Are emotions an evolutionary benefit?

Been doing same with my motions

But just getting constipated

Oh wait emotions

Oops

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stop that !
its completely unacceptable to be emotioning

 

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Yea, they can get in the way of an otherwise perfect day.

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i was pondering why i felt the need to be without emotions for a time(a day or moment etc) and if i truly felt that way or if it was in fact an emotion.
i did ponder if it might be an emotional neutral point after processing some emotional baggage and variant other issues of someone else for some days.
it raised issues of my own typically, which had i not been mindful of would have become their own emotional energy.

this reminds me of someone who tried to blame their emotional instability on my lack of compliance to their dictatorship of emotional compliance.

feeling something while being able to realise you are feeling that feeling is quite useful as it separates your otherwise abusive behaviour towards others to emotionally manipulate and dominate others.

err-go
if you did not feel, would other people love you or just live in fear of you waiting and praying for your demise ...
the double edged sword which is a blessing and a burden.

 

Hi RainbowSingularity.

Well said. To live in fear is a terrible thing. Brooks knew it, new it only too well, AFTER the fact. It seems to me many people have an unresolved complex and they therefore feel the need to "get away with it, or get one over on someone."

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If you're wrong for someone Rainbowsingularity, you're wrong.

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However, Spring is a damn fine month to be working outdoors. I'm certain you will be able to process your emotions finally, without the need to acquiesce to another's wishes.

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Good luck with the processing!

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*MAY is a damn fine month...

 

I think emotions were of more evolutionary benefit in the past, when they prompted people to avoid danger (fear) compete for land and food and such (anger) to respect their fellow group members (empathy) extra.

now that it isn't so difficult to survive physically there isn't as much of a need for them.

I dislike them myself, but that is just my personal opinion.

 

= must have a tangible pay off as a physical attribute to the self.

social lass allowing less violence, ability to attack others without reprisal and domination of food of the collective.

fear can be used to replace respect as a equal group footing of non violent behavior models.

quantifying the difference between innate drives of
seeking to gain collective benefit
vs seeking to gain singular personal benefit
may be quite hard wired as a process between males and females.

suicide rates may indicate some of that
men being far more likely to kill themselves, attack others and risk their life.

 

well I think everyone is out only for personal benefit, after all, the only thing that exists to you is your own experience, no one elses.

 

Many people are happier when the people they care about are happy.

That is merely a personal belief.

And it is not one widely shared.

Incidentally, it is one of the defining features that sets humans apart from virtually every animal on the planet.

It is called "Theory of Mind" - the ability for a mind to recognize that other entities have minds of their own, and may hold different view pojnts than one's own.

If you believe that your are the only conscious mind in the world, and all others are caricatures, your mind may be closer to an animal's than a human's.

 

Another incidental:

Notice the implicit hypocrisy in the above.

The latter says that the only thing that exists is your own experience and no one else's.

And yet, the former is a conjecture about a possible motivator of those others.

How are those not mutually exclusive? If you think your own experience is the only one, then it should be non-sensical to make any conjectures at all what some other (non-existent) experience might be driven by. After all, they're not experiences, right?

So are others real - with real motivations? Or are they mere pale reflections of your mind - with no independent drivers?

 

your experience is only the only experience from your perspective, not the only one full stop, probably.

if you were aware of the experiences of others, the wouldn't be the experiences of others anymore, they would be your own.

 

Why?
My friend cuts his finger, and I see him cry in pain, suddenly the only experience is me seeing him cry? His experience vanishes?

 

that is a perception

that is your perception

your perception may also be shared with others

others sharing your perception does not invalidate other perceptions

clinically you would need to provide this evidence stuff
be it philosophical theory
or
physical observations defining cause & effect behavior interactions which validate the affirmative of your proposition.

would it be an equal scientific validity to exclaim no 2 people are the same ?

where do you draw the line on "sameness" ?
perception ?

 

But you will not experience the pain, in the way your friend would. Although you could still experience emotional pain in seeing your friend in physical pain.

 

good point
experiential qualifications ...
you must be experienced in a specified way...

however, most concede that transferable relative experience is equal to qualitative expereince.

it is a hypocrisy in human society

on one side you have the human weaknesses
on the other
you have the human strengths

 

You're missing what JM is trying to do.
He uses this as an argument that my friend doesn't even have an experience. It's nonsensical.

 

You are aware of the experiences of others. You have an entire system in your brain - the mirror neuron complex - that allows you to experience (to a small degree) what others are feeling. You know how when you see someone get kicked in the balls, and you wince? That's your mirror neuron complex simulating what happened to him, and telling you how it would probably feel. You know how if everyone else is excited (or sad, or afraid) it affects your mood as well? Again, that is that brain structure giving you feedback on other people's emotional states. And since it overlays your sensory and motor cortexes, you actually do feel and respond to those "simulated experiences." Fortunately our brain is usually good at separating those simulated experiences from the actual ones we experience.

In sociopaths, the mirror neuron complex doesn't work right, and they really have no basis for empathy, because they cannot feel (or even understand at a basic level) what others are feeling. On the opposite side, people who experience hyper-empathy have trouble separating their feelings and responses from those of others. Someone with hyper-empathy might experience crippling pain if a friend of theirs is in pain. And it's not imaginary; it's real from that person's perspective - the brain is generating those pain signals and sending them along to the sensorium.

 

Not difficult to survive? What planet are you on? People in modern society die all the time! (mostly taking selfies). I think emotions are critical. You can forget a fact, but it's harder to ignore an emotion, as it's continuous. If intellect is an encyclopedia, emotions are the post-it notes.