Wake Up Your Sensibility!
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Wake Up Your Sensibility!
  • Shin Won So-ra
  • 승인 2008.05.10 23:29
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Sensibility vs. Reason - What Type of Person Are You?


Choose one word that matches the first word.  Do not think deeply and just answer instinctively.
Q1.touch = A.hand  B.sense  C.skin  D.soft
Q2.empty = A.quite  B.bottle  C.pay attention  D.sad
Q3.travel = A.explore  B.discover  C.take a trip  D.visit
Q4.sleep = A.dream  B.light  C.warm  D.rest
Q5.reach = A.extend  B.arrive  C.touch  D.discover
Q6.love = A.worry  B.hold  C.need  D.always
Q7.breath = A.feel  B.wind  C.deep  D
.air

☞ Add up the scores corresponding to words that you chose.
Q1 : A → 1 B → 4 C → 3 D → 2
Q2 : A → 2 B → 1 C → 4 D → 3
Q3 : A → 2 B → 4 C → 1 D → 3
Q4 : A → 2 B → 4 C → 3 D → 1
Q5 : A → 1 B → 3 C → 2 D → 4
Q6 : A → 1 B → 3 C → 2 D → 4
Q7 : A → 4 B → 3 C → 2 D → 1

<Diagnosis>
7 - 12: Logical Type
You do not believe in inspiration and the inner life because you think everything can be explained rationally.  Sometimes you are fascinated by something special, but that is because you want to know the real reason behind it.

13 - 18: Emotionally Keen Type
You are very susceptible to feeling and atmosphere and understanding such emotion very well is important to you.  You are not a dreamer, but you like spending your time alone.  And you tend to look at the details of everything.  You believe not only reason but instinct, when you make your decisions.

19 - 24: Assimilation of Feeling
You have strong connections with others and so you can know what they think and feel by instinct.  Of course, sometimes you surprise people, because you already know what they are going to do before they do.  

25 - 28: Inspirational Type
You have the ability to catch the subtle and obscure signs after observing your surroundings and you grasp their meanings.  You cannot see the future, but you are an open-minded person who perceives the meaning of the ways of life.

 

Sensibility and Reason
Since ancient times, reason has been considered as the unconditioned ability of recognition; thinking logically, not behaving under emotional impulse, and controlling our intention and acts based on conceptual thought.  On the other hand, sensibility wasn’t regarded as a subject of objective understanding because of its lack of logical grounds.  Therefore, sensibility has always been treated as unscientific. 

Judgment on taste can be decided through experience using the sense of taste; however, mathematical formulas are derived from human’s thinking ability.  As such, human abilities to understand objects are divided into two: reason and sensibility.  Sensibility refers to emotional experience gained from the ability to comprehend objects through the sense organs, and reason is the faculty of capacity of the human mind by which it is distinguished from the intelligence of inferior animals.  Thus, humans understand objects and facts through sense and thought. 

 

The History of Reason and Sensibility

4th~5th Centuries
Hellenism, closely connected with Greek history, is people-oriented and related to physical instinct.  It is also a way of life or ideal of trying to develop and improve human potential.  On the other hand, Hebraism is a subjective, theocentric and ethical view of life and it is opposed to Hellenism.  It pursues the love of God and fellow man as well as inner satisfaction.  In a nutshell, the former is based on the real world and focused on the world of science through objective thought; however, Hebraism is based on an ideal world and concentrates on religious life.  Especially, Hellenism developed out of the humanism of Greece and succeeded to the Renaissance, Illuminism and Realism.  Hebraism was succeeded by the Christianity of Rome and the Reformation based on Christian faith. 

14th~16th Centuries
The “Renaissance” refers to ‘rebirth’, or ‘revival’- Re (Again) +Nascere (Birth).  It refers to the European cultural movement which occurred between medieval times and modern times.  The Renaissance had a great meaning in the history of civilization since it revived ancient Greek and Roman culture and released human reason and human nature escaping from the abstinence and temperance of focusing on a medieval god.  Voltaire said, “The Renaissance is the brightly shining time surrounded by the light of released reason.”  These concepts were reflected in art and architecture. 

