There are many ways to define “reason”—it’s an ongoing philosophical debate. By reason I mean a capacity for autonomous, informed, and compassionate judgment, not a denial of all feeling.

We hold the principles we hold in part because we emotionally resonate with the world they bring about when practiced. The emotions that inform our principles can be at odds with other, sometimes very strong emotions we have that are rooted in fear, greed, disgust, hate, or other more short-term, immediate survival-oriented emotions.

The practice of morality is to a large extent a discipline of privileging long-term ends over short-term impulses and satisfactions. This has to do with how we allow our emotional lives to influence our judgment and behavior.

All that to say—reason is not denying emotions and feelings. It’s about getting better at navigating them.