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[Se] Emotional Evolution

T

ThatGirl

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People have always hypothesized about aliens having brains that squish out the tops of their heads. With function capacity evolving to levels of telepathy and other outrages things.

But, today I was reading an article somewhere that suggested human primates may not have always been as emotionally inclined as they are now, and this got me to thinking...


What would the evolution of emotion consist of, (I personally am anticipating the end of the world)?

Such a scary thought.
 
T

ThatGirl

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No clue eh? Me neither. I will think about it and get back.
 

Savage Idealist

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I imagine that with higher emotional intellect would come a greater ability to feel empathy, to show more unconditional love, to understand and apprecieate things without a logical analysis. Think of how conventional intellect has increased in human beings over thousands of years, how the smarter we become the better we can make the world; inventions, medicine, technology. The same principle can be used for the emotional intellect; in the next few thousand years our emotional intellect will continue to grow and become stronger; empathy for other and the environment, care for other people, passionate living, all these will be more abundant and stronger among people.
 

kccrush

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This is an interesting question. For me, it's something along the lines of looking back through history to determine which tendencies in the Myers Briggs scale have profited most in society. It's my understanding that E's and S's represent a higher proportion of humankind. I'd look back through history to see if this has always been the case. Or are these groups increasing and N's and I's are decreasing? It would reason that whichever group excels most in society will stand to benefit from evolutionary tendencies of human nature. I actually see people becoming much less empathetic, and much more categorical. So perhaps the J tendency has the upper hand. I'm not as familiar with Myers Briggs as many people on this site, so hopefully someone will say if this theory makes sense or not. It's just a beginner's shot of an answer :)
 

Udog

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I believe that most of our emotions are covered by the lower levels of our brain: The reptilian mind and the limbic system, aka the mammalian brain.

It's my opinion that the neocortex, or rational mind, largely uses the toolset provided by the lower brains to create complexities and nuance. Something like a basic drive to escape a situation can suddenly become defined as "hope". Various types of aggression get categorized into things like anger or determination.

So what's next? I'm not sure if there are really new emotions to create. If humans continue to get more intelligent, we'll simply find new variations to the same basic building blocks. Considering that many of the 'ugly' emotions, such as aggression and territorialism, are centered in the very primitive parts of our minds, it'll take more than a evolution of our rational mind to remove them in my opinion.
 

Xellotath

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Evolution =/= Progress

The future of our emotions will be, like every other evolutionary trait, changed by the pressures of our environment.

If what you say about human primates is true, the more pertinent question is: what was the evolutionary pressure that coerced us into developing emotions as they are today?
 

skylights

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^ stress responses - fight and flight - were useful when we had to defend ourselves against nature for survival. we don't have to do that so much today...

now i guess a greater threat comes from inside ourselves and from one another - unintentional injury (primarily car accidents) is the primary killer of pre-reproductive adults, followed by homicide and then suicide. so i suppose emotions that prevented those kinds of things from happening would tend to become more prevalent.

i would imagine a finer-tuned sense of fear, with less explosive reaction, would be preferable over more intense emotional states. we also face more chronic stressors, so it'd make sense that emotions which helped deal with that, as opposed to acute stress (where you could have a burst of energy, kill or flee from the tiger, and then be done with things), would tend to evolve.

so basically i'm thinking more subtle and nuanced emotional states.
 
T

ThatGirl

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If we look at the development of intellect we can also see the dynamic of emotion.

Right now emotion is simple (we feel it or don't).

But thought was simple, (this can account for a few dynamics of its own, but I won't go there). Thought was instinctual, necessary, much in the same way we (I) view emotion today.

Yet if we look at the development of intellect, what were the most contingent points? The ability to create alternate dynamics. To think outside the box.

If emotion succumbs to the same dynamic, I see it as getting more complicated, conceptual. Grey.

I am sure at one time, thought was considered simple. To think, and therefore act. I am because I think, or something.

But we do not think, and act. Evolution has refined us.

I see the complication and strength of future emotional progress, and personally so, its demise.

I predict more emotional involvement with less personability, and therefore, a greater more loosely defined morality. An expansion,.....

Still thinking it over.
 

mr.awesome

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all i know that if i had any more emotion i would be a complete social leper and questionably psychopathic.
 

Katharsis

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The development of empathy in humans has to do with that all people have an instinctual need of feeling like they belong in a group. You empathize more easily with people of your own nationality, religion, culture, etc. As atheism becomes more present in society, as new cultures meet and co-exist with eachother, I think we also begin to see beyond things such as race, background or beliefs. Viewpoints change and becomes more humanistic as we realize that we are all fellow human beings who should work together to push forward the human race spiritually and intellectually, to teach acceptance and empathy instead of hate and intolerance.

