Emotion

In psychology and common use, emotion is an aspect of a human being's mental state, normally based in or tied to the person's internal (physical) and external (social) sensory feeling. Love, hate, courage, fear, joy, sadness, pleasure and disgust can all be described in philosophical (encompassing theological and non-physiological psychological views) and physiological terms. It is unclear whether animals or all human beings experience emotion.

Related Topics:
Psychology - Love - Hate - Courage - Fear - Joy - Sadness - Pleasure - Disgust - Bittersweet

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Emotion is sometimes regarded as the antithesis of reason; as is suggested by phrases such as appeal to emotion or your emotions have taken over. Emotions play a role in situations that result in undesired internal states and cognitive streams to the individual feeling them, which s/he may wish to control but often cannot, or at least produce consequences or thoughts which s/he may later regret or disagree with but during the emotional state, could not control with his/her other principles. Thus one of the most distinctive and perhaps challenging facts about human beings is this potential for both opposition and entanglement between will, emotion, and reason.

Related Topics:
Reason - Will

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Current research on the neural circuitry of emotion suggests that emotion makes up an essential part of human decision-making, including long-term planning, and that the famous distinction made by Descartes between reason and emotion is not as clear as it seems.

Related Topics:
Current research on the neural circuitry of emotion - Decision-making - Descartes

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some state that there is no empirical support for any generalization suggesting the antithesis between reason and emotion: indeed, anger or fear can often be thought of as a systematic response to observed facts. What can be noted, however, is that the human psyche possesses many possible reactions and perspectives in response to the internal and external world - often lying on a continuum— at one extreme lies pure intellectual logic (often called "cold"); at the other extreme is pure emotionally unresponsive to logical argument ("the heat of passion"). In any case, it is clear that the relation between logic and argument on the one hand and emotion on the other, is one which merits careful study. It has been noted by many that passion, emotion, or feeling can add backing to an argument, even one based primarily on reason - particularly regarding religion or ideology, areas of human thought which frequently demand an all-or-nothing rejection or acceptance, that is, the adoption of a comprehensive worldview partly backed by empirical argument and partly by feeling and passion. Moreover, it has been suggested by several researchers that typically there is no "pure" decision or thought, that is, no thought based "purely" on intellectual logic or "purely" on emotion - most decisions and cognitions are founded on a mixture of both.

Related Topics:
Logic - Argument

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~