can emotions be rational?

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