The Rationality And Moral Significance Of Emotions

This paper will examine Robert C. Solomon's Emotions and Choices article, to best identify what anger is, and to what extent a rational human being is responsible for their anger. Firstly, Solomon's argument must be described. A quick summation of Solomon's argument can be found in the following four points: Emotions are judgements, emotions are chosen, emotions serve a purpose, and emotions are rational.1 To quote Solomon, he explains that “Emotions are not occurrences, and do not happen to us. They ... may be chosen like an action.”2

Morality is a complicated matter, one which requires rationality, but is often driven by emotions. A person’s behavior is almost completely driven by emotions and often times emotions are what tell us when something might be wrong or right. Motivation also comes from emotions, so without feelings of anger, depression, frustration and the like we would hardly ever do anything in order to change things in our lives (Shafer-Landau, 2015, p. 258). Virtue ethics then is concerned with what makes a person virtuous versus vicious when it comes to making moral decisions, with emotions playing an important role. In this paper, I support Aristotle’s emphasis on emotions as a key to being virtuous, especially since emotions tell us what is important and motivate us to act (Shafer-Landau, 2015, p. 257-258).

The concept may sound reliable, however, there isn’t any set of ground rules to carry it out. That is to say as much of this sounds ideal in the article, however, doesn’t translate well to the real world. Frankly, emotions are hard to handle or even interpret because of many factors, especially since it one’s personal response on how they feel at a given time. The article proposes great points of views which provide many examples, especially of prominent people like Plato, Elias, and Durkheim. With these authors credited in, it provides the article with reliability. Furthermore, the article is well researched based on the findings and is logically

Human emotions can be considered a blessing. They enable people to show empathy and kindness to others; to comfort or help someone that needs it. To be human means to have emotions. However, it is important that people have control over their emotions. This is especially true with strong emotions or feelings. This essay will focus on three emotions in particular: anger, love, and hatred. These three feelings commonly cloud people’s judgements, which in turn, causes them to make bad decisions. Overall, making decisions based on emotions leads to negative outcomes.

Lunsford, Ruszkiewicz and Walters (2016)... Chapter two of our textbook showcases how powerful emotions are in human beings and how they can be used in everyday life for arguments. Chapter two of our textbook begins by explaining to the reader how to identify and read for Pathos by using an example of Senator Marco Rubio’s speech on repression in Venezuela. Senator Rubio’s example flows perfectly into the next section of chapter two where the textbook explains how we can use Pathos to “feel the pain” of the group you are trying to connect to. Lastly, the textbook introduces its most important point for using Pathos to sustain an argument: when passionately fighting for change: use common human terms; you may be vastly more successful than using

Haidt, J. (2003). The moral emotions. Handbook of affective sciences, 11, 852-870. Retrieved March 18, 2017 from http://faculty.virginia.edu/haidtlab/articles/alternate_versions/haidt.2003.the-moral-emotions.pub025-as-html.html

(b) What is emotionism? What evidence is there in support of epistemic emotionism? Provide 2 examples and explain them. Is there evidence for metaphysical emotionism?

The Mist Emotions play a very active role in our lives. While our whole life is built around emotion, many people do not understand what they are or how they develop. Every person has the ability to experience and express emotion. Along with this people have the ability to control themselves and make a choice whether it is regarding what they are feeling or what they are going to say or do. Since emotions are natural, the act of feeling is morally neutral.

For decades, moral psychology had been heavily influenced by theories emphasising on the role of reason and emotion in making moral judgements. Moral reasoning was thought to be defined as a slow, conscious and deliberative mental process that involved effortful and controllable manipulation of given information to arrive to a judgement (Haidt, 2001). On the other hand, moral emotions involved an intuitive emotional process that occurs impulsively and effortless without the person having conscious awareness of the mental processes that led to the concluded judgement (Haidt, 2001).

