What role does human nature play in everyday emotions and reasoning? Is Doing What “Feels Right” Really the Right choice?

In today’s generation, we’ve lost the sense of real standards and responsibilities. Everyone preaches “Do what makes you feel good!” “Do whatever you feel is right!” Everyone is so focused on how they feel, they fail to see that feelings may not actually represent reality.

There’s plenty of examples of this: alcohol, drugs, lust, greed, the list goes on. All of these things technically “feel good” in the moment. They give us temporary satisfaction giving us a temporary escape from reality. Great right!

Wrong. Often, we rely too heavily on fickle and fleeting emotions to make long lasting decisions. Whether it’s running towards the bottle again, running back to an unhealthy relationship, or running back to unhealthy food, we are constantly running towards a temporary solution while at the same time running away from the root cause of our issues that needs to be addressed.

Constantly relying on your emotions leads you to more harm than good, as we are naturally inclined to choose the fast fix, even if it means digging ourselves a deeper hole.

This is the issue with the idea of living a subjective, “anything goes,” lifestyle that is so common in today’s society.

So, there’s an objectively correct lifestyle?

Yes and no.

A simple starting point to unpacking this question is asking “How do you know murder is wrong?” “Did your parents have to tell three-year-old you not to kill your preschool classmate?” Maybe you kicked your friend and screamed when they took your toy, but chances are no one had to tell you to not be a coldblooded killer. We can save the question of “Why do people kill?” nature vs. nurture conflict for another time. For now, let’s focus on basic human nature.

Sure, your parents may have had to calm you down and teach you “sharing is caring!” but naturally, you don’t need to be told not to literally kill someone. You just know not to. Even from a very young age, the “Golden Rule” (treat others as you want to be treated) is present in its basic, foundational form.

This shows there is some level of objectiveness instilled in us just from basic human nature. This example can go another way as well: the child screams and kicks when someone takes their toy. We get upset when someone takes something from us. We naturally want to deem things as our own and get defensive when someone threatens that.

This establishes that there is an objectiveness instilled in us through human nature.

But where is the line? The question of “what things in life should be subjective vs. objective” has been long debated.

This question dates back to B.C, as shown in Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Even before the idea of an objective God was in place, philosophers discovered the importance of objectiveness.

Aristotle argues the point of life is to live “the good life” defined as striving to be the most virtuous person possible by using reason over emotions. He uses the analogy of a target. You should always aim for the middle (the perfect virtue) even though chances of actually hitting the target are slim.

This isn’t to say that there’s one correct way to act virtuously. In certain situations, there would be a right and wrong thing to do, and in another scenario, they would be switched. Moreover, the job of a teacher isn’t objectively better than that of a doctor, kindness isn’t objectively better than honesty, and so on and so forth.

Although virtue can look different, the foundational form of choosing reason over emotions remains the same.

People have been straying further and further from this mindset.

Beginning in the late 19th century progressivism era, the idea of “doing whatever feels good” rather than using proper judgment and thinking of others before yourself became prominent. Since the 1960’s, the ideology has only skyrocketed.

Today’s social media craze only further engrains this way of thinking with overconsumption of clothing, makeup, and any other materialistic thing you can think of. The next generation is being taught to base success off of how many followers they have and who has the newest trend rather than striving to be the most moral version of yourself.

So, when should you trust your feelings? Well, it can be complicated. As I said not everything is black and white but generally, instead of making impulsive decisions based off of emotions, look to something more permanent and reliable: Your reason! It’s there for a reason 🙂

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