Some people think that emotions are a reliable guide to life. But if this were the case then, all people would have the same emotional response to the same events. However, when September 11 occured. Some people were overjoyed to see the destruction caused. While others were heartbroken by the tragedy. So all people did not have the same emotional response to the same event. Therefore emotions are not a reliable guide to be trusted.

However, someone may argue, that all people have the same emotional response to the same *perceived* stimuli. In otherwords, in the September 11 example - the people who were happy about it, saw the event as the "destruction of the enemy" and so where happy. While the people who were saddened by it saw the "death of loved ones" and hence were saddened. We may imagine that the people who were happy would have been sad *if* it was their loved ones who died. And the people who were sad may have been happy if it was their enemies that died. Even if we grant all this, it is still not sufficent to show that emotions are a reliable guide. This is because by saying that people have the same emotional response to *perceived* stimuli, one is saying that emotions are *subjective* not objective. It depends on the subjective perspective of the person veiwing the event. However, because it is subjective is why they could be wrong in objective sense. The "loved ones" may be the most evil people on earth, or the "enemies" may be the most righteous people on earth. So again we see that ones emotional response to an event is not a "good" guide.

Back to Philosophy Articles Page
Back to Home Page