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What is the point of Feeling?

Cellmold

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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.
 

Cellmold

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Damn good music


But thats the problem, the positive emotions make you long for more, like a terrible drug. So people end up doing anything to keep that state alive as long as possible.

Then there are the negative ones that make people feel like shit, that cause all the hate towards each other that people hold. Of course you have always got to have opposites to define one another....but is it necessary for this opposite to exist within us?
 

entropie

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But thats the problem, the positive emotions make you long for more, like a terrible drug. So people end up doing anything to keep that state alive as long as possible.

Then there are the negative ones that make people feel like shit, that cause all the hate towards each other that people hold. Of course you have always got to have opposites to define one another....but is it necessary for this opposite to exist within us?

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.

In our society strongly emotional people are considered weak, but in the end of the day they are the societies leaders (if they survive past age 30). What is a disadvantage in your puberty will be an advantage when you get older that sets you before everyone else cause you hold wisdom in you, you spent so many time thinking about when noone else did.

The secret to emotions is to never ignore them or tell yourself that it "will be better". When you're sad, be sad, when you're happy, be happy. And grow strong this way, stronger than you could ever imagine
 
A

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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.

P.S. The OP had too many questions. My head hurt -_-.
 

Cellmold

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P.S. The OP had too many questions. My head hurt -_-.

Sorry, that's just how my....mind speaks.

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.

In our society strongly emotional people are considered weak, but in the end of the day they are the societies leaders (if they survive past age 30). What is a disadvantage in your puberty will be an advantage when you get older that sets you before everyone else cause you hold wisdom in you, you spent so many time thinking about when noone else did.

The secret to emotions is to never ignore them or tell yourself that it "will be better". When you're sad, be sad, when you're happy, be happy. And grow strong this way, stronger than you could ever imagine

So are you saying they should be experienced...in a raw manner? But wouldn't that be even worse? It's dangerous to give in to emotions whenever they strike.

Im an extremely emotional person, but it's never improved mine or anyone elses life. These things improved when I surpressed emotion and turned it on myself rather than others.
 

skylights

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Feeling is an entire method of prioritization that utilizes value-based judgment. It takes stock of what is meaningful to who and why, an element of existence that cannot always be explained by rationality.

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.

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.

AffirmativeAnxiety said:
But thats the problem, the positive emotions make you long for more, like a terrible drug. So people end up doing anything to keep that state alive as long as possible.

On the bright side, there are many, many positive stimuli. You have to learn what works and keep it around!
 

entropie

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So are you saying they should be experienced...in a raw manner? But wouldn't that be even worse? It's dangerous to give in to emotions whenever they strike.

Im an extremely emotional person, but it's never improved mine or anyone elses life. These things improved when I surpressed emotion and turned it on myself rather than others.

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 :)
 

Cellmold

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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.

This is what I dont like, (har har yes feeler judgement), about feeling.

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,
But Thinkers have feeling as well, it is just not as dominant. What differentiates a well developed thinker in this regard?
 

Cellmold

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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 :)


I guess im just not ready to understand them. Can I accept them I wonder?
 

Cellmold

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Understand them you can, accept them I doubt you will. Self-Doubt is the bane of intelligent beings

I agree completely. :( Although I wouldnt call myself an intelligent being, a whiny bitch maybe.
 

entropie

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I agree completely. :( Although I wouldnt call myself an intelligent being, a whiny bitch maybe.

Thats one of the most illogical things of the universe, why whiny bitches are usually the most intelligent. And its so unamerican ;)
 

skylights

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This is what I dont like, (har har yes feeler judgement), about feeling.

Me too. :) I've taken up learning CBT and have taken a class on stress management to help. I think being a 6 on the enneagram has a lot to do with it too - we're really volatile and because we're reactive it often feels like we don't have much control.

But Thinkers have feeling as well, it is just not as dominant. What differentiates a well developed thinker in this regard?

Just their preference! We have Thinking, too.
 

Cellmold

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Thats one of the most illogical things of the universe, why whiny bitches are usually the most intelligent. And its so unamerican ;)

That's alright then, because im not american.

Me too. :) I've taken up learning CBT and have taken a class on stress management to help. I think being a 6 on the enneagram has a lot to do with it too - we're really volatile and because we're reactive it often feels like we don't have much control.

Hmm thanks for this, ill have a look.
 

entropie

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Be glad having a heightened sensibility. I'ld kill people if I at times could be more sensible with my Fi gf. But I aint and never will be.

This guy is my idol:
 

uumlau

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Except "Feeling" in MBTI/Jung terms, is not emotion in a strict sense. It's more a mnemonic for a way of thinking, which is just as much really thinking as "Thinking" is thinking.

