Comments on: Emotions and Skepticism: Early Thoughts, Seeking Feedback

By: Mel

Mel — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 05:37:44 +0000

Agreed. It’s perfectly rational to want to be happy. And happiness means acknowledging your emotional side.

By: Blogosaurus

Blogosaurus — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:35:48 +0000

Agreed. It’s just part of being human. Better to be aware of it and account for it. Happiness is a great reason to do things, like get married to someone awesome!

By: Blogosaurus

Blogosaurus — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:34:52 +0000

Nod. I find it a little weird that there is this subset of skeptics who are trying really hard to be logic-machine automatons… dude, why? Why even try?

By: Puck

Puck — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:22:42 +0000

I think marriage can be perfectly rational, taking into account inherent emotions, emotional need and the promise of long-term happiness.

Humans are a species that bonds, and pair-bonding is one aspect of that. To say that marriage is irrational is to say that friendship is irrational.

From a purely mathematical view of happiness marriage makes sense. While not all marriages work out, I’m sure people who spend their lives without a long-term partner are less happy than those that do. I was.

And in Rebecca’s case there are other reasons to get married. He’s from the UK and she’s from the USA. If they want to live together, being married in the eyes of the state is going to make that a lot easier to accomplish.

By: Zed

Zed — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:35:34 +0000

It has been a while since I did my studying on the Stoics, but I’m fairly sure they had a similar sort of understanding for “rational”. They were not interested in pretending feelings didn’t exist or banishing them entirely, it was about what was in control – emotions or thoughts.

That particular reasoning is something I agree with: trivializing feelings is just as short-sighted as doing whatever they bring to the fore.

By: Lara

Lara — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:48:05 +0000

Anyone claiming to be completely rational is not very self-aware. Everything in your life is based, to a greater or lesser extent, on your emotions. The clothes you wear are based on how those clothes make you feel. Do you think they make you look good? Do they make you feel comfortable? Does it have an amusing slogan on it that make you laugh? Did you buy it somewhere special or with someone special? All of those are emotional decisions.

The food you eat is based on how it makes you feel. If your food decisions were based solely on logic then you only need to make sure that you have enough calories and nutrients to get you through the day. Spices and flavors are only to satisfy an emotional need for something that’s delicious.

The job you do, the apartment you live in, the hobbies you have, your friends, your relationships, every single one of those involved emotions. Logic and reason played a part in choosing those things, obviously, but to dismiss emotions altogether would render life pretty empty.