emotion and reason

Emotion and reason

The fact that emotion has had a great deal of influence in humans can be dated back to Archimedes (or even before). On inventing what is now known as Archimedes' principle, Archimedes ran out of his house naked and ran around the town saying, "Eureka, Eureka I got it."
This shows how emotion can influence reasoning. Due to the extreme emotions of happiness and surprise, Archimedes did not care about his actions.

I feel that emotion is an integral part of every human, it affects whatever we do, maybe not always to such a great extent that it over powers reasoning. For example, the very act of talking or eating is affected by emotion, psychologists have proven that we tend to be more social, pay more attention in class or eat more if we are happy or satisfied compared to when we are angry or worried. Like how emotion affects such basic acts, it affects all the interactions we have. If the emotion is positive, then it sort of complements our reasoning, given the fact that it is not so strong that it completely over powers it. Negative emotions have an opposite affect on reasoning.

However when an emotion, whether positive or negative, becomes extremely strong, it "clouds" our reasoning. When this happens, whatever we think or do, first passes through a filter of this emotion and we do only what appeals to us in that present state, whether we are elated or depressed, hence explaining suicide. I feel that when a person makes up his mind to commit suicide because of depression, that decision is made only in the heat of the moment, it is rarely planned. This is because in that moment, everything seems lost, as everything is viewed through a filter of negativity.

When I really want to do something, say go for a rock concert the night before my exams start or something like that, the anticipation of happiness, clouds my reasoning, and my ability to listen to someone else's reasoning. If my mother tells me that it is not something advisable to do, and gives a list of reasons, I will try to refute them anyhow. I simply won't want to listen to anything against what I want to do. Okay I am not that stubborn, just giving a hypothetical example. Anyways, so this may make me angry to and ill stop thinking rationally. This is what happens when people get angry; they often say stuff they do not mean.

So as long as the emotion is not extreme, I feel emotion is essential in reasoning, and is omnipresent in everyone's rationale.