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 role of an individual in a jury. This individual, and the rest of the jury, are supposed to judge the case presented according to reason so that the criminal is prosecuted justly on the basis of objectivity. However, we cannot separate our rational and emotional mind and the information provided to the jury members are therefore looked at both emotional and rational. When dealing with reason and emotion context is important, especially possible previous similar experiences. If the individual jury member mentioned above is to judge a murderer and at the same time have had a close relative murdered he or she will be much more bloodthirsty because of previous experiences.
Reason uses the information of the situation to justify a moral decision with objectivity. Emotions are mush more subjective and can drastically change over time. However, without a context emotions cannot be categorized as chaotic or impulsive. It is the situation that causes the emotions.
If a friend has done something terribly wrong and the right thing would be to turn him or her in you will have a moral dilemma. Reason would dictate the principle of utilitarianism, where the good of many outweigh the good of few. This means that you should turn your friend in because of the good of many. On the other hand would the feelings you have for your friend most probably cloud you reasonable decision.
All human beings have personal moral beliefs, which are moral beliefs created by the individual. All human beings also have prejudices of different kind that, according to me, exist because of a lack of knowledge within the area of knowledge concerned. Both personal moral beliefs and prejudices are based on emotions and as the emotions drastically can change due to new life experiences and due to society. Generally human beings will experience similar life experiences and our moral beliefs will form a pattern that could become the general moral belief or even a cultural or universal moral view. In most parts of the world killing people is a crime, but it has not always been the general moral belief. However due to the moral belief of today’s society killing people is a crime, and without this view we could not know whether or not killing is morally wrong.
The amount of reason and emotion necessary to justify moral decisions is individual and depends on life experiences, personal moral beliefs and the context of the situation. Morals have to do with right and wrong, it is based on moral beliefs and emotions. Reason and logic are used to follow our emotions. We cannot separate our rational and logical mind, they are both necessary but could not be applied equally. However as all of us are responsible for our actions we should give ourselves time to reflect upon the moral dilemma presented before us before we act.