2.  Traditional view - battle between reason and emotionbattle between reason and emotion

3.  Traditional view - battle between reason and emotionbattle between reason and emotion  What does the clip above tell us about the relative importance of reason and emotion?  What does it also tell us about when the film was made!?

5.  Even faced with such compelling evidence many people still smoke.  Why?

6.  If we know something is bad (eg, smoking), we can manufacture bad reasons to justify this behaviour – the discomfort or negative emotions we feel due to the conflict between our actions and beliefs lead us to rationalise our actions.  ‘ I am familiar with the evidence that smoking is bad for me, but I smoke. I know loads of people who smoke and they are fine. Nothing bad will happen to me. I don’t even believe the evidence anyway.’

7.  Imagine: Your friend holds an emotional prejudice against immigrants.  His tendency to rationalise can lead to a self- confirming belief system about immigrants - Biased perceptions – he notices only lazy immigrants - fallacious reasoning – he makes hasty generalisations - emotive language – he concludes that immigrants are ‘bone idle’ and ‘useless’ These factors reinforce the original prejudice and make it difficult to be objective

8.  Think back to your last argument with someone. Can you remember saying something in the ‘heat of the moment?’  Turbulent emotions can distort our ability to think clearly and behave intelligently.  Stoics advocated a state of mind called apathy – without passion – in which the mind could mirror reality in a calm and untroubled way.  Can you imagine a life without human emotions?

9.  Could it be argued that our emotions make us human?our emotions make us human?  Brain damage patients with damage to their emotional centers find it very difficult to make decisions. Can you think why?  Antonio Damasio has explored this idea..... Antonio Damasio has explored this idea.....  Is it a question of finding a balance between reason and emotion? Keeping our emotions under control?

10.  Seinfeld: Emotional Intelligence - Self Management – YouTube Seinfeld: Emotional Intelligence - Self Management – YouTube

11. intuitions

12.  What are intuitions?  Have you ever made a decision based on your intuitions?  How reliable do you think intuitions are?  Are there any factors which increase this reliability?  Malcolm Gladwell – ‘Blink’

13.  Is adversarial argument the best way to decide someone’s innocence. Discuss. (800 words maximum) Due after the holiday.

14.  The justice system tries to make a decision over guilt or innocence using reasoning  Is the ‘adversarial system’ the best way to do this (Discuss advantages and disadvantages)  In what ways might ‘emotion’ interfere with this process?  Other systems?

15.  a few more points on our judgements and decision making for you to think about.... a few more points on our judgements and decision making for you to think about....