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What is the point of Feeling?

W

WALMART

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Humor is the sudden, unexpected connection of synapses in the brain.


Feelings are a lot like that. I reckon thinkers are more willing to make connections, even if they don't exist, if it means the catharsis of emotion.
 

entropie

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Coming into a different country and only learning the language, will never tell you stuff about the country. You have to delve into the culture as well.
 

greenfairy

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For me feeling is a sort of sense. I have a sense of connection and relationship. I have a sense of how alive I am, how I relate to the world, and how I relate to the living things around me. It's not anything I can explain, except that we live in an interconnected global ecosystem and everything is energy. It's rational, because it helps our survival, but flawed because it's subjective. Feeling is more fundamental, more yin. Being incarnated and alive, feeling and emotion are part of the human experience; so I value and enjoy it for this reason. If I didn't feel connected to anything I would die. As much as I don't like irrational emotion, not feeling anything at all wouldn't be living. Emotion comes from attachments to desires, which come from incarnation. We can be empowered by them if we learn to experience them in balance without attachment.
 

UniqueMixture

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there is only one solution to this problem


^sing this song laugh and find a girl to remind you :D
 

Coriolis

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Thinking advances us. Intuition and Sensing are perceptionary and help us understand another's point of view. Ive never bought into the necessity of feeling for the usage of fair and kind judgements towards others.

Feeling just seems to be an emotive roller-coaster that only frustrates people and causes them to act and lash out in pointless ways. Why is it that I perform everything better without an emotive content, or rather when that emotive content is surpressed?

What value, (ironic I know), is there in Feeling? How much worse would the world be without it? Feeling is an intellectualisation of emotive content. In other words it justifies and evaluates using rationalisation surrounded by emotion. But emotion is just chemicals triggered in the brain? Why listen to the chemicals?
First, what do you mean here by "feeling" - emotions, subjective judgments (values), the cognitive function specifically? I tend to view emotions themselves as sensory perceptions, part of our S world. They are the mental analog of physical pain and pleasure. We don't strictly need these either, but pleasure is enjoyable, and pain alerts us to something that needs attention. There are individuals who cannot experience physical pain, and they are at great risk of injury, because they do not get the early physical cues the rest of us take for granted.

Feeling-based judgment, on the other hand, seems almost inescapable. Every reason we have for doing something can be drilled down to a simple valuation of one thing over another. Yes, one can employ logic in the construction of a value system, but that doesn't make it any less feeling-based at its root.

On the whole, though, I agree with your reasoning, and have considered similar questions myself as I examine the extent to which I need to address this aspect of human functioning. Not all feelings are enjoyable, the unpleasant ones are not always useful, and even the enjoyable ones can be an unwelcome distraction at times. I find that most sound decisions reached through feeling are also supported by facts and logic, which renders the feeling aspect redundant. I agree with Uumlau's description of how feeling can evaluate larger bodies of information more quickly than thinking, but to me, intuition serves the same purpose, and more reliably, perhaps because it operates with greater detachment.

Yes it is, because emotions are a reference point for anything. They provide us with direction, where logic would run in vicious circles and they let us know what heaven means when we know what hell is.
I would say just the opposite. Emotions run all over the place, with no direction, or worse - false direction. It takes reason to sort them out, like a compass pointing north. And I for one have had just as many tastes of hell from emotions as of heaven - perhaps more.

It's a connected system. You can't have light without darkness, you can't have chaos without order, etc.

Going too far in either direction is not good. The two things are supposed to balance each other out.
Like our hands? Must each of us become ambidextrous, or become as good at sports as at math, or at music as at writing? Light and dark, by contrast (no pun intended) do represent such balance.

Because emotion is so involved in creation of meaning, Feelers are generally more influenced by it - it's an unfortunate side effect that we can become overwhelmed by it. On the other hand, Feelers are more receptive to all of the information that emotion can convey, and we have a leg up over Thinkers in that respect.
In what way? I agree with the OP that this information usually just clouds the issue, like so much noise, and does more harm than good.

You said that "Thinking advances us", and I would agree, but it's not always at the benefit of humanity. Some inventions, while brilliant and innovative, and some systems, while strong and sound, cause people to suffer more than before their creation and implementation. Feeling cares for us, and that's incredibly important too. It brings significance, value, meaning, compassion, patience, tolerance, acceptance, healing, and virtue. It gives us direction for how to improve our inner selves, how to improve the quality of our communities, and how to treat other beings.
Feeling is not always at the benefit of humanity either. A good case can be made for people like Osama bin Laden being strong feelers, using violence to promote their moral and social agenda. Thinking cares, too, and I find thought-based caring rests on a much firmer footing than that based on feeling. My feelings can be transient, even capricious, but a demonstrated need assigned a priority through a rational process will receive continued attention.

