“Doing the right things starts with knowing the right things.” In what ways does responsible action depend on sound, critical thinking?
People are always seeking to do the right things. “Doing the right things starts with knowing the right things.” Integrity is looked upon by most people. Integrity is being honest even if no one could have found out you did it. To do responsible actions one must first learn what is right which depends on several factors.
Moral principles are values that tell us right from wrong. Parents, society, and culture can all have an input as to the development of our moral values. Society has intended to develop a set of values for everyone to follow. In the past there were communities with morals that must be followed. Morality was an important part of life and some acts were intolerable among society. Most of the time, if a person disagreed they could do little to change the situation, but if a person rebelled against society they were segregated. The people felt obligated to follow. Society can’t set the moral values for an individual because not everyone will agree. Groups of people usually from the same race have cultures that also determine some of the moral principles. Cultures may clash and think of certain aspects as irrelevant. The cultures influence people to build up on their values which are then passed down from generation to generation. Our parents are often the ones that teach us moral values based on their own. As we grow up they set rules to teach us manners. If we behave rudely, then consequences are applied to correct the conduct. These are some of the fundamental elements that make up the moral principles.
Not only do these factors make up our knowledge of the right things, but we are put under pressure of doing the right thing by the people that judge us from the actions we take. People in society that are close to you judge you all the time. They have nothing better to do than to see what wrong moral actions your taking. They pressure to do the right thing in order to escape the judgments of immorality. Religion also puts this type of pressure. There are rules bestowed in religions of morality, which according to that religion must be followed to “go to heaven”. If a person doesn’t follow these rules they are considered to be sinners. Pressure is placed so the moral actions are taken.
Experience has a major role in the decisions of ethic choices. There are many instances when irresponsible actions have taken place. The errors that have been made can improve one’s future choices. Experiences are there to be reflected upon to learn from them. The reflection of experiences can have different perspectives. These perspectives can either assist or undermine the discovery of knowledge from an experience. A person may choose to be take disregard their experiences therefore making the same irresponsible mistakes. They may also choose to heed the experience to learn to make sensible decisions in the future. Experiences are used to realize the mistakes in order to take wiser and responsible actions.
Reason and emotions influence the moral choices made. Responsible actions depend on reason. Reason is a form of critical thinking. I define critical thinking as analyzing the information given and the surroundings to make a decision. Plato’s quote about reason and emotions being like chariots pulling in opposite directions describes this situation. Reason and emotions are like an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. Instead of reasoning about the right action that should be taken most often people are guided into doing irresponsible and immoral actions. Emotions can be the guidance of wrong decisions for it causes people to act without thinking about what they are doing. People fall in temptations even though they may know what’s right.
Even though a person might know the difference between the right and wrong actions, it doesn’t mean they will take the right decisions. The conscious is wrestles when a wrong action is committed. A person feels so guilty that there becomes a need to confess. The guilty feeling surges from shame of doing an immoral act. Nonetheless after doing something unethical several times the guilt fades away, slowly the heart becomes cold. A heart can be so cold it no more responds to the wicked actions.
Because different people have different values, the moral values are not always agreed upon. All of these factors shape and mold our knowledge of the right things. Doing the right thing begins with a good thinker that uses critical thinking.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Evaluate the ways in which emotion might enhance and/or undermine reasoning as a Way of knowing?
Emotions affect our reasoning either to enhance or undermine it as a mean of knowing. Emotions often influence most of the actions and decisions we make. We get knowledge through several ways, but reasoning is the most commonly used along with the emotions that influence it.
Reason is a logical form of thinking to discover new knowledge. Reasoning is when there are two or more pieces of information that are true used to imply another statement and therefore conclude it is also true. For instance, a friend had been coughing and sneezing quite a few times in the past few days. Now she has been absent for two days. These two statements are both correct and now we might infer she is ill. Another illustration can be I had a chocolate bar on my desk. When I came home, it was gone. The only person that was left alone in the house was my brother; therefore he must have eaten it. It also includes using our minds as drawing boards to make connections between events. We may use our senses to get a piece of information and then imagine what happened. An example may be a person was in their front yard and saw smoke from a house not too far away. At the same moment a firefighter rushed by. Our brain serves as a drawing board where we have put two pieces of information that we perceived from our senses to imagine what happened. Reason is also thinking about what is best in certain circumstances to make the right decisions. It is using our common sense to judge what the best action to take in the situation we’re in. These decisions are often contradicted and influenced by emotions.
