Emotions in the Pursuit of Knowledge

People’s emotions are not trustable in the pursuit of knowledge. When making decisions, people naturally refer to their emotions to help them. Emotions are not only physical, but cognitive as well. Physically, emotions can be shown by facial expression, and body language. For example, someone who is sad may have a frown upon their face, and may be slouched over. People’s emotions are affected by their beliefs, and emotions affect their beliefs due to the cognitive side of emotions. The cognitive qualities of emotions are inborn, meaning they are not learnt. The mental aspect of emotions can change due to a person’s beliefs. This means if someone’s beliefs changed, there could be a change in the corresponding emotion as well. An example of this is that someone may feel fear because they have a history test next period. They believe the test is going to be difficult, and they fear failure. Once the test is passed out and the person see’s it isn’t as hard as they had believed, their fear goes away. This shows that the change in belief can change the corresponding emotion.

There are multiple reasons why emotions cannot always be trusted in the pursuit of knowledge. Passion plays a big role in emotions. When a person has a great amount of passion towards something, they tend to argue their beliefs more strongly, and not listen to the counterclaims. For instance, two very passionate athletes could argue about which sport is better. The soccer player will strongly argue why soccer is so much better, whereas the basketball player will do the same for basketball. Neither will listen to the counterclaims because of their strong passion for their sport. Their emotions take over, and don’t allow them to listen to the opposing argument. Peopl...

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...nly one person instead. Using reason, the person could come to the conclusion that one death is better than five, but emotion also plays a role in this decision. Having to interact in the situation can change the decision, and the person’s view on the situation. When searching for knowledge, emotions make it so humans have the energy ti take part in intellectual activities. Along with that, emotions give people the potential to discover new ideas. Those with passion in their work, are more motivated, and able to gain more knowledge because of this. Emotions can be a source of knowledge for some things that reason cannot prove. Reason can only take people so far, until emotion is needed, such as making a decision between two rational options. All in all, there are arguments that show emotions are trustable in the pursuit of knowledge, and can be a source of knowledge.