Knowledge Emotion as a Way

¶ … Knowledge

Emotion as a Way of Knowing

Emotion is very often differentiated from reason and many people argue that reason is superior to emotion. The reason people argue that is because emotion involves feelings such as sadness, anger, frustrations which may hinder one's rational thinking. Some philosophers described emotions as "animal spirits" and "confused perceptions" (Solomon). But I argue in this paper that, while emotions can limit our proper judgments, emotion is one way of knowing things and that without emotions we can never understand certain things in life. Some real-life experiences cannot be understood or known without experiencing them. In other words, we can only feel some experiences with our emotions.

Emotion is essential in pursuing knowledge. Emotion is a very powerful characteristic that affects our behavior, shapes our thoughts, and directs our pursuit of knowledge (Diploma Program). In that sense, emotion is directly linked to knowledge. Let's take curiosity. It is an emotion. However, it motivates us to gain knowledge. We are curious to learn and know more. Without curiosity we might never try to learn and know things. Emotion also influences our behavior and thus affects the way we learn things. In other words, what we learn and how we learn something often depends on our emotional feelings. In the same way, emotion shapes our thoughts. So, the quality of knowledge we gain also depends on the kind of emotions we feel at a given time. Therefore, I believe, knowledge cannot be pursued and gained without emotions.

It is important to acknowledge that emotion at times can be a barrier to gaining knowledge (Solomon). For example, a person may not be emotionally ready for a college. Another person may be too haughty (an emotional feeling) and not listen to an advice given by a presumed "junior." A college student may not concentrate well because of sadness (an emotional feeling). And someone's insight and ability to judge may be hindered by the feelings of anger or grudge. There are too many cases to think of when we want to understand how emotion can impede our pursuit of knowledge. However, such a problem exists within the realm of other ways of knowing, including reason. By solely relying on reason, for instance, it is impossible to understand such experiences as love, happiness, and many other emotional feelings. Therefore, the limiting nature of emotion should not deflect us from the fact that emotion is a vehicle for gaining knowledge ("Emotion").

By looking at people's behavior, we sometimes wonder why people sometimes behave so irrationally or unreasonably. If we try to understand their behavior by relying solely upon reason, we cannot understand them. People sometimes behave irrationally because of their emotional feelings. A perfect example in this case would be love relationships. Why do people involved in love relationships behave sometimes strangely? Why do they keep changing their minds? Why do such people do things they once said they would have never done? Why do these people keep repeating their "mistakes" over and over? And finally, why do these people sometimes seem to enjoy suffering although under normal circumstances they are not necessarily masochists? A person who has not experienced love would be hard pressed to answer these questions. Without experiencing the feeling of love in an emotional way, we can never understand it. For a person who has experienced love, none of the questions I am asking here would seem strange. In other words, certain things cannot be understood without emotion.