Topic > Inductive Reasoning and Intuition in Decision Making

Reason and emotion or intuition are equally necessary in making a decision. Reason is the drawing of inferences or conclusions from known or presumed facts. There is deductive reasoning, which is a form of reasoning that moves from the general to the specific or particular. And inductive reasoning involves moving from a series of specific cases to a general statement. Emotion is any conscious experience characterized by intense mental activity and some degree of pleasure or displeasure. Intuition is the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning. Decisions are a fundamental part of our daily lives as people. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayFor example, Aristotle's rules of persuasion or appeal are used to persuade people to take a certain point of view. The names are Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Ethos is used for ethics in persuader credibility. Pathos is used to indicate emotion in making an argument and creating an emotional response. Logos are used for logic and to persuade the audience using reason. People use Pathos to support the argument and logos is used to support the argument. Therefore, pathos is more persuasive because it can cause the audience to become sympathetic, angry, and so on, which can influence their previous opinion or reasoning. It is difficult for a person who has strong emotional feelings to think reasonably. For example, a man is angry because his wife has had an affair, he may act irrationally and choose to threaten her with a gun. This could be classified as morally and wrong since it is inflicting pain on another person. Furthermore, his reasoning and logic are clouded by his emotions. It is possible that the man may calm down later and regret his actions. For this reason, emotion should not be excessive when making moral decisions and we should be reasonable rather than emotional. For example, if a man has lost control of his car and his mother is in his way. If he swerved to avoid the mother, the car would hit three children; instead, and whoever it hits will die. Based on reason, he might hit his mother because she would lose one life compared to three; however, he may be labeled as callous and have killed his own family member. If he followed his emotions, he might choose to beat children because he might be overwhelmed by the thought of killing his mother. This example demonstrates how reason and emotion are important in decision making. There may be some situations in which we are torn between two choices, in which reason tells us one thing and emotion tells us another. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom EssayFor example, there is a young girl in the hospital, who is on a life support machine and her parents are given the decision whether to turn it off. Reason might tell them that the car is not needed by someone else, but instead emotion might influence them not to do so because they would let their daughter die. Therefore, it is more practical to turn off the machine so that it can be used by someone else, which once again proves that emotion should not be excessive when making moral decisions. Consequently, it is evident that there should be the same amount of reason and emotion, so both are important when making decisions. Emotions are natural to us, but we tend to be one-sided.