In a society's decision-making, where does logic end and emotion begin?

Question

...and what should be the role of each in guiding our decisions as a society? By "logic" I mean rigid things like the letter of the law, or numerical speed limits, or policies based on quantifiables such as temperature, population density, price, size, weight, and chemical purity. By "emotion" I mean more fluid ideas such as the spirit of the law, common sense, what your parents taught you, societal custom, and policies founded on generally agreed-upon standards of conduct. How do we define a healthy balance between the two in order to optimize the guidelines by which we steer our society?

Answer 1

Society's fulcrum between logic and emotion is wherever it wants it to be whether that means in the classroom, in the courtroom, or just generally in the community.

I used to think that the church was were this was balanced, but as more and more people decide to worship else where or not at all, it doesn't make sense to believe that religious institutions really instill a fervor of moral balance. To go on the other side of the spectrum and say the internet takes this role is too extreme though because social networking isn't so intertwined with personal judgement to the point of it impacting out reputations like out permanent legal record.

But if we step away from institutions and achievements which judge as well as listen to us, the only things remaining are our natural environment and the character of individuals. Really, the fulcrum of decision making is also the filter which guides our acceptance of other's and their action; our consciences. When we find ourselves pressured to do what's right, then we tilt over to the side of emotion and realize that our world cannot be organized in a perfectly logical fashion. Furthermore, because our intuition is not so developed as to allow us to read each other's minds, our consciences are limited to realistic instead of optimistic bounds, so inherently we do organize ourselves logically BECAUSE of our awareness for the constant need for safeguards.

SO (yea, this was all quite a mouthful) logic begins on a macroscopic and sociological scale where the people in the society recognize their inability to perform AND their inability to be protected. Maybe this comes in the form of law, gov't, civics, and ministries or maybe it comes from communication, relationships, and culture. Regardless, the people give up power to a greater entity which they all indirectly control when logic takes precedence over emotion.