things and our personal truth’s are also different.
Language can be interpreted in many different ways eg. The meaning of love is very different for a 4 year old then for a 40 year old. The 4 year old might describe his love for a pencil while a 40 year old will probably describe his love for a woman. The boy sees love as a feeling you have for a material possession as he hasn’t understood the deep meaning of love like the 40 year old for whom love is all about a woman. In this way the way they describe love differs and thus the way they see love too differs.
Reality is determined by the language you speak. Through this you can give meaning to the world around you. Without language thought is meaningless as one can only express their thoughts through language. It is difficult to decide whether thoughts come first or language but it is definite that one cannot exist without the other.
If something is described to us in an ambiguous manner with ambiguous language, we begin to see that thing in that way. If the description is unclear then the way we see it will also be unclear. Eg. If someone sees a girl and tries to describe her to me by telling me that there was something on her head, I would begin to wonder what she meant by something as the language is ambiguous and unclear and I won’t be able to picture her clearly.
In ‘OW DOES OUR LANGUAGE SHAPE THE WAY WE THINK?’ Lera Boroditsky states, “Clearly, languages require different things of their speakers. Does this mean that the speakers think differently about the world? Do English, Indonesian, Russian, and Turkish speakers end up attending to, partitioning, and remembering their experiences differently just because they speak different languages? For some scholars, the answer to these questions has been an obvious yes. Just look at the way people talk, they might say. Certainly, speakers of different languages must attend to and encode strikingly different aspects of the world just so they can use their language properly.” Thus many scholars agree that people that speak different languages remember their experiences differently. People depend a lot on language and language usually shapes the way a person thinks. So you can say that people speaking different languages, do think differently. The important role of language in our lives influences many things in our lives including the way we think. Language determines the way we describe things which in turn affects the way we see things.
1. http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index.html
Language is a very important part of every human being. Language is the way we put our thoughts into words. Without language we wouldn’t be able to express ourselves so easily. Thus without language, we can’t have an education, get a job, have a social life, etc. language is so fundamental to our experience and is so deeply a part of every human being that it is actually extremely hard to imagine life without language. Language is a basic mean of communication and without language we won’t be able to communicate with one another. Language is more then just words, it’s a culture and so there are thousands of languages in the world. It is also true that two people speaking in two different languages do think to some extent, differently. A word in one language won’t have an equal in another language as the people speaking that language are from another culture and don’t find it necessary to use that word. Hence every translation of a word will never give you the exact meaning of the word because every individual language is clouded by the word.
The way in which we describe things definitely affects the way we see it as language shapes thought. Language plays a major role in the way we see things. When we see something, we name it and begin to describe it. That description is imprinted in our minds and whenever we think of that thing we think of its description. It is then that description that determines the way we see that thing eg. When one sees a zebra, one describes it as white with black stripes and so one sees the zebra as black with white stripes but if one describes it as a black zebra with white stripes then one begins to see it as a black with white stripes.
Sometimes we only see that that we want to see or that that is important to us. When we describe something, it is obvious that we have noticed that thing and thus perceived it. This thing therefore in some way becomes important to us and we then begin to see that thing in a particular way but something that we haven’t described is something that we haven’t noticed or that isn’t important to us and so we conveniently ignore that thing. In this way we don’t see that thing at all. This can also be seen as confirmation bias which is a type of thinking where one tends to notice what confirms one’s belief and ignore, overlook and undervalue what’s contradictory to his or her belief.
We describe something according to how we think that thing is and so our description of that thing is actually describing the way we see that thing. eg. a painting might have a different meaning to me as it will to someone else. Each one sees things differently and so one painting can have several interpretations. The way I see the painting is actually the way I describe it. If I describe the brown and blue in a painting as sand and sea then I begin to see it as sand and see but that does not mean that it is sand and sea for everyone. That is the way I perceive the painting and my perception leads me to my truth. thus for me the truth is that the brown in the painting is sand and the blue is the sea. Someone else might see the same painting and say that the brown and blue in the painting are life and death. That’s the way he or she describes the painting and thus sees it. His or her perception of the painting leads her to her truth which is different from my truth. It is our descriptions and perceptions that are different and so the way we see things and our personal truth’s are also different.
