Tuesday, September 19, 2006

The decision maker

Usually, it is believed that a logical decision maker & an emotional decision maker cannot co-exist. That is not to say that any person cannot be either at different times, but that is to say that you have to choose between a value-system based decision & a rationality/logic based decision when both systems offer you an viable alternative in a typical right vs. right situation. For example, your surplus income could be a contribution to charity (Value-based, small good for lot of people) or invested away with financial institutions (rationality based, or in this case, a non-traditional-value-based decision alternative). Both decisions are right, but you can't take both decisions & thus the exclusivity of the two models.

Interestingly, it appears to me that logic itself has emotional strings attached. Those of us who swear by rationality & are its biggest advocates belong to the cult of logicism - for rights & wrongs are both human creations subject to opinion & debate.

So what makes sense depends on where your sensibilities are.

2 comments:

Antara Mukherji said...

i think emotional decision can be rational but rational decisions are most likely non-emotional.
eh?

S! said...

That could very well be. I guess I was trying to say that the demarcation of what is rational & emotional is not a very clear one.

S!