We were talking about emotions and cognition last night. Afterwards I starting thinking about a scenario adopted from The Gift of Fear:
You're waiting for an elevator. It opens up. There's a man inside, and no one else. You feel fear. You're not sure why. It's just a "vibe". This is not a typical reaction for you.
Quick now, what do you do? The elevator door is about to close. Choose one:
A) Enter the elevator
B) Do not enter the elevator
While you're deciding, here's a philosophical question: does this represent a conflict between emotion and cognition?
It's a case where you feel the man is dangerous, but don't know the man is dangerous. So it's not really a conflict of emotion vs. knowledge. It's more of having emotion without having much knowledge.
If this were a law court, I'd say give him the benefit of the doubt.
But when it's an elevator, you might want to stay out.
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