17th~18th Centuries
Classicism regarded reason and form highly.  It highlighted common knowledge, reason, rule, form, principle and regularity. Classicism is a force which is always present in post-medieval European and European-influenced traditions; however, some periods felt themselves more connected to the classical ideals than others, particularly the Age of Reason, the Age of Enlightenment and some movements in Modernism.

18th Century
The philosophy of the Enlightenment is derived from the literal meanings of ‘light’ and ‘lightening.’  That is to say, it means awakening.  At that time, people used this expression because they believed ‘the light of reason.’ the power of reasonable thinking, could arouse people from the darkness which was lack of enlightenment, superstition, religious fanaticism and absurd custom and tradition.  It also means the light can complete the knowledge and intelligence of human.  According to Kant, the light of enlightenment was something that released people from immaturity created by using their reason without any distortion of bias or other’s maps.  

19th Century
Romanticism, which occurred in opposition to classicism, thought much more of sensibility than reason and of contents more than form.  It was partly a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature, and was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature.  The movement stressed strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror, and the awe experienced in confronting the sublimity in untamed nature and its qualities.

20th Century
To understand Postmodernism, it is necessary to know about modernism.  The modern age is regarded as the age of rationalism which developed from illuminism in the 18th Century.  Illuminism, which stressed belief in human reason rather than an exterior power or religion, took a serious view of rational thought.  However, because of exceeding assertion of objectivity, the movement was threatened in the 20th Century.  This is the origin of Postmodernism.  It values individuality, variety and independence and denies all absoluteness.  Moreover, belief in human reason is also relative.  Postmodernism puts emphasis on personal taste and decision which depends on sensibility rather than reason.  The view of objects and social events is based on relativism and pluralism. 

 

Sensibility Oriented Age
The present day is the age of sensibility.  ‘Sensibility’ is an important value in every area of our society.  A trend which has become prominent in the twenty-first century is ‘emotionalizing’.  As the importance of sensibility as seen in emotional marketing, emotional management, and emotional leadership increases, the emotional trend has been the current of the times.  Why is ‘Sensibility’ valued so highly? 

Rationalism representing objectivity and logicality has changed since going through the information revolution.  Mass media and the Internet as well as the development of telecommunications offer various forms of distribution, processing and storing of information which were not possible before the Industrial Revolution.  Therefore, people have come to realize their creative and individual value, thus escaping from the unified values of the Industrial Revolution like mass production and consumption.

At the same time, people have developed much interest in originative information such as the esthetic sense which can supply sentiment and feeling instead of textual information.  In addition, Korea has always had a sensibility -centered culture.  Since we observe a ‘culture of human nature,’ sensibility has a much more powerful influence on our society than in other Western countries.  Compared to rationalistic cultures which highlight utility and science, Korean culture stresses empirical and psychological factors. 

 

More about Sensibility
Human beings are endowed with five senses.  The fundamental life of a human is controlled by these senses.  Sensibility is feeling derived from the five senses; smell, sight, taste, touch and hearing.  Sensibility implies human individuality, taste, values and sensation, which influence their minds.  Being human is an emotional existence and sensibility pursues primary desires and satisfaction and includes both good and bad feelings.  Sensibility has been regarded as one of the most critical factors in understanding people’s behavior since the end of the twentieth century.

 

Requisite of Superior Leadership: Emotional Leadership
Emotional leadership is leadership which cares about people and encourages them to work with a pleasant mind.  To be a prominent leader, not only cold intelligence but also a warm heart is needed.  According to research, unlike normal leaders, leaders who have successful results have high emotional ability.

“The Primal Leadership” written by Daniel Goleman is a best seller which has sold over 1 million copies.  The writer asserts that training emotional ability is a key point of successful business management.  He also breaks the common idea which values intelligence excluding emotion and stresses that human sensibility is stronger than intelligence.  Leaders who understand their peers’ emotions and sometimes express it in their place can derive the best results from their workers and thus they can achieve the firm’s goals easily. 

 

Selling Sensibility, Emotional Marketing
When people buy products, reason is not the only factor in operation.  Emotional factors have a great influence on people.  Examining function or use involves reason and design or feeling involves sensibility.  Customers choose the purchases which best express themselves from a huge number of products and brands. The foundation of this act is sensibility. 

