Is emotion a Way of Knowing?

Once when I was thinking recently (as I do this quite a bit), I came up with the question of whether Emotion is its own Way of Knowing. I thought, emotions are just responses appropriate to a certain number of logical circumstances. I thought this because I considered a number of situations, and found that the emotions in all of the situations are directly influenced by events happening, and logic because of it. 


For example, if someone's dog died, they would feel sadness, as the circumstances are those that would encourage a negative emotional response (logic says: my dog died, I must have to feel sad). Another example, at childbirth, when a baby is born logic says "there is a new child, and it will grow up to produce offspring and be happy", so a feeling of happiness is created because of this situation. Logic and Reason play a key role in emotions and the different situations in which different emotions are enforced, and perhaps so much that emotions may not be able to be enforced without any logical backing.


Some may argue that emotions cannot be spawned or created by logic alone, and that is true, but a Way of Knowing is a separate technique that someone can use to 'know' something. I believe that emotion is not a way of knowing, because it is not a separate technique, and instead relies on logic to determine what emotion is felt.


Either way, it is still part of my curriculum to learn Emotion as a Way of Knowing, and nothing can change that, but it is quite thought-provoking whether it is a Way of Knowing, or just a construct of logic.

Is Language Universal?

Upon studying Emotion in Tok, it has raised a point: Is Language universal? Some emotions that we express through language may not be applicable to different societies than our own. For example, Japanese and English are different in a way that there are Japanese words that cannot be expressed in English. Some words that refer to abstract emotions or concepts just can't be expressed in some other languages. It gives us an idea of just how misleading some things can be. This can impact on emotion because a difference in native language could lead to misinterpretation of some actions or comments, and could really affect the other person.


I think that language isn't universal at all, and especially other languages' relation to English. Even if someone learns a language they will never know the real core of the words and feelings that some words explain.

Mothers' Day

Mothers' day is perhaps one of the most looked-forward-to days of the year for most mothers. I don't blame them for this, either. Receiving breakfast in bed, constant pampering throughout the day - they get it all. I suppose if I were a mother (hypothetical) I would want at least one day a year to get something back for all the effort I put in to cooking, cleaning, discipling, scolding... Anyway, I would want something back for all of the effort I put into looking after children. I suppose that the majority of mums would agree with me here. Mother's day is an institution - one day to make up for the rest of the year, one day to tell our mums how much we love them, even though we should do this every day.

One thing I don't understand is how much husbands get involved in Mothers' day. It is, after all, Mothers' day, not wives' day. We children should become more involved. We should be more up-pace, we should take that piece of toast out of our father's hand, we should help with setting the table. I think that Mothers' day today is less about the mothers from the point of view of the children, but more so a day of make-up from the husband and children about all of the bad things done throughout the year.

Mothers' day should be a day to give a little bit back to mothers: do the cooking and cleaning, the washing, the chores around the house, and also to thank our mums for doing these things every other day of the year. I think that this should be the essence of Mothers' day.

Up and Running!

This blog site is officially up and running! It will contain all of my ToK Blogs from May 5th onward, easily accessible, safe and not slow! I would say that my main reason for changing to this blogging site is, frankly, the Learning Place is slow and I would like a change to a faster, more stable store for my ToK Blogs. So, it's official, I declare this blog site open for business!