Emotions and the way we make right decisions.

I agree with the psychologist, Peter Goldie, that this topic about emotions has two different sides. To start with, an emotion is “a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one’s circumstance, mood, or relationships with others.” It plays a vital role in our daily lives in several ways. We can say that our emotions are trustworthy by offering a good source of knowledge. For example, if a boy and a girl are having a discussion and the boy is uncomfortable, then the girl may learn, through her emotions, that the boy is shy. On the other hand, as described in the TOK textbook, ‘emotions could easily be obstacles to knowledge’ (p.151). For example, there is emotional coloring. This is a type of emotional bias, in which you exclude the awareness of something in order to focus on a particular aspect. An example could be that when you detest somebody, you will see only that person’s bad side. However, if two people have a strong affinity towards each other, then they might only look at each other’s lovely side. This example of emotional coloring clearly shows that emotion could affect the way you receive (or perceive) knowledge about someone’s looks or characteristics. Furthermore, another example that shows how emotions are sometimes obstacles to knowledge is when reason plays a role in cementing the situation as well. For instance, if one is attached to the idea that ‘soccer is the best sport in the world’, then one is more unlikely to be open-minded about this topic, and will even find reasons to defend this point of view (known as reason skewing). Another consideration is the role emotions play in the way we talk; language. For instance, “a person in the grip of a powerful emotion is likely to use slanted and emotive language,” (p.151). These various examples of emotions explicitly show that emotions help us make ‘rational’ judgements. 

Intuition could also be considered as a type of emotion that may be a source of knowledge. Intuition and emotion are linked together. There are three types of intuitions. Primarily, there is the core intuition, which is the main intuition about the universe and the world we are living on. This type of intuition may exist on the decision we make many times in our lives. For instance is one says that a six year old boy says that he has travelled all around the world by driving a bicycle, then one would have a strong intuition that what the six year old boy has said is wrong and that it is impossible for someone at a very young age to travel all around the world riding a bicycle. In my opinion, this is the most important type of intuition that leads us to be differentiate between what wrong or right. Secondly, there is the ‘subject-specific intuitions’. This type of intuition is when it occurs around the area of sciences and other ways of knowing. Intuitions could sometimes be false and leading you to a wrong piece of information. For example, “the desk I am sitting at strikes me as an obstinately solid object, but according to the physicists it consists mainly of empty space. Many of the mainstream ideas of modern physics – such as quantum mechanics – are so contrary to our ordinary ways of thinking that even physicists struggle to make sense of them,” (p.161). This example clearly shows that intuitions do not always serve as a source of knowledge. I think that this type of intuition is the most confusing one since it sometimes leads you to a different understanding of the topic and therefore leading you to be wrong. Finally, there is the social intuition, which is the way we look at others. This type of intuition may lead to false acquired knowledge since every single person has their own way of seeing one another. This is why friends and enemies exist at the same time. In my opinion, intuitions could be very useful sources of knowledge especially when faced with danger, trying to make rational decisions. However, intuitions might become tricky when trying to think deeply about a situation such as in physics.

http://zapaydin.edublogs.org/2013/02/20/can-we-trust-our-emotions-in-the-pursuit-of-knowledge/

           The link above is one that shows the post of a person from another blog. I agree with this person that emotions could sometimes be very unreliable. This is due to the fact that the situation that one is in could have a role in determining your emotion, which could mislead you. This person says: “when the situation being evaluated is knowledge or fact-based, it is usually best not to let emotions interfere, because the pursuit of knowledge is about discovering information that will benefit not only an individual but an entire population.” This person is totally right on this point because people usually tend to link their emotions with fact-based knowledge, which is not a very good idea. This is because the emotion just keeps on backing your invalid argument instead of being open-minded.

          While commenting on this, a question came up to my mind, which is: Could reason and emotion be linked together and generate a rationale solution to the situation? In my opinion, yes, reason and emotion can be linked together in order to generate a rationale solution to the situation one is in. This is because I think that the reason side of your mind plays a larger important role in one’s decisions than one’s emotional side.