Everyone can understand emotion. Even if this concept of emotion is conveyed differently across different cultures, it can basically be boiled down to what we feel, or our uniquely human qualities of having complex and intense feelings and reactions to our environment around us. Our emotions can be categorized into seven basic emotions, which are anger, fear, disgust, contempt, joy, sadness, and surprise. These different emotions greatly influence our acquisition of knowledge, such as the doctors and scientists researching to find a cure for cancer. These men and women feel like their purpose is to help to cure such ailments, and the determination and the emotions that give this struggle momentum is just one example as to how emotions can affect our acquisition of knowledge.
In a different light, emotion can be seen as a very significant block or hindrance in our quest for the gaining of new information and knowledge. As seen in the years of the scientific flourishing of the Italian renaissance, one discovery in particular created a lot of controversy. Galileo Galilee had scientific proof, and had empirical and logical evidence supporting his claim that heliocentrism, the belief that the sun was in the center of the solar system, in opposition to the generally accepted geocentrism that stated that the earth was in the center of the solar system. The emotional attachment of both the Catholic Church and the people at the time led to the impeding of progress when Galileo was sentenced to a life of house arrest,