On 25/10/2008, at 8:10 AM, Brent Meeker wrote:
>> >> OK - I don't 'know' that except in the sense of having the feeling >> that I read it somewhere - usually New Scientist... >> I'm sure that I could dig up the appropriate reference for you but I >> think you should maybe trust my 'feelings' on this ;-) >> >> Or >> >> >> maybe I just have this emotional need for that to be true.....you >> could easily accuse me of that; in fact you're too polite! >> >> Feeling=knowing in the sense of recognising (ie a form of >> perception - >> the mind's information gathering task; if something fits a >> recognised, >> filed pattern we assign it a value so we can extract usefulness ) > > I do think that perception is more than just receiving/recording > data. It > includes an emotion or feeling that "this is worth noticing", i.e. > "paying > attention". You don't perceive everything that impinges on your > nervous system. > > Brent Good. I'm saying that that is what a feeling is. You've just described brilliantly 'a feeling of something'. There is a minimum 'value threshold' below which we don't even NOTICE that something is there. The sense of value is what the feeling is. It can be incredibly subtle and slight. Maybe there isn't even a word to describe it. Why some seize the artist's brush and some compose music etc. It's the low-level energy of feelings that permits exploration of values and concepts, whereas emotions are for decision-time and action in the big nasty and deceptive world, the world where everyone is trying to sell everyone to everyone else - the game of evolution that we should madly try to escape (IMHO) Feelings are not always a reaction to something, either. Feelings (and emotions, yes) can arise 'unbidden' in the mind, although it could probably be demonstrated that a physiological cause for this exists. I would add that this is also the interesting dance that the brain does with data. What comes out is never the same as what went in. Data has to be filed - it has to exist somewhere in the mind. The patterns of recognition do the secretarial work. Patterns of recognition (the brain's neural network) have 'catchment areas'. Feelings have small catchment areas and require a precise fit with data. Emotions have HUGE catchment areas - they resemble Jung's 'Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious" or the collective, racial memory of a whole social group. Emotions are always big and monumental. They usually have a face. Everyone can draw an angry or a happy or a frightened face, but most will have difficulty drawing a wise or a humble or an interested face etc. because these faces require an appreciation of more subtle, more low-level emotional states. The 3rd party visual component of emotion gives rise to drama and painting and the whole commerce of human interaction 'Terrorism' is vague-enough a concept to have an extremely large catchment area. Many things can be identified with 'terrorism'. Terror as a concept (or meme) preys on the mind's weakness for the unusual and has a correspondingly high emotional charge linked with it. Kim --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
