Emotivism

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

WE have to be aware of this way of looking and reacting to things in general that is actually ruling the lives of many people, especially the young ones, who do not know yet how to properly handle their emotions, feelings and passions.

As commonly defined and described, emotivism is an ethical theory that says that “it is impossible to determine right from wrong. Instead, any moral statement is simply a reflection of the speaker’s emotions.”

Affectivity which covers the whole range of emotions, feelings, passions and humor of a person constitutes a first approach, sometimes powerful, to the reality in which he lives. Because it is a first source of information, the affective dimension should not be left aside or considered as something accessory. Rather, our affectivity needs to be properly educated.

In this regard, it would be helpful if we assess which desires we want to foster, which ones we are interested in having to govern our life. Of course, for this, we need to consider what God through our faith and piety would show us about how our affectivity should be handled—that is, to discover the ways of aligning our desires according to God’s law and will for us.

Everyone should be made to realize as early as possible that while emotions and feelings are part of our human nature, we should not allow them to be the main guide of our life. Our emotions and the whole range of our affectivity are more a part of the animal dimension of our being. As such they are blind to the spiritual and supernatural dimension of our life, and thus, they need to be educated accordingly.

Obviously, the guiding principle should be our faith, hope and charity which truly define us as a person and a child of God. In other words, our faith, hope and charity tell us who we really are, what the purpose of our life here on earth is, how our freedom should be sourced and oriented, etc. They provide us the moral principles that should guide the way we use our emotions and passions.

The common problem we have in this regard is that many people are not clear about where we can have the ultimate source of knowledge and wisdom about ourselves. Some rely on some ideologies, fashions and trends. Others just seem to drift to wherever the world currents would take them.

Of course, given our wounded human condition, to educate our emotions and passions properly we need to ask for grace and rely more on the supernatural means without belittling in any way all the human means we can avail of.

We have to pray, offer sacrifices, avail of the sacraments, have devotion to Our Lady and the saints. Then we truly have to study a lot and go through the process of developing virtues.

This is how our emotions and passions help us in achieving an interior freedom in all our actuations. In this way, our emotions and passions get purified and are elevated to the spiritual and supernatural level.

This is also how our emotions and passions would know what is truly important and necessary in life, what brings us to our eternal joy. This is how they avoid getting stranded in our merely bodily and worldly conditions.

It is when our emotions are properly educated, that is, when they are properly integrated to the requirements of our faith, hope and charity, to the will of God, that we can say that we enjoy true interior freedom.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com