Questions about Logic and Reason

Some questions have come up in my mind or the mind of my LJ friends as I've been putting up logical fallacies, with examples, for discussion.

1. How much should we rely on reason and how much on emotion when making decisions about our personal lives? Setting law? Other decisions?

2. Are there circumstances where purely reason should be used to make decisions? Only emotion?

3. How much of our laws are based on morality? How much should be?

I tend to agree with the position that other people shouldn't be able to force their morality on me in the form of laws about private consensual adult behavior. And yet, some of our laws obviously reflect the majority's moral stance on various issues (i.e. "murder is wrong"). However, I think that while there is an *overlap* between morality and law, morality isn't the sole or even most important factor for determining law, because morals vary from good person to another good person, based on personal experience, religious and cultural background, etc. What I think is going on is a sort of "societal contract," in which we agree not to murder one another not so much for moral reasons as for practical ones. There's a reason that banishment was a terrible judgment thousands of years ago; especially in primitive environments, it's much harder to survive on your own than in a cooperative group. People who violate the unspoken social contract put the good of the group in danger, and that's why we agree to many laws that restrict our freedom-- it's because they're for the good of the whole group, even when they infringe on individual's rights.

Anyhow, additional thoughts on any of these questions?

Sore in the good way

My darling dionysus1999 has bought me several exercise DVDs over the course of the last 2-3 months. Most recently, he picked me up a cardio kick-boxing DVD and a dance aerobics DVD for a buck each at the dollar store. I didn't want to be a complete lump yesterday, so I decided to just "preview" the kickboxing DVD. I followed along for the short segment where the instructor shows you how to do four different punches and two kicks, and then decided I could at least do the warm-up as well. I ended up doing the warm-up and about 15 minutes of the the rest of the DVD and then fast-forwarded to the cool-down. I skipped the brief ab workout at the end. And still, I ended up pretty sweaty when I was done. Today, my middle back and inner thighs really feel like they got a workout. If doing only about half of the DVD got me that sweaty and sore, I think I obviously need to work my way up gradually to doing the whole routine.

I really appreciate J. being my exercise buddy. We are at different fitness levels, but we still rely on each other for motivation to get to the gym 3-5 times a week, or to do some yoga, walking, or aerobics when we don't make it to the gym. I know that I would probably be really tempted to skip the gym a lot more often than I have been doing if I wasn't concerned about disappointing J. and getting him off-track with his fitness goals. I appreciate you keeping me supplied with a variety of exercise DVDs, too, honey; variety is the spice of life!