Emotion & Reason in Euripides’ Medea
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Date
2013-12-09
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Abstract
Having or experiencing emotions is one of the defining elements in human nature. But it is also one area in which formal education, which is supposed to reduce our emotionalism and advance our rationality, is weakest; and this is clearly seen in expressions of anger. There is little, if any, difference in outbursts of anger between the formally educated and others. In public administration, the military, police, and prisons are examples of institutionalised responses to potential acts of violence generating from anger or other emotions. Generally, the emotions are central to our personal, social and national life. Using Euripides’ tragic play Medea as a context, we shall indicate that the emotions are indeed weak forms of reason, as others have observed, but, in addition, we shall argue that we can use the concept of “objectivity”, a core element of rationality, to assess Medea’s reactions to Jason’s infidelity. We shall end with some tentative and general remarks about how to deal with the emotions.