ToK Question #3

'You're being emotional' is usually taken as a criticism. Why? Could 'You're being rational' ever be seen as a criticism?

HELLO AGAIN. It's Georgia.

"You're being emotional" as a criticism is often because people are being irrational because of their emotions.
"You're being rational" as a criticism may involve being so rational that the person is being heartless.

If someone's passion has taken them to the point when they have become irrational... it can be used as a criticism. But if "passion" and "emotion" could be interchangable... "You're being passionate" is not such a criticism. In regards to emotional...it means being sulky or melodramatic. I can't imagine someone being criticized for having passion for a cause.
Being too rational can also be negative because emotions or passion is never taken into consideration. It's about being efficient and convenient... but passion for something you care about is necessary... HAVE A HEART.

hey its melissa againn

to say that someone is being emotional is can be considered a criticism bc its similar to saying that someone is being overly sensitive and perhaps a bit paranoid? i'm not really sure, but I think that it would also be possible to think of being emotional as a good thing. once again, something that we discussed in tok was that to be emotional was to basically add a deeper level of non rational justification to your knowledge claims. personally i think that this only makes a person more passionate towards whatever cause/idea, but i think the 'criticism' of emotional comes from when it goes too far, and the justification becomes completely irrational.

being called "you're rational" on the other hand, could also be considered an insult because to be rational is similar to being reasonable and realistic, so its sort of like saying you're too realistic, or that you don't have the capacity to imagine and dream? not sure... just my thoughts.

I think 'you're being emotional' is usually taken as a criticism because it means that the person is not viewing the isssue rationally. Emotion is non-rational justification for knowledge claims and it can result in biased views. but, i think it is natural for a person to be sometimes emotional since you can't be rational about the issues that you have experienced or that are related to you. Sometimes, 'You're being rational' is seen as a criticism since it can imply that the person is heartless or cold-blooded.

In our society when someone says "You're being emotional" it generally is taken as a criticism. Someone is usually told this because they are overreacting about something. "You're being rational" I personally would never see being taken as a criticism. It seems more that someone would get told that because they are doing something right, or not getting too involved. If you were to add a "too" into that statement then yes, I would consider it being said as a criticism. Rational and emotional are both things based on idea and behaviour but rational deals more with reason than emotion and something factually right rather than internally right.

OK...so its Jenny W again!!!!
I think the whole point of this is basically what the society perceive "being emotional" is. The statement "I think you're being emotional" is usually taken as a criticism because people in the society views it as a statment that critique one another. it is not neccessary that being emotional is bad, but rather they are referring as being over reacted.
"Your being rational" can also be seen as a criticism if it is being view as very extreme.

i think the reason y people treat the comment "you're being emotional" as a criticism is because people usually dont like to deal with emotional people as they are difficult to comfort and to be friends with in general. as we all know people who are emotional tends to change their moods and opinions A LOT, and they are hard to deal with. and as mentioned by georgia and msit, they are being irrational. they do what they want according to their emotions and do things without a justified reason.

i think "you're being rational" could be seen as a criticism as well. being rational could be something bad when you are being over-rational and that is annoying. i know i am contradicting myself but sometimes you NEED to just NOT be rational and do sth silly to relax. if you onli do things with an extremely valid reason all the time - that freaks people out, in my opinion.

Hi guys! Tori here...
I really agree with what everyone has been saying about being "emotional". In our society, when someone is told they are very emotional, it is usually a critisicm- being used to tell the person that they are being irrational or acting unreasonably. Being overly emotional is used in many contexts, especially for those who are stereotyped as "emo". In our society, an "emo" is someone who is very negative, and pessimisitic about life in general. I think that it is interesting that someone with those charactersitics would be labelled "emo" as that is short for emotional, again using emotional in negative context.

I also agree with what Minji said about being told 'you are being rational'. I think that it would be a criticism, as it implys that the person is heartless. It is important for us to have a balance between, being emotional and rational at the same time.

I think that "you're being emotional" is a very condescending statement, and is seen as a criticism because it gives the impression that no thought or reason is behind your actions, and that you're somehow overreacting/ being melodramatic or acting "childish" because you can't control yourself.
"you're being rational" seems like a criticism to me because both statement are quite accusatory.
-Courtney

I (Lauren) thinks:

"you're being rational" can be taken as a compliment in my opinion. I think it implies that you are employing thought and intellegence for your actions. My parents once told me that being rational is a sign of intellegence and deductive thought, and the best decisions are made through rational thought. If anyone ever told me I was being rational, I'd think I was doing a good job/ take it as a compliment.
-Lauren

