Thinking, feeling...emotion vs. reason

“I think, therefore I am” says Descartes. The human being is a thinking being, it is characterized by thinking, differs from other beings in being able to think, rethink and memorize. I have often asked myself: do I think too much about things, do I reflect too much? Although there is nothing wrong with thinking and reflecting I again asked myself if it doesn’t make my life more complicated than it has to be. Should not I just act, doing, follow my feelings? Just live? However, is this possible, a life without reflection? To think about, to meditate on my own acting and non-acting, does not this belong to life?
And the Romantics have born me out in this and made me insecure at the same time. Wordsworth speaks about “pleasant thoughts/ [that ]Bring sad thoughts to the mind”(Lines Written in Early Spring, ll.3-4). So, too much thinking destroys our feel for nature and our surrounding. We always call something into question instead of enjoying it. We do not see the beautiful things around us because we are lost in thoughts. And is not this the case: you sit somewhere, let your mind wander; and suddenly you think about something you have not thought before and do not want to think about it because these thoughts are unpleasant, painful, too complicated? Wordsworth and Smith both write about that live in harmony with nature is more valuable than studying, reading, writing: “ Books! ‘tis is a dull and endlesse strife:/ […]Let Nature be your teacher”(The Tables Turned, ll. 9+16).
But there is the conflict. The adult cannot enjoy nature; he has to think about it. He lost his innocence, his childish innocence to just experience life and the world. He lost his innocence at the very moment he starts thinking about it. The moment of realizing ends the innocence. So one excludes the other. However, „A timely utterance gave that thought [realizing the loss of innocence] relief“ and makes strong again, writes Wordsworth (Ode. Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood, ll. 23-24) .Recollection, reflection destroys and cures at the same time. This remembers me of Blake: you have to destroy in order to create.
In the Romantic Period emotion is often preferred to reason. At least this is what I took from the poems. And this confuses me. Is there a line between mind and reason? Is it possible to separate these two things at all? In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Blake clearly prefers imagination to reason. And this leads me to Kant who is of the opinion that reason must not be influenced by emotion and imaginations in order to make the right decisions.
Thinking or feeling? Thinking and feeling? Feeling, then thinking? These are questions I still cannot answer. Maybe, I will never find the answer. Probably, there is not an answer at all.
A few days ago I had a very intensive conversation with a good friend from Germany. Here, it was late in the evening, there, it was early in the morning, so Barbauld is right when she says “This dead of midnight is the noon of thoughts” (A Summer Evening’s Meditation, l. 51). We exactly talked about the question of thinking/feeling/acting. And we could not find an answer, too. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the discussion; I like conversations like this one.
Honestly spoken: I would never have expected that the Romantic thoughts concerns me so much and even influences me. I would never have thought that the Romantic is so up to date – or timeless. Not only clouds and daffodils but deep thoughts and opinions that questions everything. Unbelievable mental and conceptual depth. Hard to understand – but it is worthwhile thinking about it. And again: thinking. The circle closes…