Recently, I've been reading the story Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and I was presented with the interesting moral question: which type of thought plagues us more? Let it be known, I have not yet completed the story, so I cannot fully say what occurs. In the story, the main character Razkolnikov murders an old Jewish woman (who is a broker), as well as her sister. These murders occurred as a crime of passion, the second accidental. After he gets away with the murders he begins to physically break down because he sees logically how wrong he was, and how this could affect him. Interestingly enough, before actually committing the murders, he constantly stopped himself from doing it by seeing flaws with his thoughts, though passion prevailed.

Now, if he had been able to force himself to not commit the murders, he'd have avoided any form of turmoil; just as interestingly, if he had not thought about the murders logically afterwards, he'd have been able to more easily live with it, though he'd most likely have been caught. So, the question I present for debate is what type of thinking do you believe is the most problematic to someone? Is it thinking emotionally, or thinking logically? Both have their positives and negatives.

In my opinion, I believe thinking emotionally is more of a problem. I find that when people start getting too emotional, they make mistakes. Silly little lapses in judgement. To allow something like anger, love, or sadness cloud your vision to a situation, you limit yourself from viewing it objectively and soundly, preventing one form making the best choice they can. Thinking logically does have the downfall of being limited to the actual information you have, as well as the quality. Still, in my opinion, it is the better of the two.

The thing is, emotions affect the way we "logically" think about something. They're not completely separate and distinct. If anything it's illogical to assume your thought process isn't drastically affected by your emotional state.

As far as quantifying the harm caused by either of them, that kind of depends on the situation and the way you react to it. It'd be hard to make any objective statement about either because of that.

This reminds me of a book we read in my Literature and Social Justice class, The sun Flower by...(forgot who)
The book describes a situation where a Dying nazi asks for forgiveness from a random Jewish prisoner for the nazi's sins.
Logically, the jew shouldn't be able to grant the nazi forgiveness, for he has no right to grant forgiveness to a sin where he himself was not the victim.
On the other hand, acting out of pure emotions, forgiving the nazi is morally the most correct answer. By forgiving the nazi, the nazi would have a feeling of happiness, and in theory, the greatest amount of happiness would arise from forgiving the nazi, if the jew could put his emotions of hate aside.
In essence, The jew is forever plagued by whether he should make the logically or emotionally correct choice

I hope my comparison made sense(it prolly didn't) but bottom line I think emotions are a very powerful force. Emotions is what drive us. But emotions can also be our greatest savior. If the jew in "The Sunflower" could clear his emotions (I'm not saying that's an easy thing to do) that situation would probably cease to haunt him as it does in the book. Similarly, if your murderer in Crime and Punishment could clear his negative emotions (as you suggested), he could live his life in complete happiness. With this said, I believe logically thinking is more troublesome.

I hope I made sense...

they both cause problems. too much emotion leads to excessive irrationality and blindness to reason; too much thought leads to excessive self-restraint and suppressed feelings.

both should be accepted, cultivated, and used appropriately.

To be honest, in my opinion i think that it is impossible to make a dicition without logic or emotion.

When your placed into a situation, you begin a ray of steps and then come up with a solution.
*Step1: Realize the problem/situation
*Step2: Think of solutions
*Step3: Think what result will each solution bring
*Step4: Logically think what is best
*Step5: Emotionally think what is best
*Step6: Choose the best solution related to this problem/situation
*Step7: Do it


Bastically it all depends on what situation your in.
If your father got killed and you need to give the punishment to the killer, 90% of your dicition will be based on emotion!
If you get to choose between a secure job or a well-payed job, 90% of your dicition will be based on logical thinking!