What are emotions and why do they exist?

[OlLiE]

So, my first attempt at a thread here,
i read a post this morning relating to emotions at a breakup and i started thinking about emotions and what they are and why they mean so much to people.

Well, my thinking is, if you accept:
- evolution
- that before the human species became self aware, they were like any other animal, i.e. everything they did was instinct driven focused on survival and maintaining the species through procreation
- that at one point the human species became self aware, and that the purpose of self awareness is to find purpose (why am i here, the early start of religions etc)

then 'emotions' and 'humanity' are what happens when the instincts related to procreation (i.e. all of them) are confronted with the purpose seeking nature of self-awareness:

- the instinct of survival for an individualist translates into the purpose of being 'ambitious'
- the instinct of survival for a group person (those that don't hunt but support the survival of the group) translates into the purpose of 'friendship' and 'altruisme'
- the instincts of procreation and survival of the child translate into the lofty and ephemeral purpose of 'love' and sadness when we break up or a loved one passes away

these instincts have evolved with and are linked to hormones which act as a catalyst, which is why you see such a noticeable change in 'emotional' behaviour between child, adolescent, adult, elderly

so basically emotions are just how consciousness creates concepts to give our base animalistic instincts a purpose

so basically emotions are a thin layer of polish and illusion that hide that we are still mainly an instinct driven species

so no matter how rational you are, these emotion are always there, they are hard wired into us,

my challenge personally is finding a way to acknowledge the emotions even though they don't 'fit' within the rational bias of the way i think about things, i.e. i have been told that due to my nature and an unhappy childhood, i have basically dissociated myself from my emotions, but subconsciously they still churn and wear me out

sorry if this was long and boring, but it would be interesting to hear what you guys think

 

[The Midge]

I need to clean my glasses. I thought you were asking why these guys exist.


Which means that this one is appropriate for this thread:

Emoticons. I could do with them for Real Life conversations.

 

[onlything]

Emotions. Would be so much easier and yet so much harder without them.

You have some interesting insight here. The evolution of the instinct into emotions sounds like a sound idea, though I wouldn't sort it only in a 'human-self-awareness' area. If you just spend some time with an animal, be it dog, car or anything, then you'd observe that they have emotions as well.

All in all, I think it's one of those questions that will never be answered. We feel by giving meaning to our thoughts? We feel because of instinct evolution? Who knows.

Honestly, I still see humans as animals. We are still mostly instinct driven, we are just more intelligent, more questioning of the truths around us(doesn't mean wise though). What I say is: everything lives, everything feels. Let's just accept it, accept others and do our thing.

 

[Flinty]

I'll tell you when I reach an environment where having emotions is allowed.

 

[MrSpock]

I do accept evolution, I highly recommend Richard Dawkins' 'The Selfish Gene" which explains very well what evolution is and how it works, and in which book he coined the term 'meme' (it's not a short youtube skit).

Humans are certainly animals, and very much like others, more than many of us would like to admit. I wonder how you define 'self aware', and am pretty sure that dogs and cats know that they exist and affect and are affected by others.

I doubt that self-awareness has any purpose in the way that you seem to be implying, it is not 'for' anything in particular and neither are we here 'for' anything excepting what we choose.

I've always thought of emotions as being roughly equivalent to instincts and am fairly sure that many other animals have emotions.

Love for your child and the instinct to ensure that they survive is an interesting example evolutionarily speaking. Evolution is not so much about survival of individuals, rather it's about increasing or decreasing the number of copies of particular genes within gene pools. I consider myself a unit that survives or doesn't, but genes within me are also individual units that survive or don't and copy themselves or don't. Since your child will have roughly 50% of your genes any gene which you possess and which helps increase your child's chances of survival will help to ensure it's own survival in the gene pool. Such a gene may make the individual less likely to survive since it will cause the individual to take risks to protect the child, but it is helping to protect an exact copy of itself half the time, or all the time if your mate has the same gene.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

I do accept evolution, I highly recommend Richard Dawkins' 'The Selfish Gene" which explains very well what evolution is and how it works, and in which book he coined the term 'meme' (it's not a short youtube skit).

Humans are certainly animals, and very much like others, more than many of us would like to admit. I wonder how you define 'self aware', and am pretty sure that dogs and cats know that they exist and affect and are affected by others.

I doubt that self-awareness has any purpose in the way that you seem to be implying, it is not 'for' anything in particular and neither are we here 'for' anything excepting what we choose.

I've always thought of emotions as being roughly equivalent to instincts and am fairly sure that many other animals have emotions.

Love for your child and the instinct to ensure that they survive is an interesting example evolutionarily speaking. Evolution is not so much about survival of individuals, rather it's about increasing or decreasing the number of copies of particular genes within gene pools. I consider myself a unit that survives or doesn't, but genes within me are also individual units that survive or don't and copy themselves or don't. Since your child will have roughly 50% of your genes any gene which you possess and which helps increase your child's chances of survival will help to ensure it's own survival in the gene pool. Such a gene may make the individual less likely to survive since it will cause the individual to take risks to protect the child, but it is helping to protect an exact copy of itself half the time, or all the time if your mate has the same gene.

I remember reading that years ago.

A unit of cultural transference - a meme.

I have been one of those people who has said,to complete lack of interest, that richard dawkins.... etc etc

Good book.

 

[wight]

What are emotions? Well, they are labels we put on our biological reactions to stimuli, in some cases. For instance, the "fight or flight" response is deeply rooted instinctual biological/chemical reaction. We call this reaction "fear".

If we are talking about this level of instinctual reaction to stimuli, then I would tend to agree that evolution and self-preservation take a large role.

The trouble comes in when we are talking about humans, with highly developed brains/minds that experience varying degrees of these instinctual responses, along with other "feelings" that are not so easily connected to evolutionary roots. And can experience emotions not by being subjected to stimuli, but simply by being aware of situations (via reading, hearing, seeing) that would generate those emotions.

 

[SusanLR]

There are basic emotions that were obviously built into our genes and brains for preservation of species and self.
Like fight or flight. A very basic emotion which switches on hormones that prepare the body when in a perceived danger for a fight if needed for survival or to run away from the danger if possible. Without the basic emotions, physical life as we know it on Earth would have soon been anihilated as prey for other creatures on the food chain and from humans killing humans for whatever causes which would have run the gammit from need for food to reasons caused by other emotions such as control, lust, anger, jealousy, thefts, etc.

The more moral emotions of love, pride, and that word we seem to have problems defining: empathy for others, seemed to be needed to set society structures. These emotions go beyond self awareness and survival to extending help and care for others than self.

Emotions are internal feelings that aren't really physical but create physical sensations. Some feel a multitude of emotions more than others proving they are something built into the structure of the body. Labotomy seemed to prove the seat is in the frontal cortex of the brain and created zombie like lack of emotions.
Mental illness can create emotions without a reality based stimuli. Such as panic disorders, schizophrenia, bi-polar. And psychopathy can mute emotions to the point there is no remorse or sense of guilt when actions that society have deemed wrong are acted upon.

That is my unemotional rationale for emotions and why we have them. The human condition.