Emotional marketing thinks of customers as representing ‘individuality and value,’ not a ‘target of consumption’ to make a profit.  They know that respecting the person and individual value is very important.  Traditional firms regarded customers as people whom they had to manage, but in the case of emotional marketing, they think of the customer as a human being who has personal value and is respected. 

Customers are not just people who purchase a firm’s products or services; they fulfill their experience and feeling and put emphasis on their individuality.  They want to find a story or value in the products instead of merely buying them.  In addition, customers don’t buy a firm’s identity, but purchase goods which are able to express their sensibility.  They want to express their individuality by differentiating from others when purchasing products which reflect their identity.     

Emotional marketing is the shaping of invisible sensibility or taste through visible color, material and form.  Rather than appealing to reason, it is easier to attract the consumer’s attention directly by stimulating sensibility which values image and intuition. 

Shopping with Music
Sound marketing is a similar representative of emotional marketing.  It manipulates our mind which changes according to music and rhythm.  For example, expensive wines are in high demand when classical music is used in a wine shop.  In a restaurant, when people listen to slow tempo music, they take longer to eat their meals and drink more beverages.  Fast food restaurants use fast tempo music and it makes people chew faster and finish in a shorter period of time, thus insure a high turnover of customers.    

Stimulating Your Palate
Marketing which appeals to our sense of taste has also evolved.  It is not necessary to prepare some special place for tasting and sampling.  Through tasting events, sampling can be an effective way to attract customers.  In Sookmyung Women’s University, various food firms come to the campus on certain mornings and give samples of food products to students.  Also, combining the sense of taste with enjoyment, memory and emotional experience can yield a synergy effect.  For example, Shinsegae department has extended its food store sampling events since last July. 

Stimulating the Sense of Smell
The 300 percent increase in sales of bread in supermarkets in the U.S.A. by releasing a baked bread scent and in sales of popcorn by scattering popcorn in cinema ticket offices demonstrate the successful effect of aroma marketing.  In the case of Baskin Robbins, daily sales rose 40 percent after adopting aroma marketing; by using a chocolate aroma at first and then a peppermint aroma in stores and comparing the two cases.

Designing Vision

                                                          

Color marketing using the sense of sight can be found easily in our life, but still it has limitless possibility.  White-colored home appliances are not very marketable.  There are now many refrigerators and air conditioners in various colors such as pink, gold and silver.  Furthermore, the pharmaceutical industry uses color marketing. Viagra, a treatment for impotence in men, made a great hit as the “little blue friend.”  Vivid color like red is used in bromo and pain relievers, and medicine for melancholia uses pastel tones which are helpful to suppress stress.  

Touch Your Senses by Touch

The design of cellular phones which give visual enjoyment has developed into enjoyment by touching.  The ‘Heptic phone’ which has the meaning of tactile sense, is designed to create an emotional connection by offering 22 different vibrations when users finger a touch screen. Dong Hoon Chang on the standing committee of Samsung Electronics, said, “The Heptic phone is the third generation phone which stimulates the user’s sensibility.” He explained it as a product which coats the sensibility of analog on a digital instrument.  LG electronics decided on a new catch phrase, ‘Touch the Wonder,’ and introduced a touch lighting phone and touch web phone.  

Emotional Design
             

In the past, design was focused on creating physical and economical matters such as convenience, safety and durability.  However, because of the development of manufacturing technology, people want emotional design which can satisfy their visual pleasure arising from colors and shapes, and psychological value.  Emotional design offers satisfaction to customers through offering effective primary value as well as psychological interest beyond the emotional value.

The Apple ‘iPod’ is a good example of emotional design.  Steve Jobs, the CEO, chairman and co-founder of Apple Inc., realized the importance of design and sensibility through his experience of working with Disney, and used this when he introduced the very successful ‘iPod’ and ‘iTunes.’  A huge number of people worldwide are fascinated by its simple and clear design. 

Using emotions is the trend in our society.  We purchase products based on sensibility and products are produced based on this.  We are likely to be influenced by emotional manipulation. Not only in marketing, but in art and culture, controlling sensibility is the key factor.  It is quite obvious that people easily follow their sensibility and stimulating sensibility is a prominent issue in current times. 


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