Or at least that is my theory. Because I do not see how empathy could be rooted in our existence in the way that it serves as a basic instinct of survival, but is instead the product of a herd animal-mentality wich has been increasingly developed as we become more illuminated and understanding about one another, and the differences between humans are slowly blurred out.
 

Vamp

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Evolution =/= Progress

This is important to remember. The way I think about it is that evolution fits whatever direction (forward, backward or off to the side) things are going in.

We developed an inability to house all our wisdom teeth because we began to farm, cook and eat meat; not because a smaller jaw was necessarily better but because it no longer suited our needs.

So. ..maybe developing into more emotional beings has more to do with sustaining our current social structures rather than becoming "better" at something or progressing in anyway.

Whenever people bring up bigger as better or more as better or anything closer to modern anatomical human brains as "better" I always bring up how Homo sapiens idaltu had a larger brain but never made it out of Ethiopia or how the Neanderthals had larger brains than homo erectus but also went extinct.
 

RaptorWizard

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I think emotions are all about evolution - that is, they give us motivation to change things, for without those basic desires, man would be fighting with sticks and stones.

It gives us a will, a drive to manifest our wishes, bring them into realization and give them immanence.
 

Standuble

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- As RW said it gives us a reason to change things. If we desire a result we will seek to change it and if we hate the idea of a result we will seek to avoid it. An emotional fear of another type of animal which has historically been an antagonist would cause the subject to take steps to ensure their fears aren't actualised. By fear of dying they avoid being killed before they can pass on their genes.

- A key one (IMO) is that emotions drive up the paternal/maternal instincts of an animal. Simply put, a love and desire to nurture one's young at the expense of logic or reason brings an evolutionary advantage because the mother is no longer relevant to the survival of the species outside of a supporting role (unless she has more children). Her survival tactics and hunting efficiency are compromised in pursuit of parental protection but they can afford to be. Having the children survive until they are old enough to pass on their genes is all what evolution cares about. If the mother must die for her children then so be it.
 

Istbkleta

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Please remember that Fi/Te and Fe/Ti are pairs that form a whole.

It's kind of hard to imagine how one will develop without the other.

Just reminding you of this basic Jungian principle.
 

Mole

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The emotional evolution of homo sapiens is driven by child rearing practices.

Over the millennium child rearing practices have evolved in four steps, giving four personality types.

And as we have prospered so our child rearing practices have evolved and improved, from child sacrifice, to abusive child rearing, to authoritarian child rearing, and last to the helping mode of child rearing.

The first is the practice of child sacrifice, producing the paranoid personality, because having seen a sibling sacrificed, we wonder if we will be next.

An improvement on child sacrifice is an abusive child rearing, where rather than a sibling losing their life, we are blamed and scapegoated, and blame and abuse ourselves.

And an improvement on an abusive child rearing is the authoritarian child rearing, where a sibling is not killed, nor are we blamed, but rather we learn to take orders. And of course we can't give orders unless we learn first to take orders. And so we have the successful authoritarian personality.

And the improvement on the authoritarian child rearing is the helping mode of child rearing, where the parent helps the child meet their life goals. And the helping mode of child rearing gives the empathic and creative personality.
 

animenagai

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I've been reading about evolutionary ethics lately (moreso the philosophical side than the science).

Basically, cooperation made it easier for people to survive, so evolution developed tendencies towards empathy, group communication, and justice (punishing free-riders who wouldn't hunt but ate all the food, for example). Those tendencies were the building blocks for the ethical systems we have today.

What I find philosophically interesting is that there will never be a scientific claim that will tell us what is morally right. It can tell us what appeals to our evolutionary tendencies, but whether or not we out to do that thing is an extra step. For example, evolution may show us how same-sex marriages were useful and preferable to homosexual relationships, but does that mean that homosexuality is wrong? Surely not. It's hard to believe in morality as some sort of deeper reality while faced with evolutionary biology imo. They're not completely incompatible, but we may be forced to say that the sources of our moral intuitions may not have anything to do with 'the moral truth' at all.
 

hjgbujhghg

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I think it's simple. There is one theory, that says only whales and dolphins have developed a left part of brian to the point they might be able of empathy, compassion and long lasting emotions. I guess developing this kind of feelings such as empathy, emotionality could be the part of our emotial evolution. But also we have one thing, that no animal has been prooven to have. It's consciousness. With developing of this consciousness, here comes the feeling of being awere of our own existence. I believe there is a strong connection with being selfish, egocentric, easily hurt, sensitive, breed resentment against someone, or feel lonely, or also feel understood. This is really what animals could just hardly feel.
 
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