60). However, Nussbaum believes that the relationship between emotion and judgment is unassailable. To illustrate this, Nussbaum emphasizes that emotions have a directedness and perception toward an object, and she considers that “The way I see the person is itself intrinsic to the nature of my emotion” (p. 60). For instance, anger is not simply an impulse with no intentional description. Instead, it is directed at someone who hurts your feeling. Moreover, Nussbaum mentions that emotions and beliefs about their object are intimately and precisely connected. Although many philosophers argue whether beliefs are sufficient conditions, necessary conditions or both sufficient and necessary condition for the emotions, it is undeniable that emotions cannot be formed without the beliefs, and emotions are responsive to beliefs. Beyond that, Nussbaum admits that emotions do have some non-cognitive components, and in the normative sense, emotions are irrational, “but in no case will emotions be irrational in the sense of being totally cut off from cognition and judgment” (p. 63) Lastly, Nussbaum indicates that in the criminal law, assessing emotions has been the dominant tradition, which treats emotions as elements of a person’s character. In short, the importance of emotions is evident and emotions are not blind

As someone whose heart guides most of what I do, the role of feelings in ethics seemed very interesting to me. In the words of Jean Jacques Rousseau, “’what [we] feel is right is right, what [we] feel is wrong is wrong’” (Ruggiero 29). Rousseau’s argument implies an absence of an overarching moral regime (Ruggiero 29). As someone who is fascinated by the sciences, the reference to Carl Rogers’ study of humanistic psychology excited me. Rogers agrees with Rousseau that the true guiding principles come from our intuition and emotions (Ruggiero 29). Both scholars prioritize sensations and emotions over intellect (Ruggiero 29). I agree with Rousseau and Rogers because I find myself living my happiest life when I follow my initial thoughts and pursue

At eighteenth century, the cost of increasing development of capitalism is anomie: people chasing material life insanely even sacrifice others’ benefits. Because of this, Adam Smith, a successful philosopher and economist, released that the original morality principle was not suitable for that society anymore, and it needed to build another new theory system to suit the developing society. He wrote two masterpieces that proposed his ideas: The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which discusses the human development by analysing the human emotion, and The Wealth of Nations, which summarises the development of capitalism and it is also a foundation for today’s economy. This essay will analyse the self-interest, plays as a motivator role in morality and economy field, and benefits the development in that society. Moreover, will suggest some limitations of Smith’s idea.

Art has illustrated the Reason versus Emotion debate for centuries. Based on art history a good person lives according to reason.When emotion is present in an image it takes away from the subject matter and introduces personal feelings which distorts the image’s contextual meaning. This same principle can be applied to one’s personal life. Although art that portrays emotion is accepted by myself and others in the 21st century, I still believe that reason should dominate emotion. Art from the Renaissance period and the Neoclassical period will justify my response. Pieces that counteract my argument can be found in the Baroque period and the Rococo period. Both Baroque and Rococo periods use the artwork’s composition to focus on emotion instead of reason which is a bad decision. The time range at hand covers roughly 500 years and it clearly implies whom society considered to be a good person. Through this art work I will also address matters related to the sacred realm,politics and social order, and the natural world.

For many people, they live their lives based on emotions. Emotions of happiness, love, success, and many more, could possibly be the most satisfying feelings. Except we commonly experience unpleasant emotions. There are emotions of anger, hatred, sadness, and disgrace. A very important question in the understanding of the human mind and highly related to cognitive science, is how do these emotions affect human cognition and the impact on our abilities to be rational? To tackle this question, we need to understand what emotions are, but not solely in the manner we are all familiar with, we need to understand them from a cognitive nature involving our physiology, psychology, and environment. Cognition, according to the Oxford definition

Why do we feel? We feel based on cause and effect relationship between people and their environment. This relationship has decided how we make judgments and critical thoughts. In Barbara Frederickson 's “love 2.0” she explains the chemical imbalance that happens when humans are loved or falling in love, these same rules of love can be applied to emotions in general. In Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Power of Context” he explains the change in human behavior based on the environments that they are in. Together these two texts can explain how emotions affect human judgment and critical thought. The cause and effect relationship between people and their environment allows for emotion to play a part in