I am reading a page per day of a book that is “365 Days of Philosophy” and I suspect it may inform my musings throughout the coming year.   The page I read this morning for December 28, was on Emotions and Ethics by Martha Nussbaum.   I will not repeat it here, but it is best summarized in the last sentence … “Emotions refined by reason can guide us with a richer moral compass, uniting the head and the heart for deeper ethical engagement.”

I have been writing for some time about the need for reason to overcome emotion as it is being stirred by forces that are using our fears and intentionally stoked anger to their own advantage of power gain.  Example the anger toward undocumented immigrants stoked by the occasioned stories of violent crime, in order to gain power in the polls.  Exceeding what might be possible  by the reasoned application of statistics.  Statistics which would point to the fallacy of painting all undocumented immigrants with the same brush.   Alternatively, another point of view could also be informed by the empathy of families being torn apart and deportations without due process.

Ethical policy, ethical behavior in our lives come from a necessary mix of reason and emotion.  Emotion is informative.  Empathy instructs us where to look to find reasonable solutions to problems.  We are stronger because we are a social species, and we have improved our world experience dramatically above all species because of our ability to reason and share this reason through language.  Building on knowledge, science, reason  we create, invent and grow.  The mother of invention is the need, of our own and others.  Empathy is necessary, and reasoned thought essential.

Where they come together, the heart and mind can work towards a richer ethical engagement.  God knows we could use more of this in the world.