To what extent is the role of ​emotion​ diffusing ​reason​ to make

ethical decisions?

Emotion and reason are two crucial ​ways of knowing​ and can be beneficial when together or can
also be used to diffuse each other. “Ways of knowing” such as Reason and emotion are methods
though which the “knowers” gain knowledge. Tok can be inferred as a pursuit of knowledge and
the “knowers” are the pursuers. To know something, the knowers, use the “ways of knowing to
explore the “Areas of Knowledge”. The “Ways of knowings” concerning the topic are emotion
and reason. ​Emotion can be defined as a mental state variously associated with thoughts,
feelings, behavioural responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure.

Emotion​ can compel us to think and work towards gaining knowledge. Emotions compel us to
act. Anger compels us to revolt, Happiness compels us to show positive behavior, Sadness
compel us to act in a unique manner. When you behave in different ways and utilize emotions, it
is a pursuit of knowledge. For Example, The steam engine was created when people were
“frustrated” (an emotion), from the inability to transport goods quickly and the long duration and
the dangerous paths they had to take. Due to this, people worked hard to make the steam engine.
If there were no emotions, people would feel the way they were was fine and never have to
discuss or pursue knowledge to improve. ​Reason​ is an important part of the ways of knowing as
everything is dependent on reason. Reason can be defined as ​a cause, explanation, or justification
for an action or event. When a person is driven by emotion, and decides to create something to
solve a problem, reasoning is required to understand the feasibility and create a successful
product. For instance, in the above example, if the inventor of the steam engine was driven by
emotion but could not use reason to understand the feasibility of the design or the
cost-effectiveness, the product would not have even been made. Both emotion and reason are
important in tok in their own ways and both play a major importance of pursuit of knowledge.

A court is any person or institution with authority to judge or adjudicate, often as a government
institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the
administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule
of law. The setting of the essay is in a court and the matter is how emotion clouds the ability to
reason for jurors in a court of law. In a court of law, the jurors and any personnel who affect the
judgement need to be unbiased and should not be affected in any way though pictures or visuals
that affect their emotions. Here, a case study is conducted where an investigation takes place to
see if visual scenes of crimes cause jurors to base their decisions due to one side due to negative
emotions such as anger. Many a time, a crime is not what it appears to be, and laws have been
drafted to ensure justice for all, but if a few aspects of crime can cloud a person’s judgement
towards one’s side, it defeats the whole purpose of court.

When a person witnesses a crime scene visually, a person tends to view it from an emotional
standpoint due to the structuring of the human brain. When it viewed it from an emotional
standpoint emotions such as anger cause reason to be clouded. For Example, the article talks
about how a baby is drowned as a woman conducts a surgery upon herself to deliver a baby.
Here after delivering the baby, the baby falls into the sink and drowns. In this case, there is a
probability that the woman was tired and unconscious from the delivery which could cause the
death of the son, which would not be attempted murder which would have a lesser sentence, but
if anger is put into this situation through the use of crime scenes, the jurors may be compelled
against the woman without even hearing her story. This is obstruction of justice. The ability to
suppress human emotions can be done to a certain point but providing evidence that can cause
the jury towards one side should be evaluated as emotion can deeply diffuse reason to make
ethical decisions.