WOK: Emotion

Emotion vs Cognition
In this lecture, the justification for emotion as a way of knowing was that although emotion is a illogical, subjective, the existence of qualia (the physical reactions emotions produce) means that there is a stimulus passing through the mind, and although unconscious, it is not less subjective than perception eg. perceiving color is subjective. It involves information being processed before stimulus arrives at the perception. The emotion also has knowledge such as instincts which can be vital for survival.

Another argument was that emotion gives knowledge meaning. Logic follows an emotional reaction, and arousal is essential to all mental functions. Boredom is the lack of emotion, and knowledge has no meaning if it does not arouse emotion.

I feel this argument in a broader philosophical sense is valid, but in a practical sense, weak. If it is emotion that gives knowledge meaning, it would mean for example people who find maths boring, do not find meaning in knowing maths. This is not necessarily true. I have times when although I am not interested in something, but I know the importance of knowing it, so I learn it. There may be no immediate emotional arousal when the knowledge is acquired by individuals.
However it is true that if there was no emotion behind all the knowledge we have, knowledge probably would not have been created. We search for knowledge because we want to, because we need to, and those are emotional reactions.