Thinking And Feeling: Mutual Virtue Or Mutual Sin

There are many people who take a negative view of feelings. To such people the question to ask is, Why are the feelings there at all?

If we have evolved, then feelings and thinking alike have evolved for the benefit of the species. If we have been created, then both are there by divine design. And if our nature is fallen and corrupted by the sin of Adam, then that extends to feelings and thinking alike.

In either case the two are equal – either in mutual virtue or in mutual sin. So for example we see Luther saying that reason is a whore.

Both feeling and thinking can go right, and both can go wrong. Feeling is capable of nurturing life, forming loving relationships and producing excellent art, priestry and literature; it is also capable of doing many stupid things. Thinking is capable of producing science and technology; it is also capable of coming up with things such as Marxism and logical positivism. In either case, we see something that can go right and something that can go wrong.

With two capacities that are capable of going either right or wrong, the correct solution is not to side fully with either capacity. It is to have a strong use of both capacities. That way both check one another where they are going wrong; and both can come together to produce something that neither is capable of producing by itself.

To people who think that feelings are a “lower function” or anything of the sort, the scariest thing in the world is a feeling-oriented person with a brain. So their solution is to demonize such people. Keep making cases that they are evil. In fact it is these people who come up with the most insightful observations. That is because, once again, they have use of two capacities rather than one, and the two can come together to achieve what neither can accomplish by itself. This is a model that I've articulated for other matters: Synthesis within the framework of check and balance. Let feeling and thinking form check and balance upon one another in their capacity for wrongdoing; and let the two synthesize with one another to accomplish what neither can accomplish by itself.

So the correct solution is to encourage both thinking and feeling. Train children in both sciences and arts. And arrive at more full, more integrated, people, who have use of two capacities that can work together to accomplish what neither can accomplish by itself.