A Fils for Your Thoughts

July 24, 2008

Reason and Emotions and Human Nature (Oh My!)

Filed under: Philosophy — Haider @ 4:31 pm

The vast majority of people are divided into two main camps in their understanding of human nature:

The first group regards human beings as rational animals and are characterized by their use of reason. Therefore, emotions are considered to be an obstacle, distraction or disease, to be dismissed, disposed of or cured.

The second group, on the other hand, believes that to be human is to experience and embrace one’s emotions. Reason can cripple one’s emotional experience, and may cloud one’s intuitive judgments.

There is, however, a third understanding of how reason and emotions relate to human nature: since both exist within human beings, both form a part of our nature. We cannot side with reason and disregard our emotions, or judge by our emotions and dismiss reason.

Both reason and emotion are integral parts of what makes us human. However, reason and emotions have different roles to play in our lives. We cannot judge facts with emotions or experience feelings with reason, in the same way that we cannot smell with our ears or listen with our eyes.

The 500 Word Challenge

Filed under: Blog — Haider @ 12:37 am

In view of my tendency to write 10 blog posts in 1, and the fact that I don’t have much time to write lengthy articles on a daily basis, I’m going to be challenging myself to the ultimate challenge! (for me anyway!)

… And if you’ve browsed through this site, “miracle” is a more appropriate word than challenge 😛

I’m going to limit my posts to a maximum of 500 words…

In most cases, I can sum up the main point of an article in less than 500 words. Where I feel an article deserves greater elaboration, I’ll post a short summary of the article here, and post a longer version of the article on Scribd (thanks teagirl for the suggestion!)

This way, my blog will be more “blog-like,” and I can satisfy my craving for writing more in Scribd (where I suspect more people are used to reading longer articles)…

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