From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Sat Jul 03 1999 - 14:46:40 MDT
Joao Pedro Magalhaes <jpnitya@esoterica.pt> writes:
> At 07:20 02-07-1999 -0700, you wrote:
> > Emotions are a fact of life, and in truth, when guided by reason,
> >they help to shape our lives and make them somewhat more enjoyable.
>
> I disagree. Emotions are not rational. In fact, instinct and emotions are
> what help us make decisions when we have no rational thinking. So, emotions
> cannot be guided by reason.
I disagree here. If I become angry and break things or people, then my
actions are irrational (since they are not in my best interest) and
undesirable - here some rational control obviously is
desirable. Sometimes emotions suggest actions that are bad for us.
What is needed is to balance the emotions, which provide us with
motivation and creates a mode of thinking, with rational evaluation of
situations. Just like we need to learn how to learn, think rationally
and act, we need to learn how to manage our emotions. They work great
in certain respects, but not all.
> I'm very confident and optimist and I
> think these are very important feelings that people than do not possess
> them should have.
I certainly agree here. I'm quite glad my brain biochemistry and
cognitive structures make me feel this way most of the time, it has
helped me tremendously and I have seen people destroy their lives just
by being negative towards themselves and everything else. The problem
is of course creating a stable (but not inflexible) good mood; drugs
might help, but positive thinking and self-insight work even better -
but they are hard to apply for negative people.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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