Are Reasons and Emotion Equally Necessary in Justifying Moral Decisions - Essay Example

TOK ESSAY 2) Are reasons and emotion equally necessary in justifying moral decisions? Theory of Knowledge (TOK) discusses how a is able to know something. Reasons and emotions are both important in justifying any moral decisions although some philosophers feel that emotions have no moral worth. Some others feel that emotions like compassion and sympathy are essential to arrive at the right decision. Every emotion has an importance in human life and it is difficult to segregate between good and bad emotions. Thus it is difficult to determine whether reasons and emotions are equally necessary because the answer depends on so many factors. These factors include society, religion, culture and education. Reason is an important way of learning according to the TOK. Reason refers to the faculty of human mind that creates and operates with abstract concepts (Wikipedia). Reasoning is the technique used by most philosophers to arrive at the truth. In the story The Foolish Friend1 the king groomed a monkey to be his most trustworthy and natural companion. One day when the king asked the monkey to take ensure nothing disturbed while he slept, the monkey kept strict vigilance. After some time the monkey found a bee hovering over his master and disturbing him. The monkey could not allow this common creature to bite the king before his eyes. Blinded by anger, the monkey drew his sword and struck down the bee with a single blow. Unfortunately, the same blow also split the kings head. No explanation given by the monkey made any effect on anyone. He was shunned by everyone. This experience made them learn from reasoning that "It is better to have a clever enemy than a foolish friend." Thus reasons help to analyze the situation deeply and to take decisions accordingly. Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone” said Ayn Rand2. Emotion comes from person’s heart like the relation between mother and her child. She does not look for a reason to love him or her. In some societies, emotion has stronger effect than reasons. For example, in uneducated societies such as villages and small town people do not prefer to make analysis looking for reasons, instead they prefer to take to first decisions come to their minds or according to their cultures without further thinking. In countries like Syria, people react according to what their culture says. On the other hand, people who are educated and live in urban areas try to find reasons for their decisions and relations. The emotions arent always immediately subject to reason, but they are always immediately subject to action” said William James3. For instance, the Turkish people kiss the hand of their elders (man and women) and let the hand touch their foreheads. Such a gesture may seem strange to those in the developed nations but such actions have no reasoning. The Japanese greet each other with a bow which is strange for the Turkish people. Here emotions rule the traditions and reasoning has no place. A judge cannot allow emotions to rule his decisions as they have to be backed by reasoning and evidence. Failure to impose capital punishment is considered morally wrong. The emotions that come up, when the issue of capital punishment arises are revenge and anger. Revenge according to Byron (2002) is the activity of returning harm for harm and usually takes a particular person or a group as the object4. Secondly, revenge is swift and motivated by anger or fury and people have an inclination to take law into their hands. Hence, emotions cannot be the only ground on which the punishment can or should be based. When the reasons for capital punishment are considered, the decision is justified. Reasoning is essential because it concerns someone’s life. An emotional decision based on revenge would be more of a personal attack but retribution is for the good of the society and ideally proportional to the crime. Deterrence and concern for the feelings of the victims’ family are other reasons that support capital punishment which have to be given due consideration and without retribution, none of these is possible. Thus, reason and emotion are equally necessary in justifying moral decisions. The decision of stealing someone’s car is proved to be wrong as it is justified through reason and emotion. It would upset the owner of the car and lead to feelings of guilt for the thief. Besides, as far as reasons are concerned, it violates the rights of the owner of the car, and also poses a risk for the thief as he is likely to be caught and punished. Thus, the emotion has been supported by reason before the decision not to steal takes place. Religion plays an important role in making moral decision for some people. Religions can generally be split in to two groups. People in one group believe in one God as the creator of sky, heaven and hell. This group includes mainly Christians, Muslims and Jewish. People in the other group people in materialistic God that can be seen and touched. This group includes Hinduism, Buddhism. In the same group, there are some common aspects and many differences. Regarding the reason and emotion for example in Christianity, they do not think much of the reasons why we should believe in Jesus. They are more emotional in their beliefs no one dare to ask the Pope about any explanation. They just accept what the Pope says without asking for any reason. On the other hand, Islam as a religion encourages its followers to learn and ask more questions about the faith. Emotions and experiences influence one’s belief and consequently one’s knowledge. Once I misunderstood the rope as the snake in the darkness and became scared. In the darkness I was gripped with fear. The next morning, initially I was not willing to accept that it was merely rope and not snake and when I did realize it, I felt foolish. It was a fear of the unknown. It was the fear (an emotion) of the unknown due to which he refused to accept that it was the rope at night even when the eyes saw it as rope in the light. No amount of reasoning would have made me believe that it was rope when I touched it at night. Reasons might just highlight the relevant data but without emotions no decisions are justified. For instance, making a statement like “abortion is morally wrong” is an expression of one’s feelings and emotions but it has to be backed by reason to justify that abortion is wrong. Abortion is a personal, life-changing and traumatic decision that every woman has to make and depends on several factors since pregnancy can be voluntary or involuntary. Some reason out that abortion is safer than carrying pregnancy to full term but at the same time mothers with unwanted births suffer from higher levels of depression and lower levels of happiness than mothers with wanted births. Emotions have an intimate connection with how we behave and we also have mixed emotions5. Since the emotions are changeable reasoning helps to take the right moral decision. Merely saying that abortion is morally wrong is an emotional statement. When supported by reasoning, the moral decision can be reversed in favor of the people concerned. Theory of knowledge thus suggests that both emotions and reasons are equally necessary in justifying moral decision. In some instances, both have to be included whereas some require merely emotions like religion, whereas others like decisions concerning the society require the application of both reasons and emotion. Read More