Can we know when to trust our emotions in the pursuit of knowledge? Essay

When I make a painting, I use the knowledge I’ve gained from studying art, for example, combining colors, the uses of different media and different surfaces, and how to represent something so that it is recognizable to others.

This means I use knowledge to implement the “how” of the painting. But what about the “what” of the painting, the content? For example, I draw faces on a canvas in oil—anybody who looks at the painting will understand that it’s ‘about’ faces. However, I color the faces green and blue. Everybody knows that human faces are flesh-colored.Do my colors give people new knowledge of human faces? Or do they contradict people’s knowledge? Neither.

My image enables people to think about human faces in a new way. I have applied something in addition to knowledge when I made the decision to use these colors. I added emotion.

When I look at my work, I learn from the emotional element in it. I become a better painter by trusting my emotions in the pursuit of knowledge. I believe that putting my emotion into my work also helps other people learn more about art appreciation.In this essay, I will explore whether emotions can be trusted in the pursuit of knowledge in the areas of history and psychology.

First, it’s important to define what we mean by emotions. According to van de Lagemaat, “Emotions consist of various internal feelings and external forms of behavior”. The James-Lange theory shows the idea that emotions have a physical nature. REF TOK book Therefore, if you take away the emotion a person is feeling, their behavior will change.

Van de Lagemaat also acknowledges that emotions have been considered obstacles to, not ways of, knowing.Following this theory it makes sense that the stronger the emotion, the more it can negatively impact knowledge. His theory also contradicted that in some cases your emotion cannot be trusted through your pursuit of knowledge. In history one will see that emotions are twisted in every story because that is what history is, a selection of stories from different sources and points of view. Who’s to say what the truth in history is? Who is the judge on whether a historical account is true or not? No one. This is what makes the pursuit of knowledge in history an emotional experience.It is hard to really know what is true because in different cultures and regions of the world, history is told from different people.

Depending on what side you are on, different historical events receive a different amount of information and, therefore, provide a different amount of knowledge. This difference can be due to the involvement of emotions. An example that I think that shows the role of emotions in the pursuit of historical knowledge is the War of 1812. According to one source, “the war is scarcely remembered in Britain today, as it regarded the conflict as a sideshow to the much larger Napoleonic Wars raging in Europe”.

In other words, the Americans called the war the “Second War of Independence. ” Briefly, the War of 1812 was fought between the U. S. and British Empire for four main reasons: (1) The British wanted to limit trade between France and the U. S. because of their war against France in Europe; (2) The American merchant marine became the largest naval fleet and made the British resentful of the power they acquired; (3) The British outraged Americans by seizing deserters from the British Navy, who had become American citizens, on American vessels; (4) The U.

S. was making moves to annex parts of Canada, which Britain ruled. The United States started the war and it lasted until the Napoleonic Wars were over in Europe in 1815, the British were mostly acting defensively.

Their position was not their normal one in this time in history. The British Empire was growing and their power in other parts of the world was unchallenged. It was less than 100 years after the Revolutionary War that the United States had the means to start another war against one of the most powerful countries in the world.

The reason that Americans used to fight this war was “the desire to uphold national honor in the face of what they considered to be British insults. The war was about the violation of American rights, but “it was also a vindication of American identity. ” and history book The American national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner,” was written after American victories in several battles. These victories produced “a sense of euphoria” from beating back Britain.