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[–] prairie 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago  (edited ago)

Your feelings are very important for decoding what you need as an individual. If you ignore them, you will do damaging things because your body will not stop trying to get its needs met. But emotions aren't a good source of forming an objective picture of reality outside yourself. Each tool has a use, and you have to use all of them in combination. Sometimes you have strong feelings because someone else is doing something to you to stifle you. By figuring this out, and then applying reason, you might figure something objective about the other person that you wouldn't have done so with just reason or just emotion.

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[–] Kromulent ago 

I have what I think is a nice model for this.

Some people decide the external things with reason, and consider the resulting satisfaction of their emotions to be just one factor among many how they make their decision. They can be very rational and they make all the tough calls, but they are also prone to overdoing it, and putting their own feelings aside too often.

Some people put to much emphasis on their feelings and that leads to exactly the mischief you'd expect.

I think the healthiest way is to allow your intellect to inform your feelings, and to make sure that your feelings understand the importance of a rational, efficient outcome. Sometimes an efficient outcome is very important, and you'll desire that outcome very strongly. Sometimes it just does not matter all that much, and you'll cut yourself some appropriate slack, and just have what you want because you want it.

Ultimately I think that feelings decide. Informed feelings can be trusted, if they feel the importance of reaching the right answer.