Reason and Emotion: Sharpened Tools for Moral Justification - Literature review Example

Reason and Emotion: Sharpened Tools for Moral Justification Justification for a moral decision will require that the material realities of our well reasoned judgment are carefully weighed against the sacrifice made by our emotional appeal. Ethical guidelines give us a formula to act by and as such are a part of reasoning. Still, many ethical decisions will lie in the gray area outside the well defined borders of rules. Reason and emotion always play an integral part of any moral decision that we make. Can a moral decision be made that is void of either reason or emotion? The answer is a resounding no. Both components are necessary for a decision based on our individual morality. In fact, they are so intricately entwined that they are equally necessary in the formulation and the implementation of our morality. To analyze the impact that our ways of knowing has on our decision making process, its important to define the terms and illustrate the question. We arrive at truth through our perceptions, language, reason, and emotions. Perception is what we feel, see, hear , and sense from the world around us. It gives us experience and information about our environment. Language is used to transfer knowledge and create the imagery that is necessary for memory or qualification of an object or an event. Reason is the process of logically reducing a set of facts to a workable axiom or truth. Emotion is the inexplicable feeling we have towards an action or a person. "Emotions make the perception of other humans as unique entities possible" (Birkhead 57). While reasoning can tell us what any given person can expect to earn, only emotion can tell us what they are worth. Reason is generally believed to be the objective decision making process used in science and mathematics. It can be measured by accurate perception and articulated by the appropriate language. Emotions are the feelings we have that construct our social preference, social norms, ethical standards, and shared values. Still, these norms and standards are arrived at through a careful calculation about what is good for the family or community. Luntley argues that, "If humour and morality were just a matter of how things strike us, not of how things are, then there would be nothing to argue about in these cases" (30). Appropriate decision making and moral judgment is a balanced mix of reason and emotion. It can be argued that the process of making a moral decision is different from the justification for the decision. However, I would contend that the justification is simply the articulation of the decision making steps. Decision making demands that we use language to create the images necessary to reach a moral decision. The process has already been put into words. By verbalizing the process we justify our decision. From this viewpoint, making the decision and justifying it are simply two acts that are identical in substance and quality. A moral decision that uses reason without emotion is a certain path to unethical behavior. Professional guidelines can direct a physician to avoid unethical behavior, but in isolation can overlook key components of the situation and ignore the emotional consequences of a decision. A doctor may falsify an insurance claim in an effort to save the patients life. The doctor justifies his behavior and decision with the emotion weight that they assign to the patients life. Reason, by itself, would have turned the critical patient away. Reason alone produces impartial judgment, but the influence of emotion satisfies our need to account for our social relationships and gives our judgment its ethical value (Birkhead 58). Without the impact of emotion, the decision would have resulted in an outcome that the doctor would have considered unthinkable and unethical. Removing reason from the decision making process can lead to behavior that takes an unintended toll on everyone involved in the decision. Everyone is familiar with the adages of blinded by love or blind faith. Each case portrays an image of someone who has cast aside reason and followed their heart. The use of the term blind indicates the persons unwillingness or inability to see all the facts that present themselves. Failure to include reason as a component of the process can lead to group think, peer pressure, and under-developed critical thinking. Without reason, people worship advertising, inappropriate heroes, and cult religious movements. According to Egan, "American culture puts impossible strains on people by having an ethical rhetoric that is in constant conflict with other economic, social, personal imperatives" (123). Reason is the process that regulates our behavior and keeps it within limits that are acceptable to our own morality. It is seemingly possible to remove either reason or emotion from the decision making process, but it may be only an illusion. A scientist may evaluate data that was collected by instruments in a rigorously designed experiment with the calculating eye of pure reason. It is also as likely that someone could give a small donation to charity simple because they felt like they should. They would not critically examine the destination of the money or the impact that it would have personally. In either case it seems that reason or emotion can be removed from the process. In fact, bureaucratic systems are designed specifically to remove the influence of emotion from the decision. Likewise the scientific method is formulated to be purely objective. Our basic instincts, such as a fight or flight response, are based on emotion and do not require an analysis of the situation by reason. It is apparent that reason and emotion are two distinct ways of knowing. Morality is the impact, cost, and sacrifice that is taken in regard to our social relationships. It involves the aspects of regret, empathy, unfairness, and social preference. While reason and emotion can seem to exist apart in the most basic of decisions, they are inseparable in moral decisions. Science has recently discovered areas of the brain that weigh the social consequences of a moral decision. The Economist reported on this research and stated, "…it seems that the decision on how to act is not a single, rational calculation of the sort that moral philosophers have generally assumed is going on, but a conflict between two processes, with one (the emotional) sometimes able to override the other…" ("Posing the right question"). If the brain is using a thought process to carefully consider the moral implications of our actions then it may be an extension of reason or at least a necessary component. While it can be shown that both reason and emotion are necessary for making a sound moral judgment, it is more difficult to weigh their relative importance as equal partners. Emotion and morality are increasingly being shown to be a function of distinct areas of the brain. According to Brown, "It is becoming increasingly difficult to find an area of human cognitive, affective, or social functioning that has not already been shown to have correlates in unique patterns of brain functioning". (8). Philosophers have separated the mind from the brain and assigned the unique human quality of emotion to our spiritual realm. However, emotion may be inseparable from rational reason and both are critical to all decision making. Our ability to reason and the emotional judgments about social importance combine to form our ethical decisions and are both critical to our moral justification. Neither one can exist in any form without the other. Because reason and emotion can not operate independently they are of equal necessity when making a justification for a moral decision. Asking whether emotion or reason are more necessary in the process is like asking which organ is most necessary to human body. Is the brain more important than the heart? They are both of equal and critical importance. They can not be separated and they can not function in the isolation of independence. Every decision we make is guided by reason and emotion. Technical decisions which seemingly are based on rational data that was obtained through an objective process are impacted by emotion. The emotional content may be why we examine the data and why we assign a given importance to specific information. While we may view this as strictly rational reasoning, it is guided by emotion. Likewise, our emotions are crafted by careful consideration of the social consequences and benefits of acting in a particular manner. We reason our emotions. To sum it up, reason and emotion are interdependent components of our moral decision making process. One can not exist without the other and are both critical components of the outcome. Even the most rudimentary decisions that we attribute to objective reasoning are impacted and influenced by our emotional mind. Emotions are well crafted decisions that we have made and are a conscious result of our free will to feel a certain way. The most instinctual reactions that are considered primal have their roots in the rational brain. Emotion can not exist in the absence of reason. They are fused together and are of equal necessity when we make a justification for our moral decisions. Works Cited Birkhead, D. Rev. of Poetic justice: The literary imagination and public life by M. Nussbaum. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 12.1 (1997): 57-59. Brown, W. S. The Knotty Implications of Recent Neuroscience Research. Lecture presented at the Fuller Integration Lectures of the Council on Christian Colleges and Universities. 17 Feb 2005. Egan, K. Rev. of The Moral & Spiritual Crisis in Education: A Curriculum for Justice & Compassion in Education by D.E. Purpel. Curriculum Inquiry, 20.1 (1990): 121-128. Luntley, M. Reason, Truth, and Self: Getting to Know the Truth About Postmodernism. London GBR: Routledge, 1995. "Posing the Right Question." The Economist (2007). 7 Feb. 2008 . Read More