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Emotion versus Logic
I know this is rather crude but I'll attempt to differentiate the two by defining emotion as things we feel, and logic to be things we understand. Logic requires and tends to take the form of an explanation, emotion simply is. Yeah, if you're having problems already just read through and hit me with it. I want some damn answers. Or maybe just more questions.
Understanding emotion, the need for it, it's sources and motivations. I'm already lost, and can only hypothesize; using logic, that emotion is a physiochemical response to stimuli to re-enforce, or alter behavioral patterns. If we constantly feel bad for doing something our body is probably telling us to stop doing it. And of course this is far too vague, and we have a bucket load of different emotional descriptors; guilt, anxiety, happiness, wonder, amusement, anger which probably exist more as a continuum than discretely. The concluding assumption is that different emotions; or regions of the spectra, have a different effects and targets in altering our behaviour.
This is obviously too simple, when we consider feelings of loss and longing - when often little or nothing can be done to remedy the situation, things look helpless, and we can get set into circles of depression and shit will hit the fan. A logical explanation for which I'm struggling to even imagine. Perhaps so that we can reflect and learn from the experience, but the fact I have heard that expression so many times in both the media and my personal life leads me to doubt it.
But I digress. The real purpose of this post was to call into question the debate over which is more powerful, more important, and more reasonable to use in shaping our values and the way we behave. Of course the use of the word reasonable implies logic, and it is possible that logic could be considered a higher emotion, or emotion a deeper sense of intrinsic logic - that they are in fact different branches of the same tree. A conclusion which looks a little shinier when we consider that with the use of reasoning and logic we can suppress and or change; if only to an extent, our emotional responses to situations.
The issue however, as J.A.C. Brown and countless social scientists have expressed, investigated, and for most intensive purposes proved is that our emotional selves are basically programmed long before we have the ability of reason to shape them.
So occasionally when we face problems, we are struck by an overwhelming emotional response that is contrary to our logical opinion. Like the desire to drink heavily after being dumped, while also believing such activities are dangerous and self-destructive. Or overwhelming helplessness felt at the realization of death, contrary to the intellectual opinion that wasting time thinking about is wasting time you could be doing the things you're afraid of not being able to do.
Then there are the answers; existentialism, religion, insanity, suicide, etc
But the reason that I think this is important to spacecollective, is how are we going to use the increasing amount of scientific knowledge and accompanying logic to shape society in the face of traditional emotional tendencies and feelings, of which many I at least consider to be in need of some alteration.
Understanding emotion, the need for it, it's sources and motivations. I'm already lost, and can only hypothesize; using logic, that emotion is a physiochemical response to stimuli to re-enforce, or alter behavioral patterns. If we constantly feel bad for doing something our body is probably telling us to stop doing it. And of course this is far too vague, and we have a bucket load of different emotional descriptors; guilt, anxiety, happiness, wonder, amusement, anger which probably exist more as a continuum than discretely. The concluding assumption is that different emotions; or regions of the spectra, have a different effects and targets in altering our behaviour.
This is obviously too simple, when we consider feelings of loss and longing - when often little or nothing can be done to remedy the situation, things look helpless, and we can get set into circles of depression and shit will hit the fan. A logical explanation for which I'm struggling to even imagine. Perhaps so that we can reflect and learn from the experience, but the fact I have heard that expression so many times in both the media and my personal life leads me to doubt it.
But I digress. The real purpose of this post was to call into question the debate over which is more powerful, more important, and more reasonable to use in shaping our values and the way we behave. Of course the use of the word reasonable implies logic, and it is possible that logic could be considered a higher emotion, or emotion a deeper sense of intrinsic logic - that they are in fact different branches of the same tree. A conclusion which looks a little shinier when we consider that with the use of reasoning and logic we can suppress and or change; if only to an extent, our emotional responses to situations.
The issue however, as J.A.C. Brown and countless social scientists have expressed, investigated, and for most intensive purposes proved is that our emotional selves are basically programmed long before we have the ability of reason to shape them.
So occasionally when we face problems, we are struck by an overwhelming emotional response that is contrary to our logical opinion. Like the desire to drink heavily after being dumped, while also believing such activities are dangerous and self-destructive. Or overwhelming helplessness felt at the realization of death, contrary to the intellectual opinion that wasting time thinking about is wasting time you could be doing the things you're afraid of not being able to do.
Then there are the answers; existentialism, religion, insanity, suicide, etc
But the reason that I think this is important to spacecollective, is how are we going to use the increasing amount of scientific knowledge and accompanying logic to shape society in the face of traditional emotional tendencies and feelings, of which many I at least consider to be in need of some alteration.
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