The importance of the emotions

Can we live without emotions, without feeling? The article talks about emotion and reason. It starts out with stating that reason is cool, active, and deliberative while emotions overwhelm us and are impulsive and hot. There is an example about how we are overwhelmed by our emotions: when we have an anger fit and we realize afterwards and say things like, " I don't know what came over me", and relating to the previous article I read this is also when our rational mind awakens. Point being that we do things under the influence of or emotions but we come to realize that we were wrong when our rational mind starts to reason.

Two elements in the traditional view that are mentioned are Emotion contra Knowledge and Emotion and the Good Life. In Emotion and the Good Life it mentions the violent and destructive nature of our emotions but for many thinkers the key element of living a good life is the achievement of rational control over the emotions. An example for this is the movie Equilibrium. In the movie, everyone has to take a shot of their "medicine" which prevents them from feeling, so that no one has to feel any of their emotions and anyone who does not take their shots are killed on sight. The resistance however do not want to lose their emotions and will do anything to defend themselves. The leader of the people, called "Father", thinks that if we remove emotion there will not be any wars between people, everyone would be the same. Now this relates to how the Emotion and the Good Life reminds us of the violent nature of our emotions. However, the leader of the resistance can blend in with any of the other people because he has learned to suppress and control his emotions which in Emotion and the Good Life is the key element for living a good life.

I completely agree with what Emotions and the Good Life states. Even if our emotions are the cause of fights and wars they also let us feel happiness, peace, and all of the other things. If we could control our emotions, use our emotions instead of letting our emotions control us, things might be better in the world.