You need to learn to understand your emotions better, so they dont have such a deep impact on you when they happen next time. And you need to find people who value your emotions, cause after all they are who you are. Just dont kill anybody or yourself :)
Feelings are not who I am, any more than my big toe is. Both are simply a part of me, and not the most significant part.

Coming into a different country and only learning the language, will never tell you stuff about the country. You have to delve into the culture as well.
Interesting. I have studied several languages, and find the language itself has much to tell about the culture.
 

uumlau

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Well sqrt heart would be heart^1/2
Tautology: that's only an alternative formulation.

and cos heart must be between 0 and 1,
Quite untrue. Heart, as everyone knows is complex, and thus cos(heart) has values well beyond the -1 thru +1 range (not 0 to 1).

while d/dx heart would be prolly be a broken rational function and you could just hope for a strong Asymptote.
The derivative of the heart is still the heart, thus heart is exponential ...

But identity matrix one o one heart and that we know since Gauss must be the key. What could possibly be more important than finding once identity ?
Except that means it's still just "heart" again. :)

e^it is the Euler equation. That would be cos(t) + i*sin(t). If that goes against infinity it would run in a circle what on the other hand would mean circle divided by sqrt(2*pi). Since 2*pi is a circle in Radian units, circle divided by sqrt(2*pi) does mean one half circle, which again would be the epitome of love, no ? :D
Actually, that complicated bit is the Fourier transform. It takes a function in terms of, for example, a spatial coordinate (x), and turns it into a function of a wavenumber (usually denoted "k", but this time as heart. It's related to Euler's equation, but it's several steps beyond, in the realm of taking contour integrals on the complex plane.

In a strange way "heart" is applicable here. It turns the raw mathematical expression of a wave in space (and time) and turns it into an expression in terms of frequency and wavenumber. It's important because we don't hear waves in terms of their space and time expression, but in terms of their frequency/wavenumber ... it's how we hear music, and it's how we take in a lot of information in a completely analog way as related to Feeling, as opposed to the digital way in which Thinking tends to work.
 

RaptorWizard

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The point of feeling is that those who have them can be exploited by the strong without feeling! :solidarity:

edit - God is not the love of the enemy. God is the power to crush all opposition without pity and without mercy!

The strong are meant to rule. The weak are meant to serve. This is the way it must be.
 

AphroditeGoneAwry

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Feeling might be the most important function because it is how we fully feel love. And love is the most important emotion. God is love.

Are you trying to fight feeling/being loved AA?
 

Siúil a Rúin

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It brings a deeper understanding of subjective systems like values, internal perception and empathy, expressive communication, social systems, etc.

These systems resist quantifiable measurement and precise definition. Instead, these are fuzzy systems that require the ability to approximate, use imagination, to view information from a different point of view, to understand likely consequences for actions committed within these systems.
 

Pseudo

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For me feeling is a sort of sense. I have a sense of connection and relationship. I have a sense of how alive I am, how I relate to the world, and how I relate to the living things around me. It's not anything I can explain, except that we live in an interconnected global ecosystem and everything is energy. It's rational, because it helps our survival, but flawed because it's subjective. Feeling is more fundamental, more yin. Being incarnated and alive, feeling and emotion are part of the human experience; so I value and enjoy it for this reason. If I didn't feel connected to anything I would die. As much as I don't like irrational emotion, not feeling anything at all wouldn't be living. Emotion comes from attachments to desires, which come from incarnation. We can be empowered by them if we learn to experience them in balance without attachment.

False. You wouldn't die if you couldn't feel and you would still be living.
 

Pseudo

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Can someone explain to me the point of Feeling?

What does it actually bring to the world that isn't already there?

Thinking advances us. Intuition and Sensing are perceptionary and help us understand another's point of view. Ive never bought into the necessity of feeling for the usage of fair and kind judgements towards others.

Feeling just seems to be an emotive roller-coaster that only frustrates people and causes them to act and lash out in pointless ways. Why is it that I perform everything better without an emotive content, or rather when that emotive content is surpressed?

What value, (ironic I know), is there in Feeling? How much worse would the world be without it? Feeling is an intellectualisation of emotive content. In other words it justifies and evaluates using rationalisation surrounded by emotion. But emotion is just chemicals triggered in the brain? Why listen to the chemicals?

Why are some of us trapped into being receptive of these chemicals? I know thinkers arent dead to emotion, of course not, and there is more to feeling than JUST emotion. There is a rational side to it.

But too often that rational side is used to justify the worst of our acts. In both Feelers and Thinkers perhaps....but more often in Feelers.

