Emotion Cannot be Divorced from Reason
In Washington, a portion of Washington Pattern Jury Instruction (Civil) 1.01 reads as follows:
As jurors, you are officers of this court. As such, you must not let your emotions overcome your rational thought process. You must reach your decision based on the facts proved to you and on the law given to you, not on sympathy, bias, or personal preference. To assure that all parties receive a fair trial, you must act impartially with an earnest desire to reach a just and proper verdict.
We are asking jurors to do something that is not possible. Our emotions are an intregal part of our reasoning process. Emotion usually comes before reason. An astronomer does not spend his or her time reasoning out the workings of the stars and planets without first having been drawn to the science by a sense of awe. Even Donald Trump does not use his rational mind to figure out how to make millions without some emotional need to be the top dog. In fact our limbic system which is part of the brain aids the rational brain by enhancing memory and it is thought that damage to the limbic system may result in autism. In short, we cannot function without emotion.
In ancient Greece pathos was an integral part of rhetoric. Aristotle devotes many pages of his The Art of Rhetoric to emotions such as anger, calm, shame, pity and jealousy.
So, he asked rhetorically, what's the point here? The point is that you will be much less likely to win your case if your argument or your theme is, "Let's be rational here folks. We cannot be carried away be emotion. We must dispassionately apply the law to the facts." That is not going to work. Even by saying it seems to imply that the speaker knows he's on the wrong end of what emotionally feels like the right thing to do. So the art of rhetoric is to always find some emotion to tap into to support your reasons why your client should win.
