The Emotion-Reason Balance: Analyzing an Age-old Dilemma
By: Rohit Balakrishnan
Tags: Philosophy, Morality, Psychology, Emotions, Reason

What is the right balance between emotion and reason? This is an age-old question of great philosophical as well as practical importance. In fact, this question is of fundamental importance in our daily lives whether we even think about it or not. In this article, I will try to deconstruct this problem and clarify the proper roles of emotion and reason in our lives and the right balance between them.

A lot of us are convinced that valuing emotions is in direct conflict with valuing reason. And we often base our lives around this assumption. Is this assumption correct in the first place? I would argue that this assumption is wrong. To understand why it is wrong, let us first look at the purpose of reason. Why do we need reason at all? The short answer is, to understand truth. We need the tool of logical reasoning to separate what is true from what is false. That is how we get a clearer picture of reality instead of living our lives doing random, meaningless actions. Reason helps us understand truth.

What is the purpose of emotions? Unlike reason, emotions have no purpose. Emotions or feelings are merely subconscious judgements that the mind makes about the conscious experience it undergoes in any point of time. A positive emotion is a judgement made by the mind that its current conscious experience is positive/good. A negative emotion is a judgement made by the mind that its current conscious experience is negative/bad. Emotions are purposeless and are part of everyday reality.

There is a question that often escapes human thought. Can reason be used to maximize positive emotions? In this simple question, lies the entire solution to the emotion-reason dilemma. We almost universally recognize that positive emotions are good. Universal acceptance aside, positive emotions are by themselves judgements made by the mind that would translate to meaningful human language thus: “This is good. I like it.” We already observed that reason helps us understand truth. What then stops reason from being useful to understand truths about emotions? And once we get a clearer picture about what causes emotions, what stops reason from being useful for the purpose of maximizing positive emotions?

There is no fundamental blockage that stops human beings from using reason to maximize positive emotions. There are only difficulties. These difficulties stem from the fact that feelings are non-physical in nature and hence are extremely difficult to study. The truth about one’s own feelings is only properly understood by that person themselves. To give an analogy, the art of studying feelings is like human beings trying to communicate with each other without a common language. One can make reasonable guesses about what the other is trying to convey from their expressions, but there is a high percentage of error. Similarly, we don’t ever undergo the other’s exact emotional experiences, but we can try to make good guesses by seeing the outward display of facial expression, body language and so on.

If reason can be used to maximize positive emotional experiences, then where is the conflict between valuing emotions and valuing reason? There is no inherent conflict, if only we understand the purpose of reason and the nature of emotions. If anyone tells you that you are “too logical”, now you know how to respond, as long as you understand and agree with this philosophical argument. Positive emotions are exactly what we should aim for, but if we act on our short-term emotional whims, we will often end up hurting the goal of maximizing positive emotions in the long run. This is exactly where reason helps. Emotions and reason can be aligned to achieve this objective. The notion that one has to sacrifice either for the sake of the other, is thoroughly misleading. The implications of this are huge. One can not only formulate an entire moral philosophy (a theory of good and evil/right and wrong) out of it, but also have a sound base to form their opinions about personal, moral, social and political issues that are normally written off as “completely subjective”.

NOTE: I wrote my debut book Rational Empathy based on the contentious topic of morality. At the heart of forming its philosophy of Rational Empathism is the solution to the emotion-reason dilemma. Rational Empathy explains this and goes on to elaborate its personal, moral, social and political implications.

You can check it out and PURCHASE IT HERE on Amazon.