Evaluate the ways in which emotions might enhance and/or undermine reasoning as a way of knowing.

... Evaluate the ways in which emotions might enhance and/or undermine reasoning as a way of knowing. I Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) once said that "The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing". He meant that emotions make humans do things that are in fact not reasonable or rational. Emotions make people say things they don't mean, and make people give into temptations more easily. They lead to irrational behavior and to not thinking clearly. An emotion consists of passions, moods and senses which then create internal feelings, which are expressed by external behavior. That behavior can vary in intensity, just like emotions vary in intensity. Emotion is one of the ways of knowing. To a great extent, emotions can affect the other ways of knowing, and especially reason. Although the James-Lange theory states that emotions only have a physical dimension emotions in fact have a physical and an emotional dimension.

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