I think the phrase 'being emotional' contains negative diction because usually an emotional person is seen 'losing' his/her reasoning.
While saying the word 'emotion', there is an image immediately appearing in my mind of mass hysteria. This is a natural reaction. Emotion is related to our personal experiences and interpretations of the world. When we see something that are not acceptable in our own judgement, we're being emotional.
It is a common pattern that women seem to be more emotional than men.
I heard of a comparison for the above statement which compares women with delicate and sophisticated drawers (detailed color combination etc.); but men are compared with simple drawers which perform only the basic functions. I thought it funny because apart from its validity, girls are seen more emotional from my perspective. We view emotional people as not being realisitic, and it is as if they are not trying to solve a problem, but to enlarge it.
Unlike emotion which is a non-rational justification for knowledge claims, reasoning is seen a very logical way to appoach problems. Here's my personal experience:
I have a friend who studies statistics and is passionate about maths throughout his life, and one thing I found interesting about him is that the way he approaches questions are very differnt from mine. I said that there're many people who are too nervous to take the university entrance exams. While they're writting, they're so afraid that they'll fail. I told him that it's a common feeling that everyone has. However, he was being so rational (a bit too rational) that he said that those people would fail if they couldn't even stand the pressure of taking an entrance test. If those people were so nervous, it meant they were not confident...
His argument sound reasonable, but a bit too "cold" in terms of emotions. In a case like that ,being "too rational" isn't always a good thing.

Hey guys, back again...
I think what Lauren said about being rational is very interesting. I'm not sure what I would think if someone told me that I was being rational... I guess it depends on the context/situation.

What Lauren said is totally agreed by me. "You're being rational" sounds like you are doing something right, and being intelligent about something where as "you're being emotional" is almost like an insult.

Response to what Andrea said.....
It is often annoying to be with people who are very emotional or very irrational as you can never figure out why they are acting in that way. However, i think despite the fact that "You're being emotional/rational" might be statements that criticize other people, it might also to some extent be some jokes that friends make to express their close relation, and it might not at all be harmful. The way people say it would be very important in categorize if it is something criticizing or not.

Hello...It's Julia yet again.

I agree with what Georgia said about "You're being emotional". Though emotions are vital to have (without them, we would be cold hearted without any empathy towards others), they often cause people to make rash decisions without first thinking them through. That's probably why this statement has such a negative connotation...but I don't think being emotional is such a bad thing as long as you involve some thought in your decisions.

"You're being rational" is often interpreted as being a positive statement because it's a good thing to have a clear head in a problematic situation. I haven't ever heard this statement being used in a negative sense...but I guess it could be negative because we need to allow emotions to make some of our decisions. You need to make your decisions with your heart as well as your head!

Hey,,
It's Cherie again!

Towards this question, I think that being "emotional" is often referred to being irrational because emotions will directly affect our actions. Being emotional might not exactly be a good thing. When your emotional, people around you might feel very frustrated. Personally, I would not like to have friends who are super emotional. I will get very frustrated easily becuase there is nothing much that I can do. That's why being emotional has been seen as a negative element.

However, being "rational" is a better thing than being emotional. Being rational is to have the ability to reason. Having the ability to reason is something that will lead a person to be logical and make the right decisions. In real life, I would assume that people would like to live around peers who are rational rather than emotional.

I don’t think “you’re being rational” could ever be taken as a criticism because our society values thought and reason. We have to justify everything by rationale, because reason (for the most part) is constant, whereas emotions can change rapidly. For this reason we can’t base decisions solely on emotion.
But I think this is only good to a certain degree. Emotions form the core of our reasoning: our values, our right vs. wrong. When we let “rational” thought override our emotions, bad things happen. It is “rational” to produce a product by the cheapest means possible, and then sell it to make a profit. But when this rational thought process leads to child labour to produce the cheapest product, this is when emotion should be more present in our decision making. Emotions and morals need to be the basis of our rationale, but not solely what we base our decisions on. Our rationale cannot cross our morals.

-iris

Melissa, nice way of interpreting the question!! I would have not come up with such an answer!!!

Cherie

As what I have said before, the whole issue of whether or not being “emotional/rational” is a criticism or not is base on how your society’s view. There might be different standard for being emotional/ rational for different places in the world. It also links to the question about being passionate and unreasonable. In a culture, one might think this is unreasonable and that person is being too emotional, while others might think it is a normal thing to do or to think.

You're being rational kind of suggests you're devoid of emotion. it could be taken very well or badly. if someone told you you're being rational when selecting your mortgage then it'd good. If someone tells you you're being rational when buying a gift or a prom dress it means something different.
-Courtney

I totally agree. it's valued in certain situations.
-Lauren

in response to cherie,

if i had to choose from rational and emotional, i think i'd also pick rational. it might be because being rational usually means u are justified, and that's being reasonable. i guess being reasonable is always better than being unreasonable??? lol

woappps here's the bell. byeeeeeeeeee.

we usually associate being "emotional" as a bad thing because we only refer to negative emotions when we say that somwone is being emotional. for example happiness in an emotion but when someone is happy we do not sasy that they are emotional .

In present society, "Being emotional" can be considered as a criticizm but only in certain contexts. I think this is shown by how 'logic' and 'reason' ways of knowing are favoured especially in areas such as natural sciences and mathematics. The way I see it, anything is proven to be right if it is logical. When you are being 'emotional' you are perceived to be acting in an irrational manner that no-one can understand. So if you act in an unusual manner it can be perceived as a bad thing.

I think that 'being rational' can be a bad thing in a some cases.