(Originally written May 21, 2006 in Book 1)
First of all, this week has been absolutely fucking crazy. Between moving out of the dorms and into 3-D, and finals, and waiting on New Horizons and getting jobs and the apartment, and then having to say no to NH, I sort of hit my threshold level. My 'emotions' were going wild. I've already stated that I believe emotions are essential to human life and understanding so I really want to focus on them. This will probably blend philosophical and psychological studies, but I'm ok with that. First, let's look at my diagram for the operations of the mind to see where emotions fit in.
Consciousness Perception
emotions
Thought Imagination
Reason
Understanding
Will Memory
As I stated elsewhere the perception function of the mind is like the scientist taking empirical evidence. Perception deals with the physical realm, the spiritual realm and the God realm by observations through the senses.
Once the mind has observations or empirical data, it works to comprehend that data. But no empirical data exists in the thinking process (Thinking process = thought to reason to understanding). The data is transferred from the perception to the thought operation via emotions.
Empirical data -> Perception ->Emotions (filter) sends Empirical-Emotional Data to Thought Process
All empirical data has to be channeled through the emotional operation to reach the thought operation. Thus, all empirical data becomes empirical-emotional data. But what exactly are emotions?
The words 'feelings', 'emotions' and 'mood' seem to be used interchangeably in American society. I believe that we should differentiate these terms to fight off our ever-present enemy, ambiguity. These three terms are what constitute the emotional operation of the mind. They are similar, but not identical. Granted, these words may be used interchangeably in modern English and everyday usage; and, I may simply be playing language games by defining these terms. But, what is language if it isn't a tool that we have at our disposal to articulate meaning through words?
Therefore, I will define these three terms to fight against ambiguity. I understand that they may never become the universally accepted meanings in everyday life, but in our quest for knowledge it is helpful to define terms so that we don't bicker over the senseless and can argue to achieve knowledge.
1) Feeling - a reaction of the mind to an external or internal event (empirical data) that sparks this involuntary reaction.
2) Emotion - A set of feelings that are linked together by the mind to create a unified, stronger and more pervasive account of reactions. While a feeling is an involuntary reaction to a single event, an emotion is an involuntary reaction to a set of events.
3) Mood - A voluntary reaction to feelings and emotions that a mind chooses to embrace. Feelings grow stronger by being linked to other feelings and thus becoming emotions. An emotion becomes a mood when the mind choose to embrace that emotion. The mood is the demeanor or disposition of the mind.
Feelings and emotions are, at the instance that they occur, involuntary and mandatory reactions to events. They are determined responses in the sense that the mind cannot help but feel a certain way about an event. As an example, let us ponder a hypothetical scenario. Say that Kelly's dog Max passes away. The instant that Kelly finds out that Max is dead her mind cannot help but get the feeling of sadness.
The empirical data - Max is dead
Perception - Observation that max is dead (empirical data)
Emotions - Empirical data from the observation that Max is dead + a feeling of sadness
Thought - awareness that Max is dead with the feeling of sadness
Reason - awareness of the implications that Max's death means and the sad feeling inextricably connected to this awareness
Understanding - Comprehension that Max is dead and never coming back and a feeling of sadness
Depending on how sentimental Kelly is and how close she was to Max will determine how strong the feeling of sadness is.
When memory plays a part it is run back through the emotions again to hit the thought process. Kelly will instantly recall the thinking process (thought+reason+understanding) through memory. She will also receive the same empirical data from the perception every instance she observes that Max is dead (by any of the five senses). Each of these procedures will produce a feeling of sadness. When it is being comprehended in the understanding, each of these individual feelings can be united into the emotion of sadness.
Kelly's sadness will be stronger or weaker based on her sentimentality and on her connection to Max. The emotion will be proportional to these two factors and to the emotion(s) or feeling(s) she had previously just felt.
Both the feelings and emotions are determined by the empirical data sent to the emotions. Not in the sense that all reactions are predetermined, but in the sense that Kelly's mind is determined to react in some manner. If she was feeling pleasant or good feelings prior to observing the fact of Max's death this can produce a positive or negative effect. It could be positive in that if she was already experiencing some type of sadness it might have been linked to that and it would then be a stronger sadness. But it could also produce a negative effect if she somehow feels guilty for her happy feelings or emotions and attaches a feeling of guilt to a feeling of sadness to create a guilty-sadness emotion. This process is almost completely involuntary. We have no control over our feelings or emotions. This is quite an abysmal fact for those who desire complete control over their minds.
Luckily, a mood is not determined. It is a free-will choice. Kelly has the option to will herself to not be overcome by the sadness she is experiencing in emotion or feeling form. If Max were suffering, then his death could be viewed as a good thing. The feelings and emotion of sadness would remain in Kelly's mind, but her mood would be a sorrowful joy for the end of pain in Max's life. This would take an incredible amount of strength to do because Kelly's mind would have to work hard to deny the emotion of sadness the power of becoming her mood.
IF Kelly's sadness became a mood, then it did so only because she chose it. It may actually be a negative choice rather than a positive one, but it would be a choice nonetheless. The choice not to work towards a less sad mood and let the emotion of sadness become a mood would be Kelly's choice. Feelings naturally become emotions and emotions naturally become moods. It takes work to alter one's mood, but a choice is still made. Therefore, reactions like feelings and emotions are determined because we do not have the choice in responding in a way we want. But a mood is the choice and subsequent action to make an emotion a mood. Therefore it is an operation of the will and all operations of the will are free.
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