When a redditor on this subreddit eventually asks "Who is the more rational sex" He is bombarded with the response that women are more emotional then men. For the sake of keeping this debate to a single subject, I will assume that women are indeed more emotional then men.

There is a hidden premise within this response. The idea that emotions somehow interfere with rationality. Certainly at first glance it would seem to be true. Rationality is to act accordance with reason or logic. Emotions cause people to act in accordance to emotions so the two must be at odds right?

Stoicism touches on this subject. Ancient stoic philosophers spoke of certain destructive emotions resulted from errors of judgment. But here emotions are a product of irrationality, not the cause of it. Stoic taught freedom from "passion" by following "reason". Then from whence does irrationality come from then? The stoics aren't concerned with answering this question. They just know that following reason is what kills irrationality.

So how do we answer it? This article from the royal society can help. The article itself concludes that emotion and rationality is a very complex matter . But there is a very useful bit of science that I would like to take from the article.

To understand the usefulness of neuroscience in examining the rationality of decision-making, it is worth looking at an example. Current neurological research shows that people with orbitofrontal cortical lesions have difficulties in anticipating the negative emotional consequences of their choices. People with healthy brains, however, seem to take account of these emotions, which are mediated through and are consistent with counterfactual thinking in the assessment of choice alternatives (Bechara et al. 1994). More generally, results from psychological and neurological research show that emotions and affective states are not just sources of biased judgements, but may also serve as essential functions leading to more appropriate choices.

Emotions seems to help with rationality. Not go against it. If we agree that, women are more emotional then men, and the majority of women have healthy brains. Then how can women be any less rational then men? What is your take on this issue?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keep your anecdotes to yourself