What is emotion?

Discussion in 'General Philosophy' started by zzz_ZZZ_zzz, Jan 17, 2006.

  1. Firefly Registered Senior Member

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    There would still be good and bad, but maybe not in the context you're talking about. For example, I can be good at driving. Or if someone smokes, that's bad.

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  3. EmptyForceOfChi Banned Banned

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    i would have to disagree with that, i can control certain emotions, fear i can control, happyness i an control, sadness i can conroll, anger i can control, guilt i can control,

    i can control them all with thought, it isnt that hard once you have trained for a long time,

    there is always room for improvement, do i actually need my emotion of fear at this stage in my life? do i need happyness from now on? i dont think i need them if a lion was charging me i dont need the emotion of fear to notify me this is a bad thing and i should run or fight, i can make that decision without fear,

    im not debating fear and needs while developing, just later on in life you dont need emotions,

    peace.

    peace.
     
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  5. cole grey Hi Valued Senior Member

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    If you are thinking about fighting a lion I would say a little fear would be a good thing to get you to jump back in your car as fast as you can.
    Have you ever seen how big those things are?
     
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  7. EmptyForceOfChi Banned Banned

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    yeah i have, but why would i need the actual emotion of fear to tell me that i need to run away or fight it, i know danger is there withut the emotion of fear,


    i can still use logic to know that it can harm me.



    as developed as i am now, (not before i was developed as a little child) but now why do i need my emotions? it wouldent matter if i was never happy again, or never said again, or never scared again,

    we need emotions when we are developing and as a species or animal its needed, but say you have a 50 year old man, he already knows a lion is a lion and it can kill him, why does he need to actually feelt he emotion of fear, he can run away and not be physically scared,


    peace.
     
  8. cole grey Hi Valued Senior Member

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    I was kind of joking, but still you say, "to run or fight", and i think anyone who is going to fight a lion is either stupid or they just don't have any other choice.
    If they don't avoid the fight with a lion they are not developed enough cognitively to be considered an adult, and should depend on primitive fear to bring them up to speed.

    Also, I think a person who is afraid would be able to run faster, due to adrenalin. Then again, if the person was too afraid they would just become less functional.
    I think you were right to say it depends on training, because an olympic runner is obviously not going to run faster if they are afraid, because they have tuned themselves to run at peak performance while maintaning some level of composure.
     
  9. water the sea Registered Senior Member

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    That fear arises in you when you encounter a danger is beyond you. Unless you are psychotic.
    Or enlightened.
     
  10. wesmorris Nerd Overlord - we(s):1 of N Valued Senior Member

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    Just posting to bookmark the thread. Hmm..

    Yes, it's easy to think of what emotion is. It's more difficult to say it.

    I have an idea about it, but I don't think it's exact. I often think of it as the "tensile relationship between conceptual relationships", but I need to work it out more clearly because that's not quite it at all, it's related, but that's not it.

    Maybe it is. I need to think this through a little big and read up on what's been said.

    Back later.
     
  11. wesmorris Nerd Overlord - we(s):1 of N Valued Senior Member

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    If we imagine ego as a lump of clay, emotions are the brain squishing it about. Puffing it up, straining it.. squashing it, fueling it...
     
  12. wesmorris Nerd Overlord - we(s):1 of N Valued Senior Member

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    Initially, I think it's basically a polar situation, with positive and negative feedback to stimulous. That's the emotion. As the mind builds context via conceptual inter-relationships, emotions complicate in kind. Feedback acquires the capacity to take new shapes to reflect new experiences.

    Perhaps it's as simple as that emotions begin as the abstract component of physical stimulous. As mind shapes stimulous over time (we see what we expect), emotions complicate as consequence.

    Hmmm. Yeah I dunno. I'm just playing with it to see where it goes.
     
  13. Rosnet Philomorpher Registered Senior Member

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    Not really. Why is smoking bad? We feel that its bad, because it damages the body, but why is that bad. We won't feel any need to live. In fact, we won't be smoking in the first place, because we wouldn't want to! But that's irrelevant. Now, you could say that smoking was bad <I>for health</I>, or that you were good <I>at driving</I>. But there is no deeper or personal meaning to these, since they don't really matter to us (because we don't have emotions).

    Furthermore, the original question was about whether emotions were good or bad.
     
  14. Happeh Registered Senior Member

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    1,263
    Emotions are bad. Displaying emotion takes energy. Losing energy is bad. Ask any scientist. You might have to go somewhere else to find one.

    Any system leaking energy is not working at top efficiency. A human being leaking emotional energy is not working at top efficiency. The leaks need to be sealed up.

    Ask any Japanese person.
     
  15. cole grey Hi Valued Senior Member

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    energy transfer and conversion is good, not bad.

    Actually, it might depend on whether the emotional experience has a constructive or destructive result.
     
  16. draqon Banned Banned

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    emotion is just a set of highly complex reactions that occur within a human body based on specific chemicals that are released or absorbed because of a particular excitment caused by events perceived by the human senses
     
  17. duendy Registered Senior Member

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    ((((((( "is just a" ))))))))))

    so wouod you say LOVE is just a---a set oc chemicals doing shit? is tis all love means to you? am curious
     
  18. duendy Registered Senior Member

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    "Mourning: Our pain for the world includes not only grief, but fear, anger, and despair. To deny these feelings makes us numb to the very emotions that reveal our connectedness."
    www.dragonnetwork.org/council
     
  19. Avatar smoking revolver Valued Senior Member

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    There is no reason why anyone should "feel pain for the world", or pain for anything for that matter.
    The universe is totally awesome, extasic and our planet is a jewel.
    Everything is "holy" so to say.

    Hey, get the song "Spell (unreleased)" by the proto-punk singer Patti Smith, it says what I want to say.

     
  20. duendy Registered Senior Member

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    hmmmmpgh...everythang done 'holy' fo yo cept it seems 'feelin pain for the world'...!!!
     
  21. Avatar smoking revolver Valued Senior Member

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    It's all in their heads. And in your eyes.
    Pain and suffering is only in the imagination, a creation of mind, a subjective interpretation of the world,
    it's not a part of the objective reality.

     
  22. cole grey Hi Valued Senior Member

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    1,999

    That is a meaningless description.
    Like these -
    Any painting is merely a guided splattering of oil based pigment.
    A vacation is merely a way to lower stress and clear your skin with some fresh air.

    Why bother painting at all?
     
  23. draqon Banned Banned

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    Cole Grey, I know more in biology then you do, and that is not a meaningless description, and yes I do believe that "love" is a set of chemical reaction that occur within a human body. Take time to understand the world you live in Cole. If you believe that the statement I have devised to describe emotion is false, then prove me wrong. Prove me wrong if emotion is not just a set of chemical reactions, prove me wrong that love as we call it is not just a set of highly complex chemical reactions. Please do. GOD nor bible, science is truth that guides this life, science that needs prove for everything.
     

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