In this sense, intuition, sensing, thinking and feeling, are ALL THINKING. They're different kinds of thinking. Once one realizes this simple fact, MBTI and Jungian functions make a hell of a lot more sense.

If you're just talking in a strict way about Thinking and Feeling, T and F, Te and Ti vs Fe and Fi ... then the main difference between Thinking and Feeling is that Thinking is done in a "discrete" way (not "discreet" - google the definitions), while Feeling is done in a more continuous or holistic way. Thinking is capable of explaining "why" something is true. Feeling tends to "just know" it's true (much like intuition).

It can get a bit confusing, of course, once we distinguish between the introverted and extroverted forms of these. Fe tends to be able to explain exactly why something is true or false (or right or wrong), and it takes close listening to realize that the arguments are being made are not really following strict logic, but are more like "common sense" heuristics, or when a bit more opinionated, they're often named (on this forum) "values". Also Ti can often seem to "just know" that something is logically true or false (and be absolutely correct), but yet have a hard time explaining why (because it is introverted).

The main difference of perspective between Thinking and Feeling is that Thinking needs to rationalize decisions in terms of "objective" criteria (they aren't always really objective, but they're still criteria), while Feeling simply needs to "feel" that the decision is right. I believe this particular context of the word "feel" comes closest to what MBTI/Jung Feeling is.

Thinking isn't particularly more useful than Feeling, but each covers the other's weaknesses. Feeling is pretty fast at judging things, and given experience, can process a lot more information faster than thinking. Imagine Thinking as a stream of text words (or math), and feeling as a piece of music or a movie. It takes a lot of "Thinking" to get to the level of information processed by Feeling. But the Feeling process is "lossy": it's mostly right, it looks right, but often critical bits get lost, and if those bits were important, then your feeling is wrong (in your own opinion, but you don't realize it because you missed something). Thinking is more precise, but because it cannot really cover every single possibility, it limits its spectrum to processing data that yields to analysis. So Thinking is often "more correct" than Feeling, but mostly on a subset of all human ideas. Feeling is capable of handling all sorts of ideas that Thinking doesn't handle so well, but at the cost of losing accuracy, especially in those areas where analytical thinking is adept.

Oh, and this cartoon is, as ever, apropos:

useless.jpg
 

Cellmold

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Thinking is capable of explaining "why" something is true. Feeling tends to "just know" it's true (much like intuition).

I find thinking to be preferable in this sense. Exactly how can feeling show what is true, since it only assumes?

Fe tends to be able to explain exactly why something is true or false (or right or wrong), and it takes close listening to realize that the arguments are being made are not really following strict logic, but are more like "common sense" heuristics, or when a bit more opinionated, they're often named (on this forum) "values". Also Ti can often seem to "just know" that something is logically true or false (and be absolutely correct), but yet have a hard time explaining why (because it is introverted).

Interesting comparison, im reminded of the link between a functions opposite in it's place as dominant. Also I wish I could be more certain of my 'values'. To me it seems any value is subjectively true, so how can I enforce my own truth on others?

The main difference of perspective between Thinking and Feeling is that Thinking needs to rationalize decisions in terms of "objective" criteria (they aren't always really objective, but they're still criteria), while Feeling simply needs to "feel" that the decision is right. I believe this particular context of the word "feel" comes closest to what MBTI/Jung Feeling is.

Which is what I take issue with. I know I shouldn't, but...it's hard not to.
Thinking isn't particularly more useful than Feeling, but each covers the other's weaknesses. Feeling is pretty fast at judging things, and given experience, can process a lot more information faster than thinking. Imagine Thinking as a stream of text words (or math), and feeling as a piece of music or a movie. It takes a lot of "Thinking" to get to the level of information processed by Feeling. But the Feeling process is "lossy": it's mostly right, it looks right, but often critical bits get lost, and if those bits were important, then your feeling is wrong (in your own opinion, but you don't realize it because you missed something). Thinking is more precise, but because it cannot really cover every single possibility, it limits its spectrum to processing data that yields to analysis. So Thinking is often "more correct" than Feeling, but mostly on a subset of all human ideas. Feeling is capable of handling all sorts of ideas that Thinking doesn't handle so well, but at the cost of losing accuracy, especially in those areas where analytical thinking is adept.

Thanks for this, it is a very good explanation. Very precise....very Thinker.
 

entropie

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Well sqrt heart would be heart^1/2 and cos heart must be between 0 and 1, while d/dx heart would be prolly be a broken rational function and you could just hope for a strong Asymptote. 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 ?

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
 
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