Language can be interpreted in many different ways eg. The meaning of love is very different for a 4 year old then for a 40 year old. The 4 year old might describe his love for a pencil while a 40 year old will probably describe his love for a woman. The boy sees love as a feeling you have for a material possession as he hasn’t understood the deep meaning of love like the 40 year old for whom love is all about a woman. In this way the way they describe love differs and thus the way they see love too differs.
Reality is determined by the language you speak. Through this you can give meaning to the world around you. Without language thought is meaningless as one can only express their thoughts through language. It is difficult to decide whether thoughts come first or language but it is definite that one cannot exist without the other.
If something is described to us in an ambiguous manner with ambiguous language, we begin to see that thing in that way. If the description is unclear then the way we see it will also be unclear. Eg. If someone sees a girl and tries to describe her to me by telling me that there was something on her head, I would begin to wonder what she meant by something as the language is ambiguous and unclear and I won’t be able to picture her clearly.
In ‘OW DOES OUR LANGUAGE SHAPE THE WAY WE THINK?’ Lera Boroditsky states, “Clearly, languages require different things of their speakers. Does this mean that the speakers think differently about the world? Do English, Indonesian, Russian, and Turkish speakers end up attending to, partitioning, and remembering their experiences differently just because they speak different languages? For some scholars, the answer to these questions has been an obvious yes. Just look at the way people talk, they might say. Certainly, speakers of different languages must attend to and encode strikingly different aspects of the world just so they can use their language properly.” Thus many scholars agree that people that speak different languages remember their experiences differently. People depend a lot on language and language usually shapes the way a person thinks. So you can say that people speaking different languages, do think differently. The important role of language in our lives influences many things in our lives including the way we think. Language determines the way we describe things which in turn affects the way we see things.
1. http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index.html
Sunday, April 11, 2010
TOK reflection 4
I really wasn’t in the mood for TOK as this was that TOK class when everyone was free except us, Tuesday 4th block and we had just sat through a long and tiring economic forum. Everyone was going out for lunch and we poor souls had to sit in class and listen to miss nehal go on about common sense realism and scientific realism. Miss nehal began to define the above turns and I desperately tried to listen. Scientific realism states that the worls exists independent of reality. Phenomenalism believes that matter is simply the permanent possibility of sensation. we then stated an example saying that if a table exists in A classroom then any table exists in any classroom. We then discussed the above three terms, namely, common sense realism, scientific realism and phenomenalism stating phrases for each of the three terms.
Common sense realism- “ what you see is what is there”
Scientific realism-“atoms exist in void”
Phenomenalsim-“ to be is to be perceived.”
These phrases helped me understand these terms better. When miss nehal gave us an example related to us by saying that only when we answer in class and interact are we perceived by her as otherwise it’s almost like we don’t exist as we aren’t perceived, I could relate to the sense of phenomenalism. Thus tok class can only be exciting when we debate discuss and are able to relate to the topics being discussed in class. I also understood the importance of giving examples through this class as that is the only way we are able to relate to the topic and make the person thoroughly understand what we are saying.
Common sense realism- “ what you see is what is there”
Scientific realism-“atoms exist in void”
Phenomenalsim-“ to be is to be perceived.”
These phrases helped me understand these terms better. When miss nehal gave us an example related to us by saying that only when we answer in class and interact are we perceived by her as otherwise it’s almost like we don’t exist as we aren’t perceived, I could relate to the sense of phenomenalism. Thus tok class can only be exciting when we debate discuss and are able to relate to the topics being discussed in class. I also understood the importance of giving examples through this class as that is the only way we are able to relate to the topic and make the person thoroughly understand what we are saying.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)