Emotion
Guiding Questions…
How do emotions interfere with
how we view the world?
To what extent can we control
our emotions?
How closely are reason and
emotion related?
Primary Emotions
 According to psychologists, there are 6 basic
emotions.
Happiness
Sadness
Fear
Anger
Surprise
Disgust
Which basic emotion is
displayed?
Which basic emotion is
displayed?
Which basic emotion is
displayed?
Which basic emotion is
displayed?
Are emotions innate or learned?
 No matter what country someone is from,
they can identify the emotion on
someone’s face.
 Children that are blind and deaf are able
to show these emotions.
 Do different cultures have different rules about the
extent to which one should display one’s emotions?
James-Lange Theory
 The idea that emotions are essentially physical
in nature, and bodily changes come before,
and cause emotional changes.
 If you remove the physical symptoms the
corresponding emotions disappear.
 The theory also suggests that is you mimic the
appropriate physical symptoms you can
generate the corresponding emotion. (If you
smile you feel happy!)
Imagine the following…
 You are about to take your Examen
Quimestral.
 You are feeling very nervous.
 Your mouth is dry, you have a sinking
feeling in the pit of your stomach, the
palms of your hands are sweaty, and you
want to go to the washroom.
 Now… remove each of these physical
symptoms one by one. What is left of
your Exam nerves?
Enjoy!
Empathy
 The identification with and understanding of
another’s situation, feelings, and motives.
 James-Lange Theory also suggests that humans
can empathize with other people’s feelings.
 Example: If someone explains some problems
they are having, you may say, “I’m so sorry!”
You may find yourself instinctively adopting
their depressed tone and even posture.
The role of beliefs…
 The James-Lange Theory can be argued
against, because our emotions have a
mental aspect, as well as a physical
aspect.
 Our emotions can be affected by our
beliefs.
 Social Emotions: emotions such as
ambition, embarrassment, envy,
gratitude, guilt, jealousy, pride, shame
and sympathy
Emotions as an obstacle to
knowledge
 Emotions are likely to influence the way we see and
think about the world.
 Strong emotions can sometimes distort the 3 other
“ways of knowing”.
 Perception: “love is blind”
 Emotional Colouring: the idea that our
perception of things can be hindered by strong
emotions
 Reason: If you hold your beliefs with too much
passion, it can prevent you from being open-minded.
 Language: Strong emotions can cause a person to
use negative and/or emotive language
Rationalizing a belief system
 The tendency to rationalize can lead a person to develop
an illusory but self-confirming belief system.
 Example: Henry has an emotional prejudice against
immigrants. His prejudice will probably lead to the
following…
 Biased perception: He notices only lazy immigrants and
overlooks the working ones,
 Fallacious reasoning: He makes hasty generalizations
from his own limited experience.
 Emotive Language: He uses “strong and untrue
language” to make conclusions about immigrants.
(Emotive language is when someone uses words
to purposely create an emotional impact)
A world without emotions???
 Since some emotions can distort our ability to
think clearly and behave intelligently, you might
think that the ideal situation would be one in which
we did not have any emotions at all and could look
at the world in a balanced and objective way. In
ancient times, such a belief was held by a group of
philosophers known as the stoics.
 Stoicism: a philosophy that promoted the lack of
emotions
 Apathy: a lack of feeling, emotion, or interest/
“without passion”
Emotions as a source of
knowledge.
 It is difficult to imagine a meaningful human life without
any emotions.
 If you describe someone as being ‘cold and
unemotional’, you do not literally mean they have no
emotions, but they have less emotions then the average
person.
 Some people that seem to be lacking in emotion, are
actually “in control” of their emotions.
 Rational Fool: a person that is indifferent to sensation
and actually has no emotions. (due to brain damage)
The relation between reason and
emotion.
 Reason and emotion are
closely related to one
another.
 Rather than think of
reason and emotion as
completely different
“either-or” things, it
makes more sense to say
there is a continuum
running from the very
rational to the very
emotional.
Intuitions
 Definition: a type of feeling that is effortless and
immediate; an automatic feeling or thought
 There are a variety of types of intuitions, so we will
break them into 3 different types:
 Core intuitions
 Subject-specific intuitions
 Social intuitions
Core Intuitions
 In an abstract sense, it could be argued that all of
our knowledge is based on intuition.
 Reason and Perception ultimately depend on
intuition.
 Reason: The laws of logic are the starting point
for all our reasoning. In order to prove these
laws, we often say that they are intuitively
obvious.
 Perception: This is an important source of
knowledge, but we cannot always be sure on
the evidence of our senses alone that life is not
a dream. Yet we have an overwhelmingly
strong intuition that we are actually
experiencing reality.
Subject-specific intuitions
 We sometimes use intuition to justify our knowledge
claims in various areas of knowledge, but this can
sometimes pose problems.
 We must remember that intuitions (like common sense)
can vary from person to person, so use them with
caution.
 Debugging intuition: removing the flaws of intuition
Social Intuitions
 We tend to put a lot of
trust in our intuitions
about other people and
we pride ourselves on
being good judges of
character.
 However, the evidence
suggests that our
intuitions are not as
good as we like to think.
Natural and Educated Intuitions
Natural Intuitions
Educated Intuitions
 Expert opinion can often
be determined by
intuitions.
 Example: A master chess
player
 These do not always help
us understand the world.
 They will survey a
chessboard and
intuitively see the right
move to make.
 Their intuition is a
combination of raw
talent and background
knowledge.
How reliable is intuition?
 Educated intuition is generally more reliable than natural
intuition.
 Since good intuitions are not always reliable, we must
test them against other sources of knowledge.
 If your intuitions coincide with reason and experience
and other people’s intuitions, then it makes more sense
to trust them than if they do not.
 Example: When deciding between two University’s to
attend, reason and intuition may contradict one another.
In the end, most people tend to go with their intuitions.