Emotion is sometimes regarded as the opposite of reason. As is suggested by phrases
such as "appeal to emotions rather than reason" and "don't let your emotions take over".
Emotional reactions sometimes produce consequences or thoughts which people may later
regret or disagree with, but during an emotional state, they cannot control themselves.
Thus, it is generally believed that one of the most distinctive facts about human beings
is the contradiction between emotion and reason.
However, recent empirical studies do not suggest that there is a clear distinction
between reason and emotion. Indeed, anger or fear can often be thought of as an
instinctive response to observed facts. The human mind possesses many possible reactions
to the external world. Those reactions can lie on a continuum, with some of them
involving the extreme of pure intellectual logic, which is often called "cold", and
others involving the extreme of pure emotion not related to any logical argument,
which is called "the heat of passion". The relation between logic and emotion merits
careful study.
Passion, emotion, or feeling can reinforce an argument, even one based primarily on
reason. This is especially true in religion or ideology, which frequently demands an
all-or-nothing rejection or acceptance. In such areas of thought, human beings have to
adopt a comprehensive view partly backed by empirical argument and partly by feeling and
passion. Moreover, several researchers have suggested that typically there is no "pure"
decision or thought; that is, no thought is based "purely" on intellectual logic or
"purely" on emotion - most decisions are founded on a mixture of both.