Emotion as a WOK - final essay

Emotion can be defined as an affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow,

fear, hate, is experienced, as distinguished
from cognitive and volitional states of consciousness, as well as
any strong agitation of the feelings actuated by experiencing love, hate, fear, etc., a
nd usually accompanied by certain physiological changes, as increased heartbeat or
respiration, and often overt manifestation, as crying or shaking.
The quote by Pascal: We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the
heart. I have research this quote, and I found the extension of his view of reason:
We know the truth not only through our reason but also through our heart. It is
through the latter that we know first principles, and reason, which has nothing to do
with it, tries in vain to refute them. The skeptics have no other object than that, and
they work at it to no purpose. We know that we are not dreaming, but, however
unable we may be to prove it rationally, our inability proves nothing but the
weakness of our reason, and not the uncertainty of all our knowledge, as they
maintain. For knowledge of first principles, like space, time, motion, number, is as
solid as any derived through reason, and it is on such knowledge, coming from the
heart and instinct, that reason has to depend and base all its argument It is just
as pointless and absurd for reason to demand proof of first principles from the heart
before agreeing to accept them as it would be absurd for the heart to demand an
intuition of all the propositions demonstrated by reason before agreeing to accept
them. Our inability must therefore serve only to humble reason, which would like to
be judge of everything, but not to confute our certainty. As if reason were the only
way we could learn!
There is a relationship between knowledge and relation that involved so many
factors, as knowledge gives a multi-dimensional approach to us. In some areas of
knowledge, emotion is useful, but in others, emotion isnt reliable.
Lets look at mathematics. In math, it is all formulas, data, facts and processing
without the use of emotional elements. You can look at a math textbook that
teaches you the formulas and why they exist or why they make sense, in
trigonometry, algebra, etc.
In the Arts (art and music) and Literature, emotion is of use in this AOK. For example
in art, you see paintings by famous artists like Picasso or Van Gogh, and those
paintings are not like math (which gives you a definite answer); they depict multiple
meanings or descriptions that are neither right nor wrong, in which we involve
emotion to interpret the meanings of the paintings, our views and opinions and
feelings of the paintings. Literature, for example poems the phrases implement
several meanings simultaneously, regarding to events during the late poets time,
and there is no definite meaning, not now, not ever. You put yourself into the poets
shoes, and it overwhelms you, to which emotion takes place. In music, music artists

make their specific songs for their reasons throughout the development of music,
from organum, aria, and recitative, to pop, rock, and electronic music. Michael
Jacksons Heal The World talks about people suffering and helping them to make
the world a better place. He applies his emotions on love and care to his song, and
transmits it to the public, making the audience feeling the emotion he is feeling.
We can look at History: WWII and Hitler. Primary knowledge is the number of deaths
(50 million) during WWII. Then you get into a deeper understanding on WWIIs direct
and indirect impacts towards today, some with positive outcome, for example the
military medicine during WWII was marked as advances in triage and transport,
management of shock, and treatment of infectious diseases. Another way is that
when one experience war, or at least murder, s/he has the experience, the
knowledge, of being involved in it. However the impacts of WWII are typically
negative, which is where emotion of sorrow, guilt, pity, empathy and sympathy
about the war.
In Natural Science, you have biology, chemistry and physics. These three are all
data, like mathematics. Interestingly, biology, for example when you are
experimenting on rats, you would feel pity for them enduring and suffering during
the experiments. Although this is more on ethics, evidence of emotion is involved in
it.
Human science is quite tricky, as it involves and excludes emotion at the same time.
Psychology is studying the complexity of the human mind, its behavior, its use of
emotions, its patterns, and it can be applied to criminology, sociology,
psychopathology, etc.
So looking at Pascals quote, I partially agree to it. If the truth is based on science
and mathematics, where solid evidence like Newtons third law, Albert Einsteins
atomic energy, the discovery of DNA, trigonometry, etc. makes very much sense to
us, emotion is of no use. But when it comes to the Arts and Literature, where we
express ourselves, create a voice of self-identity or message, strong emotion pours
in and transmits to us witnessing it.