Emotion and will in public life

Abstract

Emotion is frequently seen as an irrational human device, while, in fact, is an adaptative result reached by human evolution. It is something animals have learnt from the long and collective experience of facing survival needs. Emotion appears when something affects to vital plans and then asks for a motion, for an immediate answer, for a reaction. This reaction implies an evaluation of possibilities, and in finding out which is the best moral values decide. In that sense, the variety of moral values is what matters.
The article shows how moral values, in their cultural shape, are the key to understand emotions in public life. Society, history and culture are the real context to understand the meaning of any speech, as well as the actions speeches try to arouse. Fear and truth are the emotion and value in play that we need to study to understand the play of political will nowadays.