Emotions are a major component of human’s lives. They are how we express our feelings towards others and certain subjects. We express our emotions to others through our actions. Our actions are influenced by our feelings. If we’re depressed we don’t talk to anyone or if we love someone we show our affection by giving them a hug. Furthermore, emotions come from feelings. When someone feels sweaty that feeling may cause disgust, or before lunch the feeling of hunger can create the emotion of anxiety. There are many levels of emotions. They can be categorized in many ways and can be a complex mixture of other emotions. There are basic emotions like happy, sad, content, love, fear, anger, jealousy, and anxiety. Complex emotions can be developed by a mixture of other emotions. Nervous, for example, can be a mixture of fear and anxiety. Love is the most complex emotion for there are many kinds of love. There can be friendships, companions, romance, and motherly love. However, these emotions are constantly changing because of certain circumstances that may cause emotional imbalance. A person may be in constant depression because they lack another emotion like love. The things going on in their lives may cause them to feel depressed or unsuccessful. It can become very serious if they begin to commit suicide. Psychological intervention may be required in order to solve the emotional imbalance. Emotions are a component of the affects on reasoning.
Emotions enhance or undermine reasoning as a way of knowing. We may feel we want to do something because it is what we feel like doing but our head says no because it’s wrong. Instead of doing my homework I feel like sleeping or watching TV. I know I have to complete it so I decide to leave my emotions aside. At times we listen to our emotions instead of reasoning. There was a woman that woke up one morning and reason told her she needed to go to work like always, but a feeling told her she had to stay home .She decided to listen to her feeling and stay home. Later she found out the roof of the building where she worked at caved in. We can’t control our emotions it’s like an instinct to feel a certain way in what we consider at a reasonable moment. We tend to have emotions about the things we know but also from the ones we don’t know. We have fear or terror of the unknown but we have that fear because we have never experienced it. Fear is an emotion that can prevent us from knowing and having experience. The fear of rollercoasters will prevent us from getting on thus never knowing what it really feels like. We can feel dizzy after a very twisty rollercoaster because now we know what it’s like. It is reasonable to have our emotions assist us in getting knowledge.
There are several emotions and different ways of reasoning that improve and diminish our way of knowing.
Emotions affect our reasoning either to enhance or undermine it as a mean of knowing. Emotions often influence most of the actions and decisions we make. We get knowledge through several ways, but reasoning is the most commonly used along with the emotions that influence it.
Reason is a logical form of thinking to discover new knowledge. Reasoning is when there are two or more pieces of information that are true used to imply another statement and therefore conclude it is also true. For instance, a friend had been coughing and sneezing quite a few times in the past few days. Now she has been absent for two days. These two statements are both correct and now we might infer she is ill. Another illustration can be I had a chocolate bar on my desk. When I came home, it was gone. The only person that was left alone in the house was my brother; therefore he must have eaten it. It also includes using our minds as drawing boards to make connections between events. We may use our senses to get a piece of information and then imagine what happened. An example may be a person was in their front yard and saw smoke from a house not too far away. At the same moment a firefighter rushed by. Our brain serves as a drawing board where we have put two pieces of information that we perceived from our senses to imagine what happened. Reason is also thinking about what is best in certain circumstances to make the right decisions. It is using our common sense to judge what the best action to take in the situation we’re in. These decisions are often contradicted and influenced by emotions.
Emotions are a major component of human’s lives. They are how we express our feelings towards others and certain subjects. We express our emotions to others through our actions. Our actions are influenced by our feelings. If we’re depressed we don’t talk to anyone or if we love someone we show our affection by giving them a hug. Furthermore, emotions come from feelings. When someone feels sweaty that feeling may cause disgust, or before lunch the feeling of hunger can create the emotion of anxiety. There are many levels of emotions. They can be categorized in many ways and can be a complex mixture of other emotions. There are basic emotions like happy, sad, content, love, fear, anger, jealousy, and anxiety. Complex emotions can be developed by a mixture of other emotions. Nervous, for example, can be a mixture of fear and anxiety. Love is the most complex emotion for there are many kinds of love. There can be friendships, companions, romance, and motherly love. However, these emotions are constantly changing because of certain circumstances that may cause emotional imbalance. A person may be in constant depression because they lack another emotion like love. The things going on in their lives may cause them to feel depressed or unsuccessful. It can become very serious if they begin to commit suicide. Psychological intervention may be required in order to solve the emotional imbalance. Emotions are a component of the affects on reasoning.
Emotions enhance or undermine reasoning as a way of knowing. We may feel we want to do something because it is what we feel like doing but our head says no because it’s wrong. Instead of doing my homework I feel like sleeping or watching TV. I know I have to complete it so I decide to leave my emotions aside. At times we listen to our emotions instead of reasoning. There was a woman that woke up one morning and reason told her she needed to go to work like always, but a feeling told her she had to stay home .She decided to listen to her feeling and stay home. Later she found out the roof of the building where she worked at caved in. We can’t control our emotions it’s like an instinct to feel a certain way in what we consider at a reasonable moment. We tend to have emotions about the things we know but also from the ones we don’t know. We have fear or terror of the unknown but we have that fear because we have never experienced it. Fear is an emotion that can prevent us from knowing and having experience. The fear of rollercoasters will prevent us from getting on thus never knowing what it really feels like. We can feel dizzy after a very twisty rollercoaster because now we know what it’s like. It is reasonable to have our emotions assist us in getting knowledge.
There are several emotions and different ways of reasoning that improve and diminish our way of knowing.
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