Logic vs Emotions

Essay by daniela44High School, 11th gradeA+, December 2014

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Daniela Sanchez

October 22, 2014

Mr. Howes

Period 4

Emotions vs Logical Thinking

Anthony De Mello writes about the heart leading the way for thinking. At the beginning of the text, the reader assumes that all thinking is done logically with the brain. By the end of the text, de Mello hopes that the reader believes that people listen to their heart thinking that they use logic. Anthony de Mello is correct in that most people take their initial steps with their heart in front. De Mello is wrong thinking that all human beings use this way of reasoning. Although emotions persuade, the facts are what impress the intellectual thinker.

De Mello states that one thinks with emotions rather than with logic. Although this might be true, rational thinking can be observed by many great men, one of whom was Abraham Lincoln. President Lincoln was one of this nation's greatest leaders if not the greatest president in American history.

Lincoln in his Lyceum Address said, " Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defence." Emotions can only do so much before one must use their intellect to achieve in the game of life. It is reason and facts that will in the end be reigning over pitiful emotions that have let us down in the past. An example of emotions being able to get the best of an individual can be observed in an interview conducted by the admirable Steve Forbes. Forbes interviewed Daniel Kahneman, a Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs Emeritus at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. Kahneman is also a 2002 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Kahneman was...