“There can be no knowledge without emotion…until we have felt the force of the knowledge, it is not ours.”(adapted from Arnold Bennett)
Discuss this vision of the relationship between knowledge and emotion…
This quote from Arnold Bennett consists of two parts, which are related to each other. Firstly, I will look at the first statement: according to him there is a relationship between knowledge and emotion. He states that there can be no knowledge without emotion; so if there are no emotions, there is no knowledge. But which type of knowledge does he mean? It isn't explained in his thesis; it could be knowledge you have learned from your experiences or knowledge which you have “a priori.” Arnold Bennet doesn't say if you can gain knowledge with or without emotion; so the first part of his statement can also be expressed: “knowledge can't be gained without emotion…” The second part of his statement isn't clear if Arnold Bennett means the common knowledge or the individual knowledge; latter means if you individualize the knowledge, you make it “ours.” In my following essay I am going to explore if there can be knowledge without emotion and how it can help or hinder knowledge to become “ours”. Are we able to make decisions without our emotions? Therefore, I am just considering emotion as a Way of Knowing, which excludes language, intuition, as well as memory and sense perception. There are also different Areas of Knowing, such as Arts, Mathematics and Ethics, which I am going to look at.
Knowledge has to “become ours”, which means if you talk about “ours”it can’t be without emotions, because emotions personalize your knowledge. Emotions help us to define ourselves: our social life, our community and our daily acting is ruled by emotions. However, emotions, as mentioned above, are personal, they can even lead people away from the truth. If we act too emotionally we cannot make rational decisions. For example, if you have a personal antipathy towards mathematics or any other science and you refuse doing it unconsciously, you can hardly get any scientific knowledge.Throughout this antipathy it doesn’t become "ours"
As a human being we want to get knowledge, we want to know what’s “behind”it and we always search for answers. In order to start thinking we need an impulse, which we get through our emotions (another impulse can be through our senses which I do not explain in this essay). When we get to know something we don’t have a big interest in and we are not related to, we probably won’t remember this gained knowledge and it will never become ours, but if we are passionate about something and are connected to it emotionally, we make it more valuable. For example, I don't like bugs at all, no matter if there are little or small. Whenever I see a bug there is a shiver runs down my spine. Even when I watch these animals behind a thick glas I am frightened. I know that some of them aren't dangerous at all, but for me, every bug can be dangerous. In some cultures like in Egypt, the former pharaoh adored these little animals. You find them in the graves and in the paintings. My emotions to these creatures aren't the same as the ones of the Egyptian people, but I have made my emotions to my one.
There are two types of knowledge: There is basic knowledge which you don't even have to experience, maybe you just gain it by repetition. I took Latin at school, and the way we have learned the vocabulary was simply by repetition. Nobody talked to us in Latin, just had to translate the text and analyze the grammar. I have to admit that there must be a little bit of a emotion involved otherwise I would have never chosen the language. But the level of emotion wasn't so high. I felt satisfied if the text was understandable. The knowledge I gained from it was partly mine. Let's take another example. I love music and my flute. When I listen to an orchestra and it has finished I can hardly tell if they were talking or playing y me. I can feel what the composer wanted to explain with his music. When I try to do it with my flute it is much easier for me, because I felt the enormous power and force that makes it easy for me to repeat it. My process has been achieved through my emotions. Musicians who don't have any emotions while they are playing do it like machines. Culture and tradition are based on common knowledge, which was given from generation to generation. The people haven't experienced it by themselves. People in Africa know what to do by an illness, how to bold a sustainable house etc. This knowledge was all given to them. In these cultures the religion also plays a significant role. Even in the western world our calendar is ruled by Christian bank holidays. For example when we grow up we are taught how the world is build, that Adam and Eve lived in the paradise etc. but when we grow older we overthink these aspects and begin to make our own thoughts about the world and the universe that can differ we were told in our childhood. Some people can’t make this knowledge theirs, because they might not believe in religion. They don’t feel any emotions about it and don’t personalize it for themselves. Others the connect themselves with the common knowledge and make it personal. I disagree with Arnold Bennett’s first part of his statement that “there can be no knowledge without emotion”, because he excludes all the other Ways of Knowing. You can gain knowledge by using other Ways of Knowing such as language, sense perception, intuition, etc. I agree with the second part of his statement that there can be no knowledge without emotion “until we have felt the force of the knowledge, it is not ours. "When you want to make knowledge yours, there is no way of doing that without emotions. People are attracted by emotions, which “forces” them to get knowledge.
