Emotion Vs Reason

Emotion is the force of life, it is why we do the things we do, it is the force that pushes us forward or freeze in place when least wanted. Emotions have a huge effect on people. They are present throughout our lives and influence our decisions daily. They can provide information about your circumstances in a quick way that does not involve a lot of thinking. So they can be a really valuable way of knowing. Since emotions affect decisions shape destiny, emotions play a huge role in our lives even if we do not acknowledge that.

How does emotion shape us as human beings? Is it by affecting our decisions? Or by giving us the will and drive to contribute to and appreciate the world around us? As Tony Robbins said “We live in a therapy culture

“Mankind are governed more by their feelings than by reason.” Is a quote by Samuel Adams, some people view that fact as a good thing, some believe it’s the opposite. In ancient times and still to this day a lot of philosophers believed that emotion is a hindrance to reason. One of them was Plato, who believed emotion and reason are two forces pulling us in opposite directions. And in some cases that could be true, since emotions can change our goals and desires in a fleeting moment, and can lead us to make choices that hurt us in long-term. This theory is proven when people act out in anger not keeping in mind rationality and all thoughts of reason. A real-life situation would be when a group of working class people started a riot against a café in London, trying to fight the gentrification of the neighborhood. Vandalizing the café and fighting its owners because of a long-lasting grudge against the upper class (although the owners started rose from nothing, they just have high prices). Most of these people would regret acting on a moment’s

Human emotions are complex and sometimes hard to understand and explain, but how did they develop to do their job. Based on the previous theory, Plato and all those other philosophers and psychologists only looked at the negative side of emotions in decision-making, they only researched the times emotions were not precise or accurate; an action started by anger, mercy and pity, crying when you are sad. They all seem random, unnecessary, and not in any way useful. But emotion is a very valuable asset when making decisions.

Emotion is deeply engraved in many forms of art, and like human behavior different emotions could give different outcomes. Art is created by emotion and it produces emotion in the watchers, the readers, and the audience. People communicate emotions and feelings through art, through pictures and unwritten stories, lasting for centuries. We find ancient art that still holds the emotions felt by the painters and sculptors.

In the end we can conclude that Darwin’s theory is much more accurate and more recent, especially since a lot of modern psychologists agree with his theory, like Paul Ekman and others. These other psychologists did research of their own to prove that emotions are shared throughout cultures