Emotions and Passions

[Bijo]

Emotions and passions are like a form of insanity. True?

[Fragony]

You and Arnon Grunberg should have a little chat

[CountArach]

False.

Emotion and Passion can be harnassed and controlled TO AN EXTENT, Insanity cannot.

[Bijo]

You and Arnon Grunberg should have a little chat

Why is that?

[Bijo]

False.

Emotion and Passion can be harnassed and controlled TO AN EXTENT, Insanity cannot.

Insanity can also be harnessed and controlled. It can be done by others not suffering from said insanity.




(
My question in the OP could be taken with a touch of poetic meaning, if you know what I mean.
)

[CountArach]

Insanity can also be harnessed and controlled. It can be done by others not suffering from said insanity.

Yes, but this is an external entity controlling the internal entity.

Emotions are internal entities beign controlled by the internal entity.

[Bijo]

Following the logic I see in your responses, CountArach:


If a person is emotional and has passions and this person cannot control them, this means that the boolean expression to be returned from the original question is true: emotions and passions are like a form of insanity.

[Husar]

I always knew that I'm quite insane.

Maybe they're illogical, but I wouldn't necessarily say insane. But it also depends on the individual passion or emotion. Some are illogical and some are insane.

[Banquo's Ghost]

Emotions and passions are like a form of insanity. True?

Following the logic I see in your responses, CountArach:

You don't happen to have pointy ears and a quizzical eyebrow thing, do you?

[Papewaio]

Emotions and passions are like a form of insanity. True?

Passions are an evolutionary mechanism to help us survive. They help motivate us to greater levels of achievement. We reconfigure our biochemistry to suit our current needs, we get colder and lower our heart rate late at night to go to sleep, similarly fear, anger, panic pump our alertness levels up and ready our body for flight or fight. Passions essentially the overclocking software we use to boost our hardware for a particular event... Passions are not wrong, mis-matching of passions to need is...so self awareness is needed to control then... and can be achieved by better understanding of ones own responses to situations.

Emotions and the ability to understand them in others (empathy) allows us to work in a group and attend to each others needs without having to spell it out in explicit detail... it is a shortcut to understanding... like reading the time on a clock by looking at the display rather then opening it up and looking at the gears to figure out the time. Emotions are the display mechanism for something deeper down, they are to motivate ourselves and others into a course of action.

[Bijo]

I always knew that I'm quite insane.

Maybe they're illogical, but I wouldn't necessarily say insane. But it also depends on the individual passion or emotion. Some are illogical and some are insane.

This is false. The fact that emotions and passions occur is logical, but they themselves are not -- they are always illogical or unreasonable and exactly what they are (emotions and passions). They are what: "psychological sensations" of the mind, the brain? Irrational, emotional, passionate, illogical, etc. Feelings of joy, sadness, anger, fear.

[Bijo]

You don't happen to have pointy ears and a quizzical eyebrow thing, do you?

Is this what you humans call an attempt at humour? Fascinating ;)

[Bijo]

A most interesting and enjoyable explanation, Papewaio, but unfortunately not directly addressing the question quoted just before it which requires a truth value as answer.

Emotions and the ability to understand them in others (empathy) allows us to work in a group and attend to each others needs without having to spell it out in explicit detail... it is a shortcut to understanding... like reading the time on a clock by looking at the display rather then opening it up and looking at the gears to figure out the time. Emotions are the display mechanism for something deeper down, they are to motivate ourselves and others into a course of action.

The analogy I detect appears wrong and so does the reasoning.

Emotions and passions still remain precisely what they are: illogical irrational things. It takes a clear mind to understand something, but I will grant you that when you know emotions and passions it will add to one's understanding of them.


EDIT: removed unnecessary information at end.

[Husar]

This is false. The fact that emotions and passions occur is logical, but they themselves are not -- they are always illogical or unreasonable and exactly what they are (emotions and passions). They are what: "psychological sensations" of the mind, the brain? Irrational, emotional, passionate, illogical, etc. Feelings of joy, sadness, anger, fear.

They are not necessarily illogical.
If you're unarmed and some evil killer elphant comes around the corner, you will fear him and run away. So fear leads to a completely logical action. You can of course take that action without fear as well, but like Pape said, if it gets really hard, fear will enable you to use more strength or speed or whatever to escape by "overclocking" and enabling you to do things you couldn't do without it. I would say if you're in harm's way, improving your physical abilities is not illogical, whatever causes it.

Though fear can be illogical in the case of fearing spiders or so but then again, no human is perfect and a world without emotion would miss all those Psychological sensations as you call them, IMO that would make the world a lot more boring. Call me emotional when I say following logic to the maximum extent is completely unromantic

[Marshal Murat]

Can emotions and passions be quantified as 'things'? Or are they a more spiritual 'it' that is there and will be? (Insert some good bible verses here_______)

Insanity, in my book, means that you cannot use judgment, or decide between right and wrong.

Passions and Emotions are not forms of insanity, since 'right and wrong' are defined by accepted social norms and mores, and if judgment of 'right and wrong' are based on a social standard then it is human, and therefore an imperfect definition, and beyond definition.

[Bijo]

They are not necessarily illogical.
If you're unarmed and some evil killer elphant comes around the corner, you will fear him and run away. So fear leads to a completely logical action.

The consequential reasoning is false.

Explanation:
Statement: They are not necessarily illogical. Concluding reason: So fear leads to a completely logical action.

Being and leading to are not the same.

[Reverend Joe]

Emotions and passions are like a form of insanity. True?

False. Insanity does not exist. Societal restrictions do.

Emotions and passions, on the other hand, are a definite part of our psyche; in fact, they are more real even than consciousness. They are the basic drivers of survival.

