Emotion

● A working definition: a reaction or response related to sense perceptions, internal states, thoughts, or beliefs about things or people, real or imagined.

● It is said there are 6 basic, instinctive, or primary emotions... ● Happiness ● Sadness ● Fear ● Anger ● Surprise ● Disgust

● To what extent can you control your emotions? Which is the most difficult to control?

● People across cultures identify these expressions ● Children born deaf and blind show them the same way

● The James-Lange Theory says emotions are essentially physical in nature, and that body changes precede and cause emotional changes

● Let's test it: Vividly imagine an extreme emotion with a strong bodily effect. Now try to subtract the bodily feelings... ● What are you left with?

● With a partner, try to come up with arguments for or against the James-Lange Theory.

● While emotions are connected to our bodies, they are also affected by our beliefs (unlike animals?)

● So we have “social emotions” like...

● So... which ways of knowing are most important when you're deciding whom to marry? ● Language (your friends say she's a good choice) ● Sense perception (looks/voice/smell/etc.) ● Reason (his mom is nice, so he must be, too) ● Emotion (you just feel it)

● How does Pinker answer the question? (Assuming he answers it.) Agree or disagree?

● Emotion can be an obstacle to other ways of knowing

● It can blind us to what our senses tell us, or make us focus on the wrong things

● It can prevent us from clear and open-minded use of reason

● It can make us use or be influenced by slanted and emotive language

● To avoid these problems, classical philosophers called the Stoics sought to avoid all emotion and view the world objectively.

Marcus Aurelius: ● “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”

● Do you agree with Marcus Aurelius and the Stoics? Why or why not?

● What role do different ways of knowing play in choosing a college?

● People with brain damage who lack emotions can lose the ability to make decisions. ● What does this say about reason and emotion?

● Since you woke up today, how much time have you spent feeling and how much time have you spent thinking? ● What does this suggest about the relationship between reason and emotion?

● Can you ever feel completely nothing? ● Can you ever think completely nothing?

● Deep thought: we should differentiate between the rationality of having a particular emotion and the level of rationality possible in the grip of that emotion.

● “Intuition” can be considered an aspect of emotional knowledge.

● Our most fundamental knowledge about life, the universe, reason, & perception may ultimately rest on intuition ● If something is a banana, then it is a banana ● My friends are not androids ● Life is not a dream

● Unlike Empiricism (perception) or Rationalism (reason), the school of thought called Romanticism prioritizes emotional & intuitive knowledge ● “Axioms in philosophy are not axioms until they are proved upon our pulses.” - John Keats

● If something is intuitively obvious, must everyone agree on it? ● Whose intuitions should we trust?

● Some intuitions are more subject-specific: ● Do animals have the same moral worth as humans? ● Are you a good judge of character? ● Do great ideas flash into your head and wake you up?

● Do intuitions meet the criteria of knowledge? ● (Justified true belief)