If we take it to be a true construct of our cognitive faculties, rather than a random theory, then what is it's purpose?

I suspect this is an extension of self hated on my part...but im not fond of Feeling.



I could only guess that it is like a "enlightened self interest" autopilot. We end up "caring" about things that help us to survive of continue or genes. Anger/jealousy is territorial/control. Sadness is the loss of something valuable. Happiness is the feeling of all needs being met.

I would think "feelings" are rooted in are ability to have "preferences". Comparing consciously one state of affairs to another and forming a judgement about it.

Thought it would be chaotic a life sans feelings doesn't seem to have any more "point". Thinking advances is but why does that matter. Especially if the idea of making others happy is not longer and option.
 

entropie

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In a strange way "heart" is applicable here. It turns the raw mathematical expression of a wave in space (and time) and turns it into an expression in terms of frequency and wavenumber. It's important because we don't hear waves in terms of their space and time expression, but in terms of their frequency/wavenumber ... it's how we hear music, and it's how we take in a lot of information in a completely analog way as related to Feeling, as opposed to the digital way in which Thinking tends to work.

Why strange, I think its romantic. :)
 

Cellmold

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On the whole, though, I agree with your reasoning, and have considered similar questions myself as I examine the extent to which I need to address this aspect of human functioning. Not all feelings are enjoyable, the unpleasant ones are not always useful, and even the enjoyable ones can be an unwelcome distraction at times. I find that most sound decisions reached through feeling are also supported by facts and logic, which renders the feeling aspect redundant. I agree with Uumlau's description of how feeling can evaluate larger bodies of information more quickly than thinking, but to me, intuition serves the same purpose, and more reliably, perhaps because it operates with greater detachment.
I would say just the opposite. Emotions run all over the place, with no direction, or worse - false direction. It takes reason to sort them out, like a compass pointing north. And I for one have had just as many tastes of hell from emotions as of heaven - perhaps more.



In what way? I agree with the OP that this information usually just clouds the issue, like so much noise, and does more harm than good.


Feeling is not always at the benefit of humanity either. A good case can be made for people like Osama bin Laden being strong feelers, using violence to promote their moral and social agenda. Thinking cares, too, and I find thought-based caring rests on a much firmer footing than that based on feeling. My feelings can be transient, even capricious, but a demonstrated need assigned a priority through a rational process will receive continued attention.

Feelings are not who I am, any more than my big toe is. Both are simply a part of me, and not the most significant part.

Agreed. This of course makes my position more irritating because I am, without doubt, a dominant feeler. Most of my life is lived in a general fuzz I would say, except for one part that rejects all this and induces me to occasionally reflect in the manner of this thread. It's the only part I actually like.
 

entropie

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Feeling is not always at the benefit of humanity either. A good case can be made for people like Osama bin Laden being strong feelers, using violence to promote their moral and social agenda. Thinking cares, too, and I find thought-based caring rests on a much firmer footing than that based on feeling.

Ouh I think this is a dangerous form of reasoning. Just because there is a certain way of thinking which developed in the western world and which is different for the Islam, you cant say that those people are strong feelers and thats why they are dangerous.

Thats very shortsighted and puts our form of Thinking into a position where it is the reference system for everything, tho we dont know that. Our "advanced thinking" kills for oil and dollars that doesnt make us much different from the people who kill for their belief.
 

greenfairy

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False. You wouldn't die if you couldn't feel and you would still be living.
Obviously you can't detect figurative language, and you've never felt deeply attached to anything.
 
W

WALMART

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There's nothing wrong with a little violence to further a social agenda.


/derail
 

entropie

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There's nothing wrong with a little violence to further a social agenda.


/derail

If I was to get a pence for every member on this forum who has some screws loose, I'ld be rich today.
 

1487610420

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Feelings are the conscious summary of the intricate unconscious mind's inner workings we are neither aware or in control of.
 

Coriolis

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Ouh I think this is a dangerous form of reasoning. Just because there is a certain way of thinking which developed in the western world and which is different for the Islam, you cant say that those people are strong feelers and thats why they are dangerous.

Thats very shortsighted and puts our form of Thinking into a position where it is the reference system for everything, tho we dont know that. Our "advanced thinking" kills for oil and dollars that doesnt make us much different from the people who kill for their belief.
I am not saying "these people" operate that way, just singling out one. I mentioned Osama only because he is obvious and relatively current. It has nothing to do with being Muslim. There are plenty of examples in western reality and fiction who similarly make feeling-based judgments to the significant detriment of others. I don't claim thinking is any better in this regard, just that each process has the potential for good or evil (to oversimplify), depending on the individual and how it is used.
 
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