Objectivism Wiki - User contributions [en]

Emotions

2005-06-03T23:56:38Z

Acapier:

Emotions

2005-06-02T01:57:22Z

Acapier:

Emotions happen as a response to your value-judgements of a particular object, person, event, etc.; and in order for man to have a legitimate value-judgement of something he must first ''know'' something about it. Reason gives him knowledge, and his value-judgements, based on that knowledge, give him emotions. Thus, man cannot have emotions without first possessing knowledge; in addition, the extent of his knowledge of something will determine his emotional involvement in it.

For example: A man sitting in a room is being witnessed by three other men, each with their own knowledge of him. The first witness knows the man as his brother, and feels ashamed; the second witness does not know the man at all, and therefore feels nothing for him, good or bad; the third witness knows this man as his wife's murderer, and feels rage against him. They all three have different feelings (based on their individual value-judgements), yet they are judging the same man.

Intuition (the ''feeling'' that something is or could be) is often mistaken as a path to knowledge. It is not, as reason is man's only way to gain such things. The confusion may lie in the misunderstanding of intuition's role in the process. It can very well be a ''motivator'' for one to begin the search for knowledge of a particular thing, but it cannot be the ''means''. One may feel that unicorns are real, but until s/he has proof of such it is not knowledge; s/he cannot say, "I know that unicorns are real because I feel that it is so."

Every emotion has a cause, and it is the responsibility of the rational mind to explore any emotion that is unaccounted for, and check its validity against the facts of reality.

Emotions

2005-06-01T21:58:51Z

Acapier:

Emotions happen as a response to your value-judgements of a particular object, person, event, etc.; and in order for man to have a legitimate value-judgement of something he must first ''know'' something about it. Reason gives him knowledge, and his value-judgements, based on that knowledge, give him emotions. Thus, man cannot have emotions without first possessing knowledge; in addition, the extent of his knowledge of something will determine his emotional involvement in it.

For example: A man sitting in a room, by himself, is being witnessed by three other men, each with their own knowledge of this man. The first witness knows the man as his brother, and feels ashamed; the second witness does not know the man at all, and therefore feels nothing for him; the third witness knows this man as his wife's murderer, and feels rage against him. They all three have different feelings (based on their individual value-judgements), yet they are judging the same man.

Intuition (the ''feeling'' that something is or could be) is often mistaken as a path to knowledge. It is not, as reason is man's only way to gain such things. The confusion may lie in the misunderstanding of intuition's role in the process. It can very well be a motivator for one to begin the search for knowledge of a particular thing, but it cannot be the means. One may feel that unicorns are real, but until s/he has proof of such it is not knowledge; s/he cannot say, "I know that unicorns are real because I feel that it is so."