[Kagemusha]

My opinion is that its irrelevant whether passions and emotions are insane. Those things are what makes life worth living. There is no use for logig, read problem solving, without feelings and passions that drive humans to solve problems,eat,sleep or do anything at all. If life would be just series of problem solving situations without no other goal then survival.Life would be meaningles,since ultimately no matter how logigal you are,none of us can solve the problem of survival,since we all die,when the time comes.

[Bijo]

(...)

Insanity, in my book, means that you cannot use judgment, or decide between right and wrong.

Passions and Emotions are not forms of insanity, since 'right and wrong' are defined by accepted social norms and mores, and if judgment of 'right and wrong' are based on a social standard then it is human, and therefore an imperfect definition, and beyond definition.

My apologies, for I respectfully decline the quoted addition. Reason: the words in my book are used.

Can emotions and passions be quantified as 'things'? Or are they a more spiritual 'it' that is there and will be? (Insert some good bible verses here_______)

Regardless thereof, they are still things which we can refer to.

[Reverend Joe]

Something else just occurred to me.

What proof do we have that rational thoughts are not simply advanced forms of emotions?

Examine them both carefully: at first glance, they appear quite different; the the one is basal and instinctual; the other guides the higher levels of humanity.

But if we look at each fundamentally. there is no real difference. After all, are they both not some form of a motivation to act?

Philosophical thinking and metathought, of course, do not motivate us to act; but does not an emotional reaction to one's own emotion take much the same form, acting as an observer whilst the trigger emotion drives the action?

And if thoughts are entirely emotion, this would mean that our psyche is entirely emotion.

Now, if emotions are insanity, them how can all people be insane? Is not insanity a form of excluding the abnormal from the normal? Them how can all of humanity be abnormal? Would not the abnormal thus become normal?

I do not believe in insanity, much less so that emotions are a form of insanity.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Insanity is defined as a disconection from reality.

You're not insane if you hear voices in your head, so long as you know they're in your head.

That has no relation to emotion. Though emotion might be a cause of temporary insanity, i.e. Love.

[Reverend Joe]

Yet another question: how do we know who or what is insane?

While it is true that the consensus dictates insanity in general, how do we know that the consensus is right? If the minority is right and the consensus wrong, then is not the consensus "insane"? Or does insanity suddenly come to mean, to know what is right"?

[Whacker]

I for one do not suffer from insanity.. I enjoy every second of it.

[Bijo]

My opinion is that its irrelevant whether passions and emotions are insane. Those things are what makes life worth living. There is no use for logig, read problem solving, without feelings and passions that drive humans to solve problems,eat,sleep or do anything at all. If life would be just series of problem solving situations without no other goal then survival.Life would be meaningles,since ultimately no matter how logigal you are,none of us can solve the problem of survival,since we all die,when the time comes.

I will respectfully decline this as well. Reason: opinion.

[Bijo]

Insanity does not exist.

False.

What proof do we have that rational thoughts are not simply advanced forms of emotions?

Irrelevant.

Yet another question: how do we know who or what is insane?

While it is true that the consensus dictates insanity in general, how do we know that the consensus is right? If the minority is right and the consensus wrong, then is not the consensus "insane"? Or does insanity suddenly come to mean, to know what is right"?

I rejoice noticing your philosophical nature rise, however it doesn't answer the main issue.

[Reverend Joe]

But isn't this all opinion and conjecture? None of us "know" anything whatsoever.

[Marshal Murat]

Main Entry: in·sane
Pronunciation: (")in-'sAn
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin insanus, from in- + sanus sane
1 : mentally disordered : exhibiting insanity
2 : used by, typical of, or intended for insane persons <an insane asylum>
3 : ABSURD <an insane scheme for making money>

Main Entry: in&#183;san&#183;i&#183;ty
Pronunciation: in-'sa-n&-tE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -ties
1 : a deranged state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder (as schizophrenia)
2 : such unsoundness of mind or lack of understanding as prevents one from having the mental capacity required by law to enter into a particular relationship, status, or transaction or as removes one from criminal or civil responsibility
3 a : extreme folly or unreasonableness b : something utterly foolish or unreasonable

M'Naughten rule (Law Dictionary)
n. a traditional "right and wrong" test of legal insanity in criminal prosecutions. Under M'Naughten (its name comes from the trial of a notorious English assassin in the early 1800s), a defendant is legally insane if he/she cannot distinguish between right and wrong in regard to the crime with which he/she is charged.

Passions and Emotions are not legal forms of insanity, since 'right and wrong' are defined by accepted social norms and mores, and if judgment of 'right and wrong' are based on a social standard then it is human, and therefore an imperfect definition, and beyond definition.

Love leads to sex and reproduction, one of the basic mechanisms in life. Without love you can have sex, but love identifies qualities in an individual that you identify as being 'good' qualities. I think a psychologist wrote that a son will look for qualities that his mother exhibited, since these are qualities that he identifies as 'good'. The purpose of reproduction is to continue the species, and 'good' qualities will supposedly guarantee a continuation of the species. That is also why big hips are good for females, strength in men.

I know because I am, for I think.

[Bijo]

Insanity is defined as a disconection from reality.

You're not insane if you hear voices in your head, so long as you know they're in your head.

That has no relation to emotion. Though emotion might be a cause of temporary insanity, i.e. Love.

Your point is well-taken.

The rest that is not bolded appears questionable. Can you provide more information on it to enable me to properly respond?

[Reverend Joe]

False.
Irrelevant.

Explain how, please. From what I can see, it is perfectly relevant, and please observe my arguments below as per why "insanity" does not exist.

[Kagemusha]

I will respectfully decline this as well. Reason: opinion.

Do we have anything else?Opinions and opinions supported by several other opinions. Or are you claiming that you have the absulute truth on your grasp?