ToK - Emotion

What do you think of when you hear

the word ‘Emotion’?

ToK - Emotion

An enemy of reason?or

An important precondition for knowledge?

ToK - Emotion

“We think and name in one world, we live and feel in another”

Marcel Proust

“Nothing great is accomplished in the world without passion”

Hegel

ToK - Emotion

Emotion (noun)

A mental state that arises spontaneously rather than through conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes;

a feeling

ToK - Emotion

How are you feeling now, at this moment? How do you know?

Why do you think you are feeling this way?

ToK - Emotion

How does she feel?

How do you know?

The title is ‘Absinthe’Does that affect your interpretation of the picture?

Knowing emotion through perception

ToK - Emotion

Happiness

Sadness

Fear

Anger

Surprise

Disgust

ToK - Emotion

What are emotions for?

To what extent are we able to control our emotions?

Which emotion is the hardest to control?

ToK - Emotion

Emotions as an obstacle to knowledge

• Perception – ‘love is blind’?• Reason – ‘my theory right or wrong!’• Language – use of slanted language

ToK - Emotion Rationalisations

ExperiencesPowerful Emotions

Biased Perception

Fallacious Reasoning

Emotive Language

ToK - Emotion

Emotions as a source of knowledge

Have you ever been in a situation where you had to choose between two equally

attractive options?

How did you come to a decision?

ToK - Emotion

What role do you think is usually played by reason and emotion when people decide which

universities to apply to?

What role do you think each of these should play?

ToK - Emotion

The relation between emotion and reason

Furious Gettingannoyed

Solving amaths problem

ReasonEmotion

ToK - Emotion

Anyone can be angry – that is easy.But to be angry with the right person

to the right degree,at the right time,

for the right purposeand in the right way – that is not easy.

Aristotle

ToK - Emotion

Paul has arranged to meet Tom at 3pm. Tom arrives at 3.02pm and apologises for being late. Rather than accept the apology, Paul starts screaming and shouting about Tom’s lack of consideration and completely loses his self-control.

The hospital phones Jane with terrible news. Her husband has been assaulted and is lying unconscious in Intensive Care. “Oh dear”, she says, “that is annoying! I was hoping to play tennis this afternoon, but I suppose I had better come and visit him.”

Showing too little emotion is, perhaps,as irrational as showing too much

ToK - Emotion

We all experience irrational emotions but, since it is difficult to switch them off, we may find it easier to adjust our beliefs to our emotions than bring our emotions

into line with reason.

ToK - Emotion

Intuition

• Core intuitions - our most fundamental intuitions about life the universe and everything

ToK - Emotion

Intuition

• Subject-specific intuitions – the intuitions we have in various areas of knowledge such as science and ethics

• Educated Intuition• ‘Eureka!’ moments

ToK - Emotion

Intuition

• Social intuitions – our intuitions about other people, what they are like, whether or not they can be trusted etc

Which smile is ‘real’?

ToK - Emotion

Intuition

We sometimes appeal to intuition to justify our knowledge claims in various

areas of knowledge about which we perhaps know little, but research suggests that such ‘uneducated’ intuitions should

be treated with caution.

ToK - Emotion

Imagine that you are presented with a special gift: a machine - the “Happiness Machine” – that can give you wonderfully positive emotions.

All you have to do is hook yourself up ... and switch it on.

But there’s a price: once the machine is switched on, you will not remember anything that happened before switching on the machine. Ever again.

Do you want to switch the machine on?Why?