Evaluate the Ways in Which Emotion Might Enhance And/or Undermine Reasoning as a Way of Knowing

IB Year 1 TOK Practice Essay 2011

Evaluate the ways in which emotion might enhance and/or undermine reasoning as a way of knowing.

Emotions can affect us in many ways, especially in ways of understanding. Sometimes we get so blinded by the thought that we know and that we understand, but in reality, we miss the small basic details that effect us most. We don't notice them because we haven'tbeen shown these small details, where our mind isn't programed to do such a constructive break down of understanding, we see something that is in front of us but we do not see the picture or the point that it is trying to explain, the meaning of this symbol. Everyone has a basic set up of reality, what you have been taught to see, but you have not been shown the critical side of learning. If you were taught to see red as red like on a fire truck, then that is red to you. But how do you know that yo are not color blind. There is always that what if question that you have. How your emotions can block the way you think. Such as the emotion of love, you can be madly in love with someone but you can be so blind that you can not see that this person is going behind your back, or that this person doesn't really care for you, they are just sticking around you because they like the company. It is the small things that hide from us that makes us all blind. No one can experience every emotion because there are so many, not everyone has an answer to how to deal with this emotion. It is a learning process that only you can understand and get through it. There is no explanation for every single emotion that everyone has, sometimes you can't explain how you are feeling this certain type of pain, it is just something that you experience and this is how you learn. Learning this way is a sure way to understand what exactly you want to know, you don't need anyone to try to describe how you feel or what you meant, it is just a positive way to know the truth.

Emotion has come of age in the last decade with theorists worldwide recognising the role of emotion in the development of intelligence. Intelligence is the faculty we all use to engage in ways of knowing. In this essay I will discuss the notion of emotion as used by key theorists and draw links and use comparative examples to show how emotion may enhance and/or undermine reasoning as a way of knowing.

The ways in which emotion might enhance and/or