Are Reason and Emotions Equally Necessary in Justifying a Moral Decision - Essay Example

Are reason and Emotion equally necessary in justifying a moral decision? Moral Philosophy or Ethics deals with the analytical aspects of human decisions which are dependent on reason and emotion. Its major divisions, namely metaethics, normative ethics and applied ethics interrogate the psychological and pragmatic aspects of moral decisions from their conception, theorizing and application. A moral decision is the outcome of an objective evaluation of situations where both reason and emotion are to be taken into account. A decision based merely on either emotion or reason is apt to be flawed, since that would lack either comprehensive understanding or sufficient involvement. For a balanced view of the situation and an effective solution to it, both emotion and reason are instrumental to a moral decision. Reason and emotion are deceptively simple concepts. The varying significance given to these concepts by moral philosophers like David Hume and Immanuel Kant has attributed a level of sophistication to them, which may lead to misconceptions. One has to decide whether reason and emotion are independent entities. In fact, both of them are inter-linked and inter-dependant. An emotionally charged mind may not completely be devoid of traces of reason. Otherwise, people would forget the world altogether in their moments of emotional heights. Likewise, there is no instance of a thought or act of reason which is not informed and influenced by emotion. However, the varying degrees of emotion and reason may lead to situations where the thought or act is understood as influenced solely by either one of them. Moral decisions are demanded when there is a conflict which is to be solved in individual or social life. The decision may aggravate or alleviate the conflict, based on the emphasis given to either reason or emotion in the process of materializing it. Though it is often argued that moral decisions are the outcome of personal intuitions, contemporary social theorists and philosophers acknowledge the part played by the society in shaping moral standards, and thereby decisions. However, moral standards are not universal in nature. It is easily observable that individual and societal moral standards vary. In the political sphere, one government’s moral decisions may offend or upset another government. In the personal level, no two people will have the same moral standard to react uniformly to a common situation. The moral decisions taken by individuals are heavily influenced by their varied life experiences and personal preferences and prejudices. My subjective reaction to situations where a moral decision is to be taken is always influenced by a combination of emotion and reason. I had an unforgettable experience in which I had to take a decision regarding the well-being of my friend Sarah. However, my decision had led to some unforeseen events which made me rethink the validity of a reasoning that could apply for all in the same level. Sarah was known to have quit the rehab a few weeks prior to the incident. All her close friends, including me, knew that she was clinically depressed. Her father was quite unapproachable and he did not like the idea of her friends staying with her overnight. My relationship with her father was irredeemably antagonistic and I was literally scared of him. My initial decision was to stay at another friend’s home, but after a little bit of partying during which she took some drugs, Sarah demanded me to stay with her. She was visibly inebriated, screaming and misbehaving at times. She forced me to accompany her home and would not let me leave. I was scared of being found out by her father. I was really confused as to stay with her or leave quietly once she fell asleep. I had no choice but to act as if I will stay with her the whole night, because she was threatening that she would commit suicide if left alone. I was worried about her father finding this out, which would make things worse. In the meantime, she went to the bathroom and was quiet for a long time. I got scared and went in to see what was happening, and found to my shock that she was trying to cut her wrist with a blade. I stopped her from that and shouted at her for being stupid. I lost control over my emotions for a while and forced her back to the bedroom. All these did make me so uncomfortable in the house and I felt like leaving at the earliest. I asked her to leave so that I could leave afterwards. I knew that she just pretended to be asleep, but I left anyway. However, I met someone at the reception and asked him to give her father an anonymous call asking him to go check on his daughter. I did this because I thought she may again try to commit suicide, and I felt that I had the responsibility to make sure that her life was safe. This happened around 7 am, and I took the first train home. Sarah called me later saying that it was the end of our friendship, and that she was not going to talk to me again. Apparently, her father was annoyed to be woken up and when he checked on her, she was just sleeping alright. She thinks it was not proper that I left her all alone that night, and believes that her decision to let me stay with her was right. However, I still feel that all my decisions were correct. I accompanied her home since I knew that she needed emotional support, prevented her from suicide, and left because I knew that she was attention-seeking, and my further presence was in no way going to help her. Moreover, there was the risk of being found by her father, which would have led to further problems. I did whatever was possible to make sure that her life was not in danger. The aspects of reason and emotion involved in the decisions of Sarah and me varied with regard to personal differences. My moral decision was shaped by a combination of intuition, emotion and reason. I was influenced by the emotions of fear, confusion and distress which I agree were at times irrational. However, I did not let myself overcome by these emotions. My decision to leave her after taking some measures to make sure that she was safe was mainly influenced by reason. The curious fact is that I reached reason through a combination of intuition and emotions. My reasoning was that it was not proper to allow someone to risk her/his life if we could prevent it. The decision to ring up her father was taken with the help of this reasoning. Even if that offended him, it did prevent Sarah from another suicide attempt. If I had not been influenced by emotions, I would perhaps have taken a decision to stay with her that night, based on the reasoning that her life was in danger and that I had the duty to save it. However, the entire incident did have such an effect on me that I had to resort to a combination of emotion and reason to take a moral decision. Sarah’s arguments were based on her own standards of reason and emotion which are different from my standards. According to her, it was not proper that I did invade her privacy by ringing up her father. This argument was not convincing to me since my reasoning was that such things are not as significant as saving a life. I may not have done everything perfect that night because I let myself be possessed by my emotions for a while, but that is pardonable because I am only 16years old. But I could fully justify my decision because there was an element of proper reasoning before I did anything. In societal and national terms, moral decisions are always taken and implemented with the help of proper emotional appeal as well. The decision taken by the U.S and Britain to invade Iraq, no matter whether it was a moral or immoral decision, was based on the reason that it was feared that Iraq hosted nuclear weapons. Though this turned out to be a hoax, the fact remains that the morale of the soldiers were boosted with manipulated reasoning. Even if an invasion is necessarily a decision to be taken on the basis of reason, it is inevitable that the emotional aspects are also emphasize, because an average soldier is not always motivated by reason alone, but strong emotional appeal. A very good example for the perfect blend of reason and emotion to make moral decision and to persuade people to believe in its veracity is the way in which Winston Churchill addressed the public. He was capable of simulating the emotion of the masses, even as the arguments he posed seemed quite reasonable mainly because of their emotional power. Read More