Discuss this vision of the relationship between knowledge and emotion…
This quote from Arnold Bennett consists of two parts, which are related to each other. Firstly, I will look at the first statement: according to him there is a relationship between knowledge and emotion. He states that there can be no knowledge without emotion; so if there are no emotions, there is no knowledge. But which type of knowledge does he mean? It isn't explained in his thesis; it could be knowledge you have learned from your experiences or knowledge which you have “a priori.” Arnold Bennet doesn't say if you can gain knowledge with or without emotion; so the first part of his statement can also be expressed: “knowledge can't be gained without emotion…” The second part of his statement isn't clear if Arnold Bennett means the common knowledge or the individual knowledge; latter means if you individualize the knowledge, you make it “ours.” In my following essay I am going to explore if there can be knowledge without emotion and how it can help or hinder knowledge to become “ours”. Are we able to make decisions without our emotions? Therefore, I am just considering emotion as a Way of Knowing, which excludes language, intuition, as well as memory and sense perception. There are also different Areas of Knowing, such as Arts, Mathematics and Ethics, which I am going to look at.
Knowledge has to “become ours”, which means if you talk about “ours”it can’t be without emotions, because emotions personalize your knowledge. Emotions help us to define ourselves: our social life, our community and our daily acting is ruled by emotions. However, emotions, as mentioned above, are personal, they can even lead people away from the truth. If we act too emotionally we cannot make rational decisions. For example, if you have a personal antipathy towards mathematics or any other science and you refuse doing it unconsciously, you can hardly get any scientific knowledge. Throughout this antipathy it doesn’t become "ours"
As a human being we want to get knowledge, we want to know what’s “behind”it and we always search for answers. In order to start thinking we need an impulse, which we get through our emotions (another impulse can be through our senses which I do not explain in this essay). When we get to know something we don’t have a big interest in and we are not related to, we probably won’t remember this gained knowledge and it will never become ours, but if we are passionate about something and are connected to it emotionally, we make it more valuable. For example, I don't like bugs at all, no matter if there are little or small. Whenever I see a bug there is a shiver runs down my spine. Even when I watch these animals behind a thick glas I am frightened. I know that some of them aren't dangerous at all, but for me, every bug can be dangerous. In some cultures like in Egypt, the former pharaoh adored these little animals. You find them in the graves and in the paintings. My emotions to these creatures aren't the same as the ones of the Egyptian people, but I have made my emotions to my one.
There are two types of knowledge: There is basic knowledge which you don't even have to experience, maybe you just gain it by repetition. I took Latin at school, and the way we have learned the vocabulary was simply by repetition. Nobody talked to us in Latin, just had to translate the text and analyze the grammar. I have to admit that there must be a little bit of a emotion involved otherwise I would have never chosen the language. But the level of emotion wasn't so high. I felt satisfied if the text was understandable. The knowledge I gained from it was partly mine. Let's take another example. I love music and my flute. When I listen to an orchestra and it has finished I can hardly tell if they were talking or playing y me. I can feel what the composer wanted to explain with his music. When I try to do it with my flute it is much easier for me, because I felt the enormous power and force that makes it easy for me to repeat it. My process has been achieved through my emotions. Musicians who don't have any emotions while they are playing do it like machines.
Culture and tradition are based on common knowledge, which was given from generation to generation. The people haven't experienced it by themselves. People in Africa know what to do by an illness, how to bold a sustainable house etc. This knowledge was all given to them. In these cultures the religion also plays a significant role. Even in the western world our calendar is ruled by Christian bank holidays. For example when we grow up we are taught how the world is build, that Adam and Eve lived in the paradise etc. but when we grow older we overthink these aspects and begin to make our own thoughts about the world and the universe that can differ we were told in our childhood. Some people can’t make this knowledge theirs, because they might not believe in religion. They don’t feel any emotions about it and don’t personalize it for themselves. Others the connect themselves with the common knowledge and make it personal.
I disagree with Arnold Bennett’s first part of his statement that “there can be no knowledge without emotion”, because he excludes all the other Ways of Knowing. You can gain knowledge by using other Ways of Knowing such as language, sense perception, intuition, etc. I agree with the second part of his statement that there can be no knowledge without emotion “until we have felt the force of the knowledge, it is not ours. "When you want to make knowledge yours, there is no way of doing that without emotions. People are attracted by emotions, which “forces” them to get knowledge.