Response: Mass Appeal

In response to Kelsey Phifer's post "Felt Reasons and Caring" (April 20, 2012):

While I think that, ideally, people should take action based off reason alone, I do agree that in many (possibly most) cases, they require some sort of emotional impetus.  As such, while felt reasons may hold relatively little value for people who regularly engage in critical thinking, they may hold a great deal of value for the majority of humanity.  No matter how logical one's argument, one is unlikely to sway many others to one's cause without a dose of emotionally charged rhetoric.  As an example, comparatively few people choose to become vegetarian or vegan based solely off rational argumentation about the ethics of animal (and animal product) consumption.  A significantly higher portion of people become vegetarian or vegan after seeing graphic documentaries depicting animal abuse in the meat and dairy industries.  I think that this reliance on emotion to make ethical choices is both problematic and regrettable, but it may be part of human nature, or at least part of human society now and for some time in the future.  As such, I think that felt reasons do have merit.