Emotions in Science?

I was thinking this same thing. I think emotions may more or less be our "experience" of a physical experience our body is having/undergoing. We then place names on such experiences as well as moral labels to set them into a context of the social world we live in. This I disagree with, or at least the idea that we have more complex emotional experiences. We may have the ability to handle more emotions at once and so face conflicts, but I'm not certain how any single emotion is more complex than anything else.

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holmes
"What you need is sustained outrage...there's far too much unthinking respect given to authority." (M.Ivins)

Technically isn't mind an entity which is separate from the brain? That is it is a product of the function of the brain. They are connected in that damage to the brain will damage the mind, just not always on a one to one relationship. And someone may have a damaged mind, with no physical damage to the brain?Side note, your profile says you are from cymru, what and where is that?

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holmes
"What you need is sustained outrage...there's far too much unthinking respect given to authority." (M.Ivins)

Separate but not independent? Does that sound better? I am specifically agreeing that mind is product and so linked to it in an organic way.However it is true that the brain itself can be damaged with no apparent change to the mind. And I think it is true that there can be damage done to the mind, which does not involve physical damage to the brain. I realize that this is a repeat but bear with me... But dysfunctional and damaged in mind, does not mean errant brain function. Certainly some things are. But imagine a person overwhelmed by a flood of emotions from a loss of something, such that they lose control in some fashion. I don't think that that would actually be any problem area of the brain, some physical dysfunction, but rather it may be working just fine and the result is a mind out of control or in pain.Come to think of it I think there was a portion of Sacks' book, Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, that detailed some organic dysfunction, which resulted in healthier minds and vice versa.

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holmes
"What you need is sustained outrage...there's far too much unthinking respect given to authority." (M.Ivins)

In the end the patient would have been right, they did not consciously decide to move the leg, the doctor did by hitting a part of the brain which would cause the reflexive action. All that shows is that the brain is not "aware" or "sensitive" regarding stimulation of the brain. I'm not sure how you think it indicates that there is some substance actually separate from the brain. I'm also uncertain how you can say this after positing humans may have souls. They operate in the same fashion. Who's to say a vast soul does not lie beneath the merest microbe, constricted to minimal action, just as souls connected to humans are constricted?

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holmes
"What you need is sustained outrage...there's far too much unthinking respect given to authority." (M.Ivins)

Agreed, I wasn't getting technical, but that is what I was referring to. Psychological pain/suffering, as well as inability to perform tasks in the same manner (to the same level) as one had before. Like physical damage it can be temporary or permanent. It might even be promotion of new behavior not seen before, and unhelpful or destructive to the individual or those around. This may be a real result of proper functioning of a brain, given correct inputs, especially in conjunction with mechanisms meant to protect the person.

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holmes
"What you need is sustained outrage...there's far too much unthinking respect given to authority." (M.Ivins)

Not sure what your post was supposed to mean to me. Other than mental capacity, I don't see humans as being superior to anything else, and often that isn't as important as having traits that other species have.There could very well be souls, but there is no evidence for this. And if there are, the smallest bacteria could have them as much as humans do. Reincarnation is an interesting concept that often plays on such possibilities.This message has been edited by holmes, 03-09-2006 05:20 PM

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holmes
"What you need is sustained outrage...there's far too much unthinking respect given to authority." (M.Ivins)