WO: Affective factors would seeem to be irrelevant to such [moral] obligations or to the form of reasoning we require of ourselves and others when engaged in moral deliberation and judgement.
Poet Theodore Roethke expressed an opposing judgment when he wrote, "We think by feeling. What is there to know?"*
Neuroscientists recently backed Roethke's poetic insight.
_Moral judgment fails without feelings_ http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-03/uosc-mjf031907.phpNeuroscientists from Harvard, USC and Caltech trace abnormal moral choices to damaged emotional circuits
<snip>Conducted by researchers at the University of Southern California, Harvard University, Caltech and the University of Iowa, the study shows that emotion plays an important role in scenarios that pose a moral dilemma.
All the best, Eric _____ * The Waking I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I feel my fate in what I cannot fear. I learn by going where I have to go. We think by feeling. What is there to know? I hear my being dance from ear to ear. I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. Of those so close beside me, which are you? God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there, And learn by going where I have to go. Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how? The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair; I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. Great Nature has another thing to do To you and me, so take the lively air, And, lovely, learn by going where to go. This shaking keeps me steady. I should know. What falls away is always. And is near. I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I learn by going where I have to go. ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
