- Is it possible to know anything purely through our emotions? Or are they always affected by reason, sense perception and language?
- Are emotions biological or “hard-wired” into our psyches, and therefore universal to all human beings? Or are they shaped by culture and displayed differently in different societies?
- Can feelings be based on rational ideas? Or is the concept of 'emotional intelligence' (the title of a book by Daniel Goleman) an oxymoron?
- Is it possible to experience an emotion or feeling that cannot be expressed in language? Can an emotion, such as love or grief, have its origins in, or be shaped by, language?
- Bertrand Russell said: 'control your emotion or it will control you'. Is this possible? Does it depend on the culture from which we are from?
- Are concepts such as nationalism and racism examples of collective emotions?
- Is faith an emotion or is it a rational choice? Or is it neither of these things?
- Robert Ebert said, 'your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you.' But can emotions mislead us? And can other people help us to recognize emotions that we didn't realize we had?
- Why is reason often considered more important than emotion in our process of building up knowledge?
- David Hume claimed that “Reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions.” Is it true that emotions are the essential driver of any purposeful activity?
- Hemingway said, 'I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.' What part does emotion play in assessing whether an action is morally justifiable?
- What is more important in arriving at a moral conclusion: reason or emotion?