Theory of knowledge                Emelie Göransson

Are reason and emotion equally necessary in justifying moral decisions?

Reason and emotions are different aspects of the justification of moral decision. According to me reason has to do with logical thinking, and we use reason as a declaration to explain or justify our actions and decisions. Emotion on the other hand is more chaotic. It is a mental state that arises spontaneously based of feelings.

But are reason and emotion equally necessary in justifying moral decisions? Well if moral decisions were exclusively based on reason they would be very logical. Whereas emotions often tend to cloud judgement and hinder an objective view. However we are all human beings and cannot separate our rational and emotional mind which means that both reason and emotion are necessary.

Using my knowledge and reason concerning the question, I have asked myself if we do act in the same way in a familiar situation as in an unfamiliar situation. And I believe that if we let a specific number of persons face the same situation, some might be familiar to the situation and some might not, some might act emotionally and some might act reasonable, because we all have different valuations, experiences, prejudices, and knowledge about different areas of knowledge which affect our actions. In other words does context, personal moral beliefs and pre-knowledge play an important role to how we justify moral decisions.

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But when do we act according to emotions, and when do we act according to reason? That is more difficult. Our world view decides over our valuations and prejudices; however our knowledge and logical thinking helps us to challenge our valuations and prejudices, and through that increase our world view. So my interpretation is that we probably can act reasonable in a situation we earlier have act emotionally in, because the second time we are facing the situation we have increased our knowledge within the area and through that increased our world view.

For example, take the ...

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