“Do they have any?” wonder the Fs. Yes, logical thinkers have emotions!  Everyone has emotions — and uses them. However, Ts (“thinkers”) place their emphasis in decision making on analysis and rationality, not on emotion. Once they feel comfortable with their assumptions about the facts, they then proceed to truth via the precise path of logic. In their view, the path requires little emotion.

Even Ts Are Emotion Driven

However, the path is not devoid of emotion because it is emotion that drives them to walk the path to discovery and truth. Without emotion they would have no motivation. No discovery is ever made that does not utilize emotion, except one made by pure chance. It may be the prosaic emotion of having to be right, or a normal feeling of curiosity, or maybe a questioning skepticism that drives the T to a decision.  But emotion most assuredly drives them.

Logical Thinkers Are Sometimes Deceived

Some Ts will keep insisting that emotions do not motivate them. These people simply deceive themselves. As we have found, emotion is an unavoidable motivator of the human system, whether observed or not. Other Ts, besides the NTs regard emotion as unintelligent and they, too, are in error.

The Importance of Emotion

I remind you again of these facts about emotion to help you gain a perspective on the important place this element wields in our profile. Ever since Aristotle, we have been led to believe that we are rational creatures. Of course this is true.  But it is only half or less than half of the story. We are emotional creatures first and foremost.

Emotions Are Facts

Emotions, with their judgments, can direct a path to truth since emotions are facts of life and can make wise decisions. Once made, they have an impact on all we do and think.  and they often form our beliefs about what is true and false. We reject them as “always unintelligent” to our own detriment. Don’t exclude their wisdom.  Rather, let them take their rightful seat alongside of our reason.

How Logical Thinkers Perceive Emotion

For all Ts, their struggle is to understand the equality of both reason and emotion. The emotions that drive the worship of reason are the emotions that honor accuracy and preciseness. Emotion, however, reports whatever it senses and often does not pause for a lengthy evaluation before notifying us of its findings. Hence, the Ts can think of it as an inaccurate tool — and the more so, the more it stirs their feelings of inaccuracy.

Logical Thinkers Take Pride in Intellectual Preciseness

Add to this the fact that the Ts don’t favor fuzzy edges to anything in life and they have a difficulty coming to a decision about anything that is not clear cut, black or white. Pride in intellectual preciseness can make some feel intellectually superior, which is an emotion that can blind them to the importance of emotion’s role in decision-making.

Reason Aided By Emotion

We must not see these emotions as entirely negative, however. Skepticism, if it has positive goals, can drive us forcefully to create a world of better ways and more useful inventions. Nor should we strive for a balance between the use of emotion and reason since balance is not usually motivating and is often a compromise. It is, however, always a matter of walking the path of reason while evaluating the urges of emotion.