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| Philosophy General; From Nietzsche to Ekman, all the way over to Sartre and Seneca. | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: May 17 2012, 06:50 AM (227 Views) | |
| Syrassil | May 17 2012, 06:50 AM Post #1 |
Brooding master of inactivity.
  
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Welcome! You've just entered the Gymnasium, a brotherhood of great minds and home to the most vocal of research: boundless discussion. Come and sit down with the rest of us, and have a chat about the more abstract matters of life, such as religion, personality or even the universe. I'll spearhead a discussion of my own right away: Emotions. What are they? According to William James (monist and physiologist) - the physiological theory: Emotions are physical reactions to a situation; They are the instinctive impulses of the body when faced with important events. Example: when we are faced with a life-threatening situation, we feel fear; the blood ices in our veins, we tremble and our eyes widen. Does the body do this because we are scared? No. According to James we are scared because we feel fear. Not the other way around. The bodily reaction is what comes first, and the mental recognition of these symptomes shows us that we are afraid. The emotion is purely physiscal. According to Martha Nussbaum (dualist and cognitivist) - the cognitivistian theory: Emotions are 'sensitive thoughts'. They are part of a process of judging a situation. Example: when we are faced with a life-threatening situation, we firstly make an assessment of what is going on using both our reason and our physical reaction (For instance: I assess that I am afraid of this situation and there is need for me to be scared of what is to come). We then 'judge' the assessment by looking at all the factors, and decide if this is truthful, false or unjudgeable. What springs forth is what we call an emotion. These are just two different theories on emotions. But what do you think of them? Do you agree with any of them, or do you reject both of them and have your own theory? For that matter, do you think emotions are a mental or physical process? |
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| Gath | May 17 2012, 08:13 PM Post #2 |
It sure is lonely...
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I entirely believe that emotions are on a mental process. I cry a lot from past traumas, and memories are not physical in any way. At the time, it may have been, but I doubt it. I also believe they are to be on a mental process, seeing as there is such thing as apathy. People feel completely indifferent to whatever may be presented to them. I personally am somewhat apathetic and that's mostly on the part of my brain, where I just feel absolutely no need to assess anything around me, seeing as it doesn't concern me. There are some things, like suicide from abuse that people could state that sadness is an emotion related to the physical reaction, but I see it more as of a mental process. Sure a person will feel completely annihilated on the inside, but in their head, they know they deserve better and should not be treated as such, but then their brain fails to make a proper connection. Instead of trying to think positively on different things other than the trauma, it goes to a state where it endlessly reminds you of what happened and you can't help but cry to yourself. It makes you think people don't love you. I experienced something like this from experience as well. On the other hand, there are physical factors that need to be triggered before having a mental reaction. A proper example is the feeling of touch or smell. If suddenly the floor was collapsing, you'd feel it and only then would you start worrying about your death. Same for fire and smoke. There's also the effect of vertigo. If two of your senses contradict each other, you will have a dizzy effect which will start activating fear, seeing as you don't understand your surroundings anymore. A prime example of this is a diving board. Your feet tell you you are firmly standing on something and will not fall, while your eyes tell you there is only water around you and you are standing above it. Your subconscious isn't sure what is going on and you start feeling uneasy and are slightly scared. |
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| Syrassil | May 18 2012, 05:08 PM Post #3 |
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Brooding master of inactivity.
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Thank you, Gath. Great post. Yeah, I agree with you, for the most part. To me, emotions are a mental process that flow forth from a physical reaction. When we experience an event that has an emotional value (it is a matter of importance) it triggers an instinctive, physical reaction. This reaction is a 'rough' emotion; this mean that it only deals with the initial shock of the event. To name a few 'rough' emotions: - Rage - Fear - Happiness - Sadness - Disgust - Marvel/Surprise After the initial shock, we go forth and enter the mental process of the emotion. We make an assessment of the event, using both the rough emotion and the pre-known rational information. From this flows the 'defined' or 'complicated' emotion. These emotions differ from the 'rough' emotions in that they employ our reason as a second catalyst, next to our senses/feelings. To name a few 'defined' emotions: - Pity - Anger - Compassion - Contempt - Envy - Pride And loads more, of course. Uncountable amounts and such. To empower my theory; I believe that the 'rough' emotions are set into a group of base emotions. These are invariable and all 'complex' emotions are a extention of these base emotions. All can be valued down to one or another of these. It is also not strange that most of these base emotions (or 'rough' emotions) can be triggered by just a sensitive image: - You can feel fear because your life is in danger. This calls for no reasoning nor does it call for any conclusive thought. It is an instinctive reaction of survival. - You can feel rage at something that has caused you harm. It calls for no definite intellectual reason; it merely needs to form a threat to your survival. - You can feel disgusted by something that you encounter without it requiring a why or how. Something can be instinctively 'disgusting', such as a severed body or exposed intestines. - You can be surprised by anything without it having a reasonable expanation. For that matter, it is even nearly impossible to be surprised by anything that has a reasonable or logical explanation before the emotion occurs. These don't need an intellectual reason nor do they need a rational cause to transpire. That is what makes them nothing more that initial, instictive, reasonless emotions that occur in the initial phases of an event that has an emotional value. The rest of all emotions flow forth from these. Anyhow, that is my take on it. Now then, what do you think about this thesis? Some emotions have universal physical reactions that happen all around the globe, regardless of western interferance. Therefore, emotions are inherited and have nothing to do with culture or experiences. So, do you believe emotions are based in our nature (racial heritage) or nurture (cultural upbring, experiences, personality)? |
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| Gath | May 18 2012, 05:54 PM Post #4 |
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It sure is lonely...
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I like your take on emotions, Syras. I don't believe that they should be called rough emotions though, seeing as sometimes you can simply think of something and start getting infuriated or scared. They can most definitely be used without even realizing it, but sometimes they can be from the mentality. An example for this, (More of... teenage girls) Two friends are talking well to each other, but then the next day one of them sees the other talking to the other and then you hear of back-talk. You will feel hurt, rage, anger, etc... There's once more the example of abuse as well. If you know from past experience you've been abused, you will expect it to happen again, so out of fear, you try your best to prevent it. You shake uncontrollably and feel as though you grasp nothing around you. Once it does come again, you will feel anger though, pure and eternal hatred to the person doing as such to you. Now I'd like to bring up something I've just discussed with you on skype. Happiness and Sadness are by no means rough, but you are capable of being happy just for the purpose of being happy and same thing for sadness. People who can become sad on the spot without thinking of anything or happy, I believe to be somewhat insane. That is not a normal thing, seeing as we did that as babies, but grew out of it. There is no name for that, but there is one for fear, which is schizophrenia. That's all I'm posting, seeing as me and Syras are discussing intensively on skype :u |
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