John O as promised –
When we are younger we are driven by emotion. As we come to age we see the importance of reason and the role it should play in our lives. Yet it is the balance of the two which is the mark of a human being. If we are driven by emotion but capable of reason then it is true that both of these influence our behavior, these two halves therefore make up the whole.
I know we are emotionally charged creatures and emotion tends to be a big driving force. My argument is that a balanced human being (please take note of this word for it is the backbone of my argument) who is able to take a step outside of a situation and see it from all sides and allow rational thinking to dominate yet take emotion into consideration is sure to make a sound judgment. It is only once we have allowed ourselves to detach from the situation that makes this possible.
Reason and not emotion leads us to thinking about cause and effect. Reason is associated with human activities such as art, philosophy, science, maths. Emotion and reason are like twins who from sharing the womb cannot live life apart.
We must remember emotion is an automatic function it leads to poor decision making and snap judgments. It is child like in that it searches for pleasure, it does not understand delayed gratification it will always look towards happiness and naturally steers us from pain. (It is like America in world war two, it cares only for itself and its own gain). Negative emotions will play its role in our decision making process but what if that which emotion tries to steer us from is actually for our greater good.
Alone emotions are a good guiding tool they should be regarded as a wild unpredictable child and should not alone have full control over situations. It is reason which is something we have to consciously tap into to make use of when trying to understand a world outside of our own.
A combination of reason and rationality is the true mark of a human being.
Plato
-Happiness was achieved if ‘reason subdued the primitive passions’
This is part of the process of balance so I do not see it in the same light as Plato, for him emotion needed to be extinguished completely to let reason rule. Plato describes in his Chariot Allegory two horses pulling a chariot in separate directions. Reason is the horse of good breed while emotion the wild horse.
Plato does show us two separate contradictory sides of ourselves yet he fails to see that these horses cannot be pulling in opposing directions as they are both searching for a means to the same end. So they can not be going in different directions.
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/reviewofbooks_article/10357 – reason nestled in emotion and dependent on it
The above article depicts emotion to drive reason yet does not deny the importance of reason.
As I said balance is the backbone of this argument. It relies on the premise that the individual is balanced as only a balanced human being can step outside of emotion and not get caught up in it. Only a balanced human understands the importance of reason. A balanced human being uses opposing sides of self together.
I think therefore I write 