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Is Ethics A Matter Of The Head Or Heart Essay

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Is ethics more a matter of the head or heart? Ethics is a subject that deals with people’s thoughts and actions, and whether or not these thoughts and actions are considered good or bad. The head represents the Way of Knowledge that is reason, while the heart represents the Way of Knowledge that is emotion. Many factors influence ethical thinking, and the use of reason and emotions are two of these factors that I am going to discuss. Many ethical decisions rely on logical thinking rather than emotional thinking, which is what I am going to establish in the following paragraphs. Logical thinking is more reliable than emotional thinking when dealing with ethics because it does not take into account any personal bias towards a situation. I will consider only these two specific Ways of Knowledge when evaluating whether or not ethics is more a matter of the head or the heart. Before exploring the Area of Knowledge that is ethics, and the Ways of Knowledge that are reason and emotion, defining them is necessary. Reason is the ability to use logical thinking to come to a decision about a certain situation. Reason is the ability to understand …show more content…

First, an individual’s choices and decisions need to be analysed before coming to ethical knowledge. Second, there are faulty assumptions made when dealing with the methodology of ethics, and so these assumptions can limit the certainty we have in our ethical knowledge. This is significant because it means a person cannot determine whether a decision is completely ethical without understanding the full story. Also, an adult may have different views on ethics compared to a child. The adult may understand that some decisions deemed unethical have to be made in order to benefit the greater good, while a child may try to help everyone at the same time. In conclusion, reason is relied on more than emotion when dealing with the Area of Knowledge that is

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