Emotions are intrinsically good and bad

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Omniverse
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Emotions are intrinsically good and bad

Post by Omniverse »

I will now present something that supports my whole worldview. Positive thoughts have to line up with positive emotions and negative thoughts have to line up with negative emotions since positive thoughts make us feel positive emotions and negative thoughts make us feel negative emotions. From there, value judgments of good value make us feel positive emotions such as thinking it is a good day today while value judgments of bad value make us feel negative emotions such as thinking something is horrible. So, you have a positive thought which is just a positive thought and then you have a positive emotion which is intrinsically positive like a positive charge.

You then have a negative thought which is just a negative thought and then you have a negative emotion which is intrinsically negative like a negative charge. To take it one step further, you have a positive (good) value judgment and then you have a positive (good) emotion which is intrinsically good. From there, you have a negative (bad) value judgment and then you have a negative (bad) emotion which is intrinsically bad. If a good or bad value judgment did not make you feel a positive or negative emotion, then there could be a number of factors as to why. Other than that, they do make you feel positive and negative emotions. Even if these positive and negative emotions were induced by other means such as drugs rather than thoughts, then they would still be intrinsically good and bad emotions.

Lastly, positive emotions would be feelings such as joy, love, and excitement which are states of mind induced by the brain's biochemicals (serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins). They would be states of euphoria. Negative emotions would be feelings of dysphoria such as a feeling of sadness, despair, anger, or misery. Having no emotions at all would be like having no charge at all. It would be a completely neutral lifestyle where you are neither motivated in a good way by a positive emotion nor motivated in a bad way by a negative emotion.
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Atreyu
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Re: Emotions are intrinsically good and bad

Post by Atreyu »

Your view is inherently false. It's the other way around.

Emotions come first, then the corresponding thoughts. We feel a certain way, then we think about it.

You think it's a bad day because it's cloudy and the weather affects your emotions and you feel 'blah'. After feeling 'blah', you think 'This weather sucks'. Or someone slaps you in the face, and you then react by getting angry, and then think 'that person had no right to hit me!'.

The emotions actually come first. Emotions are quicker than thought....
Spectrum
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Re: Emotions are intrinsically good and bad

Post by Spectrum »

The basic purpose of living things [in general] is to survive [at all costs] at least till the inevitable.
Emotions [root - emote = to move] are trigger potentials that push one to move toward the direction that will facilitate survival depending on the circumstances.

There are no intrinsically good or bad emotions. All emotions has their pros and cons depending on circumstances and limits.
Emotions like love and happiness will generally facilitate survival but excessive, compulsiveness and obsessiveness in such emotions can be detrimental to a person. It is so glaring there are so many incidents where 'love' has gone wrong and ended in sufferings and fatality for those who were lovestruck.

Sadness is not a negative emotion per se. Sadness is a necessary emotion in certain conditions to facilitate survival.
For example if one is sick, the sadness emotions or its various forms kick in to ensure the person is incline not to be active but prefer to rest so the body and heal during resting. Sadness have evolved into grief which is necessary in the olden days where if one or more of the tribe is killed, they are driven to consolidate to counter that weakness in strength. Whilst sadness has its usefulness, unmanageable sadness can turned into depression.

The central point with any emotion is this from Aristotle [anger as an example];
Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.
Thus what is critical with emotions is to understand the mechanics [at many levels] and then develop one's ability to modulate one's emotion in accordance to the circumstances one is in. This is the so-called Emotional Intelligence [EQ].
Not-a-theist. Religion is a critical necessity for humanity now, but not the FUTURE.
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Atreyu
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Re: Emotions are intrinsically good and bad

Post by Atreyu »

Spectrum wrote:Thus what is critical with emotions is to understand the mechanics [at many levels] and then develop one's ability to modulate one's emotion in accordance to the circumstances one is in. This is the so-called Emotional Intelligence [EQ].
That's right. What is critical is gaining mastery over one's emotions. And then one can have what you call "EQ" --> intuition, sixth sense, cunningness, wit, wisdom, etc -- the kind of emotions that also give knowledge, the kind of emotions which compliment reason, as opposed to ordinary emotions which give no knowledge of things whatsoever and only serve to cloud our reason and diminish our good judgement.

The ancients called such emotions "higher emotions", and they called the "psychic center" which controlled them the "higher emotional center", as opposed to ordinary "emotions" and ordinary "emotional center"...
Spectrum
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Re: Emotions are intrinsically good and bad

Post by Spectrum »

Atreyu wrote:
Spectrum wrote:Thus what is critical with emotions is to understand the mechanics [at many levels] and then develop one's ability to modulate one's emotion in accordance to the circumstances one is in. This is the so-called Emotional Intelligence [EQ].
That's right. What is critical is gaining mastery over one's emotions. And then one can have what you call "EQ" --> intuition, sixth sense, cunningness, wit, wisdom, etc -- the kind of emotions that also give knowledge, the kind of emotions which compliment reason, as opposed to ordinary emotions which give no knowledge of things whatsoever and only serve to cloud our reason and diminish our good judgement.

The ancients called such emotions "higher emotions", and they called the "psychic center" which controlled them the "higher emotional center", as opposed to ordinary "emotions" and ordinary "emotional center"...
Yes, the ancients has understood the pro and cons of emotion and looked for ways to regulate the emotions.

Buddhism dug deep into understanding the mechanism human emotions [obviously not as precise as neuro-psychology] and introduced specific system and techniques to modulate of one's emotions.

Buddha's 4NT-8FP -A Life Problem Solving Technique
http://onlinephilosophyclub.com/forums/ ... f=4&t=7378

Within the details practices of the above system, Buddhism strove to develop neuro inhibitors and modulator to regulate one's emotion.
The technique to establish modulators is using mind-doors 'bhavanga-cittas' with locks, keys and taps to modulate the various emotions and this involve actual improvements of the strength of the specific neurons [not direct by via blackbox approach].
Not-a-theist. Religion is a critical necessity for humanity now, but not the FUTURE.
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SimpleGuy
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Re: Emotions are intrinsically good and bad

Post by SimpleGuy »

Emotions are in buddhism a kamma(or karma) shaping power , for which the cycle of birth and rebirth is at stake. To overcome this reality is to dive into the prestage of enlightenment the avrupa vacana , the stage of neither seeing nor hearing in order to get to the desired nibbana. So emotions are neither good or bad in different cultures but are just path to go to different insights. In christianity the thesis vs. the antithesis of good and bad play a more intense role than in buddhism for a baptised person as me is to protect me from evil , the source of belief. But in reality emotions are neither good or bad , it's how you evaluate/take them for. There is no absolute good or evil as nietzsche told us, for the human itselft the evolution of conscience in the conscience of the society therefore plays a lager role for hegel,schopenhauer as well as others. To introduce an absolute value of good and bad is abolishing a dialectic, analytical view of the psychology of a single individual which is normally a singlesideded abstraction of a psychological reality. But all this is dependent on your own cultural predisposition.
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