We, human beings, are most of the time depend on our emotion to take action.
I am wondering whether this is reliable because sometimes when we take action based on our emotion may cause some negative outcomes. So how do we justify this?
Also does our emotion affect by our language. If so how?
Comments
3 comments:
Henok,
I think it would help if you gave us a real example of a situation in which emotion has a strong influence on action. And I mean a REAL example - not one that has just been made up.
This would help to focus the discussion.
Think about the following - it might help in identifying a good example and subsequent discussion:
Two ways of knowing indicated in the TOK course are emotion and reason. When deciding how to act, we can use our power of reason (ie engage logic), but unfortunately reason/logic only provides us with alternatives, and no easy way to decide between them. In order to decide which of these alternatives we should follow, we need the immediacy of our emotional reactions to these alternatives. We need to feel what is right rather than deduce it.
Now is this true? If so, to what extent? What do you think? Now we really need an example...!
Sorry for dominating this thread, but there are so many interesting questions that need development. Henok also asked:
"Also does our emotion affect by our language. If so how?"
If this means that our emotional experience is somehow influenced by the language(s) that we know, then that would count as a rather bold example of what has been called "linguistic determinism" - that the language that we speak somehow determines the reality (dangerous word!) in which we live. A common analogy is to claim that language forms the "rails" on which the "train" of our lives runs!
But is there any truth in this? Are there cultures and linguistic groups that have different portfolios of emotions? Joy, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust - aren't these feelings familiar to all human beings everywhere? Or is it just that in some languages, for some reason, certain emotional feelings are better represented in the language?
A common example is the German word "Schadenfreude", which means taking pleasure in the misfortune of others. But does the fact that there is no single word for this in English mean that those of us who speak English are somehow deficient in this emotion? Does the fact that German-speakers have this word say anything meaningful about them? Another commonly cited example is "saudade" from Portuguese - no direct translation. Can you think of any others?
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