I have had several conversations of late that have used a strange foundation for a warrant and support. Perhaps it’s a peculiarity of my college campus, but the arguments consist of an appeal to feelings rather than thoughts. Even when answering questions in class or casual dialogue, people have responded with statements like, “Well, I feel that Rousseau was writing …” or “I feel that I’m free Tuesday to meet up.” Such statements only reflect a deeper movement away from thoughts and toward emotions. Other times, especially in the realm of theology and religion, there is a direct appeal to the idea that belief is or is not warranted because it does or does not feel true.
I don’t think that you can “feel” truth. Rather, truth is something that exists independently of our feelings for it.
Sometimes we can feel something to be true, even when it’s not. From David Koresh to Hitler, people have believed and undoubtedly felt the validity of things that proved to be ultimately destructive, harmful, and (in a word) untrue. The inverse is also notable. Sometimes we feel something to be false, even when it’s not. The absence of “felt” love from a parent does not immediately mean that you are, in fact, unloved. The actuality and reality of these situations is directly contradictory to how we feel about it.
Even if our feelings do conform to the reality of things, the proof of those things ought to extend beyond our emotions. This is because of two reasons. First, feelings can change. If you feel something is true, and later feel differently, how are you possibly to decide between them? I can’t seem to think of a standard that would provide a consistency to feeling truth. Second, in trying to communicate the truth or validity of any opinion, it is hard to appeal simply to the subjective nature of how we feel about it. If there is a disagreement, however simple, where both parties appeal to their personal feelings about the matter, there is again a marked difficulty in determining a standard to apply to negotiate that disagreement.
Especially in context of what I’ve written before, I don’t want to disregard the fact that there is such a thing as a holistic or balanced approach to this whole question. Are feelings and personal experiences important? Yes absolutely. But I don’t think that you can arrive at truth on the basis of feelings alone. This is because truth is independent of how we feel about it. At least that’s what I think and feel about the whole situation.
Yes! I love it! Totally agree.