Ways of knowing

Emotion
noun 1 a strong feeling, such as joy or anger. 2 instinctive feeling as distinguished from reasoning or knowledge. DERIVATIVES emotionless adjective. ORIGIN originally denoting a public disturbance: from French, from Latin emovere disturb.

Rawdha AlHameli

emotion is hard to measure and assess, because each of us is affected in a different way by our emotion. A question that is important when it comes to emotion is that to what extent it helps or motivates us in building up an objective picture of the world, and what is its relationship with reason?

its much harder to get a handle on our emotions. There seem to be a limitless number of them, they affect us in lots of different ways, some of them are instinctive whilst some of them are learned, and some last for less than a second whilst some can endure for years. To give us some boundaries

Where do emotions come from?

we mostly associated emotions with different parts of the body. Love comes from the heart, anger from the spleen, fear is something we feel in our spine, and recognizing that something is right is sometimes described as a gut feeling. emotion is believed to be generated from a physical source, and the part of the brain responsible for it is the limbic system of the brain, which is made up of several structures located in the cerebral cortex. These structures register the levels of chemicals called neurotransmitters being manufactured by the body in response to certain conditions the person is experiencing. To give an example, a much greater level of serotonin is produced when a person is in love, eating chocolate, or taking ecstasy, than normal. The brain registers this increase in level, and the resultant feeling is one that we associate with happiness.

To what extent are reason and emotion linked?

reason belongs in the mind, and emotion in our body, where is resides alongside instinct and other non-cognitive responses. But of course, there are few dualists left; our understanding of mental processes is much more physically-based, so we need a more satisfactory answer. To the new generation of neuroscientists, the gap between emotion and reason is narrowing and to some, there no longer is a gap.

A decision based on emotion or reason?

The James-Lange theory of emotion

william James advanced this theory at the same time (though independently) as Carl Lange. This theory, which was advanced at the end of the 19th century, posits the idea that our nervous system reacts to external situations and stimuli by creating a physical event such as an increase in the rate of the heart beat, blood rising to the surface of the skin, or perspiration. Our brains then sense these reactions, and our emotional response is produced as a result be it fear, embarrassment, or stress. The example sited by James was that of someones reaction when they encounter a bear. The usual thing to do in such circumstances is to run. James argued that as a result of running, we experience fear, rather than the other way around.

The Canon-Bard theory of emotion

In the 1920s, Walter Canon and Philip Bard put forward an alternative theory, which turned this idea on its head. Instead of emotion being caused by the physical reaction, they argued, emotion was the cause of the physical reactions. To go back to the example of James bear, the emotional response to seeing a bear is fear. Fear then causes us to run. This is how we commonly understand how emotions work, and why we have them. It is generally considered a healthy response to run away from bears.

The man with the hole in his head

A BBC article retelling the famous case of Phineas Gage. http://www.bbc.c.uk/news/health-12649555 What does the case suggest about the relationship between reason and emotion? What do the ideas of Antonio Damasio and his Hypothesis, and the impact it has made on our understanding of emotion.

Emotion as a driving force

A TED talk given by Dean Kamen, a prosthetic limb designer

http://www.ted.com/talks/dean_kamen_the_e motion_behind_invention.html

What motivates Dean Kamen? How important does this suggest emotion is in helping to create a better society? What examples from your own life when you have been motivated in a similar way?

Quotes on emotion
1. Emotion and language Words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean. Little audible links, they are, chaining together great inaudible feelings and purposes. Theodore Dreiser In fact, words are well adapted for description and the arousing of emotion, but for many kinds of precise thought other symbols are much better. John B. S. Haldane Words cannot express quite a lot of feelings, whereas a noise or tone or drone or sound, an accordion falling down a staircase, can somehow capture an emotion much better. John Lydon 2. Emotion and memory What we hold in our heads our memory, our feelings, our thoughts, our sense of our own history is the sum of our humanity. Richard Eyre 3. Emotion and reason Mankind are governed more by their feelings than by reason. Samuel Adams Logic will never change emotion or perception. Edward de Bono Opinion is ultimately determined by the feelings, and not by the intellect. Herbert Spencer