Reasoning and Feelings vs. Facts

When I read Descartes, the main thing I get out is the that all problems can be broken up into their simplest parts. The problems can then be solved without sense-dependent and mostly abstract thoughts. So in simpler terms (mostly for me to understand) if we break up problems enough, the parts of a problem can be approached without any irrational thoughts or feelings.

To me, someone who is in the science field, this a big deal. In science, its all about the way we approach problems and how we see them. If we let irrational thoughts or feelings get in the way, this can cause what would have been science to turn into nothing. Now I know that a lot of the blog posts thus far have been about the science vs. religion debate, but I want to look at Descartes from a new lens, reasoning and feelings vs. facts.

In today's world problems, this can be seen everywhere. We can look at economic problems, social problems, or even environmental problems. Not only are people trying to prove their own sides with feelings and irrational thoughts or reasoning, but the news and social media are making it even harder to get the truth and facts about situations. By not breaking these problems down to simple parts, we cannot solve any problem or use facts to find out answers. Not knowing the facts about situations is harming the problems even more.

I would like to relate this to Tesersa Neumann. This is a great case to look at because not only does it involve the science vs. religion debate, but also even more the facts vs. reasoning and feelings debate. Someone could view the situation and say that with reasoning, she was faking it and that this was not real. But the facts could say otherwise. Likewise, someone's reasoning could be the complete opposite and think that this was a true event which perhaps some facts are proving that it was fake. This isn't so much about the religion or science behind it at all. The way I am viewing it, thru Descartes, is how can this situation be broken up in simple pieces so that we can just piece together the facts. How can we view this without imposing our own judgement or feelings onto this. And most importantly, how can we ever come up with the answer to what happened without knowing the full story and any facts.

Like any other scientist or engineer, the problems that face us need to be met with the facts and the truth of the situation. Under no circumstance should we impose our feelings or our own reasoning behind decisions we make. Descartes knew this.