Your Feelings, and Why They do not Matter.

a reply to: TzarChasm

ok...lets try this again.

do you have a family? husband, wife, kids, brothers and sisters, parents? do you love them? why?

how about a nice cold drink at the end of a long day, watching the sunset go down and the kids enjoying themselves in the yard?

how about graduation? or promotion? surely you experienced one or both. how did you feel about that? does that still matter to you today?

fear, joy, hope, sorrow, trust, anger, shame, pity, indignation, envy, love? do you not experience these sensations? do you ignore them?

i sincerely, honestly, truly dont understand and i am trying to...but you make it difficult. and that makes me feel frustrated.

Yes I have feelings. I stated in the OP that I naturally gravitate towards my own well-being. I am just like anyone, varying only in degree of biology and place. Perhaps the only difference is I treat my feelings and emotions like feedback as opposed to “pushy explainers” (philosophical jargon); I don’t see them as any sort of cause for my actions, but as an indication of my own biology, which does matter.

Yes the title is somewhat subversive, but feelings aren’t what they “feel” to be, which is ultimately the point I am trying to make. Upon inspection, there is no love, joy, hope or sorrow in the body; it's only body. When I say they do not matter I am being quite literal, for there is nothing material about them. Feelings are not things. Simple enough. Things matter; nothings do not. If one was to say feelings and body are the same thing—which they are—I would concede that they matter, but only to the extent that the biology does.

However there is a paradoxical methodology utilized by people who chase feelings and push others away, namely, that they will forgo or risk health, being, and biology in order to maintain or destroy these sensations, for instance self-medication, suicide, reckless behavior, putting not only themselves at risk, but others as well. Also I find people tend to seek intellectual comfort over, say, a more realistic picture of reality. Those who break the biology into the false-dichotomy of subjective and objective necessarily give primacy to the subjective, to themselves, and if the state of the world is any indication, this is having adverse effects on the world around us. This is the rabbit hole I am currently descending.

a reply to: LesMisanthrope

Feelings are not things. Simple enough. Things matter; nothings do not. If one was to say feelings and body are the same thing—which they are—I would concede that they matter, but only to the extent that the biology does.

so you are speaking of the noun, not the verb?

Those who break the biology into the false-dichotomy of subjective and objective necessarily give primacy to the subjective, to themselves, and if the state of the world is any indication, this is having adverse effects on the world around us. This is the rabbit hole I am currently descending.

well, i hope you find what you want. and then i hope you bury it with you.

a reply to: LesMisanthrope

Are you saying
You think about your feelings but do not let them rule you

Many people are ruled by emotions
Emotions can be easily triggered by others
Rendering one no more than a pre programmed robot who's buttons can be pressed
And that you rise above such base emotions and apply intelligence to situations rather than reacting to them ?

a reply to: TzarChasm

so you are speaking of the noun, not the verb?

Feelings is a noun, yes.

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
a reply to: TzarChasm

so you are speaking of the noun, not the verb?

Feelings is a noun, yes.

Depending on how it is used, yes. And I was talking about the word "matter" not the word "feeling" in regard to noun vs verb.

"To feel" is a verb, and I feel like we are getting sidetracked here. Why do we do anything if not for how the result affects us? That includes emotional repercussions. Otherwise, might as well find a convenient freeway and take a nap between the lines.

a reply to: artistpoet

Are you saying
You think about your feelings but do not let them rule you

I notice my feelings for what they are and treat them in kind.

a reply to: TzarChasm

Depending on how it is used, yes. And I was talking about the word "matter" not the word "feeling" in regard to noun vs verb.

"To feel" is a verb, and I feel like we are getting sidetracked here. Why do we do anything if not for how the result affects us? That includes emotional repercussions. Otherwise, might as well find a convenient freeway and take a nap between the lines.

Beware the language most of all.

Do you agree that emotional repercussions are biological ones?

a reply to: LesMisanthrope

Thanks for responding
So say you feel/recognise anger or love... how would you treat such feelings "In kind"

Not trying to catch you out just interested

a reply to: LesMisanthrope

...to a certain degree, yes. Emotions have physical symptoms. But emotions are not limited to or defined by those symptoms.

But maybe the better question is, what will you do when you realize that for all your critiques and qualms, the world and its inhabitants won't stop feeling or acting on their feelings?

a reply to: artistpoet

Thanks for responding
So say you feel/recognise anger or love... how would you treat such feelings "In kind"

Not trying to catch you out just interested

By not feeling anger and love. I don't view my sensations as anger or love, which we tend to despise and glorify.

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
a reply to: artistpoet

Thanks for responding
So say you feel/recognise anger or love... how would you treat such feelings "In kind"

Not trying to catch you out just interested

By not feeling anger and love. I don't view my sensations as anger or love, which we tend to despise and glorify.

Then what do you view them as?

a reply to: TzarChasm

...to a certain degree, yes. Emotions have physical symptoms. But emotions are not limited to or defined by those symptoms.

They are those symptoms, but not defined by those symptoms. They are defined according to how they feel.

But maybe the better question is, what will you do when you realize that for all your critiques and qualms, the world and its inhabitants won't stop feeling or acting on their feelings?

They already do not act on their feelings, they only feel like they do. I'm attempting to talk about what is, not what ought to be.

a reply to: TzarChasm

Then what do you view them as?

My body.

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
a reply to: TzarChasm

Then what do you view them as?

My body.

Your emotions are your body?

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
a reply to: TzarChasm

...to a certain degree, yes. Emotions have physical symptoms. But emotions are not limited to or defined by those symptoms.

They are those symptoms, but not defined by those symptoms. They are defined according to how they feel.

But maybe the better question is, what will you do when you realize that for all your critiques and qualms, the world and its inhabitants won't stop feeling or acting on their feelings?

They already do not act on their feelings, they only feel like they do. I'm attempting to talk about what is, not what ought to be.

Well, yes. We tend to categorize things according to how they appeal to us or repulse us. This is how we decide what direction we want to go. We could of course just not pay any attention to what we want...but then what is the basis for progress, for motion of any kind?

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
a reply to: artistpoet

Thanks for responding
So say you feel/recognise anger or love... how would you treat such feelings "In kind"

Not trying to catch you out just interested

By not feeling anger and love. I don't view my sensations as anger or love, which we tend to despise and glorify.

But, you do, as evidenced previously by being pis**d off at that feminist who did not want you to hold the door open for her. You display your anger as an action, which is not dealing with it.

a reply to: LesMisanthrope

I see ... so you recognise how your body feels and act accordingly?

Feelings/sensations do affect the body as you point out
We give names to those feelings be they love or hate or whatever
Yet they are just sensations affecting the body in different ways ?

a reply to: InTheLight

But, you do, as evidenced previously by being pis**d off at that feminist who did not want you to hold the door open for her. You display your anger as an action, which is not dealing with it.

Responding to a request is not a display of anger.

a reply to: TzarChasm

Your emotions are your body?

Yes.

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
a reply to: InTheLight

But, you do, as evidenced previously by being pis**d off at that feminist who did not want you to hold the door open for her. You display your anger as an action, which is not dealing with it.

Responding to a request is not a display of anger.

The manner in which one responds can be a display of anger.

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
a reply to: TzarChasm

Your emotions are your body?

Yes.

And you believe your emotions should answer to your will as your body does?