Should people base their decisions on their reasons, or feelings?

Essay by candykiss25University, Bachelor'sA+, March 2003

download word file, 4 pages 3.0

Downloaded 69 times

The second seminar for this philosophy class raises the question, â oeShould one rely on his or her feelings to make decisions? And if reason happens to disagrees with feelings, then the person should disregard reason and follow his or her feelings.â I am a firm believer that feelings play an important role in the lives of everyone. All people have feelings and it is through these emotions that a person is able to vent and let all the pressures they are feeling escape from them. For this reason and many others, feelings are an essential quality in our lives. However, feelings should play no major role in the process of making a decision. Doing so is neither practical nor logical and will most likely cause someone to experience problems with the decision the person made. To begin, it is first important to understand that feelings are not dependable. It is often that a person will be in a terrible mood, feeling lousy for the duration of the morning, and by the afternoon, with a switch in emotion, feeling nothing but happiness.

This can be seen from time to time with just about anyone. It is a completely normal characteristic. And it is because of this norm in mood swings that decisions should never be made based on them. Take this example, for instance. A child comes home from school very ill and hopes that by taking a nap his headache will go away. After only ten minutes of napping, some neighborhood children are creating a disturbance outside his window causing him to wake up. At this, the boy is infuriated and is so angry for their disturbance that he feels he wants to fight them. In this case, it would not be a good idea for the child to...