Is there any emotion associated with hunger? Not in my definition, but emotion is probably one of the loosest words out there.
I guess I think of emotion in the general sense of anything that drives people to action... whereas emotion in a more narrow sense is a particular kind of drives, those that somehow feel more "mental" and less "physical". I want to say that if you took away all emotion then people would no longer act to do anything, since they would have no goals or values. But I guess I need to also take into account less mental and more instinctual things, like hunger and "physical pain" (as opposed to emotional pain). I think there is a continuum there and I admit desire may be somewhere in between physical and emotional, or maybe refers to either. A more physical manifestation of it would be hunger or raw sexual lust, whereas a more emotional manifestation of it would be passion or love. Anyway, this takes us off on a tangent and is probably not all that interesting, but just wanted to clarify how I think of emotion just in case we are thinking about it completely differently. I am only talking about the innate desire to have sex with a certain person. Some desire men, some desire women. There is no value associated with the desire itself.
I would have to disagree there. What else is value if not utility? If you derive some satisfaction out of sex with men, then you value it. If you don't then you don't. Right? you don't say "I value heterosexuality", you say "I am a heterosexual" or equivalently "I desire heterosexual sex".
But you do say "I value the company of men" or "I value sex with men" or "I value relationships with men".
I think one distinction we need to make here is between fundamental values and derived values. This is I think a clear example of a fundamental value, in that it's not derived from anything... it comes directly from your desire for sex or relationships with a certain type of person. A derived value would be something like "I value laws that will protect and support my lifestyle, so that I can keep on practicing it." My whole point is that fundamental values do not depend on reason, only emotions and instincts. Reason only comes into play when you want to derive other values from your fundamental values.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-12-06 02:47 am (UTC)Is there any emotion associated with hunger? Not in my definition, but emotion is probably one of the loosest words out there.
I guess I think of emotion in the general sense of anything that drives people to action... whereas emotion in a more narrow sense is a particular kind of drives, those that somehow feel more "mental" and less "physical". I want to say that if you took away all emotion then people would no longer act to do anything, since they would have no goals or values. But I guess I need to also take into account less mental and more instinctual things, like hunger and "physical pain" (as opposed to emotional pain). I think there is a continuum there and I admit desire may be somewhere in between physical and emotional, or maybe refers to either. A more physical manifestation of it would be hunger or raw sexual lust, whereas a more emotional manifestation of it would be passion or love. Anyway, this takes us off on a tangent and is probably not all that interesting, but just wanted to clarify how I think of emotion just in case we are thinking about it completely differently.
I am only talking about the innate desire to have sex with a certain person. Some desire men, some desire women. There is no value associated with the desire itself.
I would have to disagree there. What else is value if not utility? If you derive some satisfaction out of sex with men, then you value it. If you don't then you don't. Right?
you don't say "I value heterosexuality", you say "I am a heterosexual" or equivalently "I desire heterosexual sex".
But you do say "I value the company of men" or "I value sex with men" or "I value relationships with men".
I think one distinction we need to make here is between fundamental values and derived values. This is I think a clear example of a fundamental value, in that it's not derived from anything... it comes directly from your desire for sex or relationships with a certain type of person. A derived value would be something like "I value laws that will protect and support my lifestyle, so that I can keep on practicing it." My whole point is that fundamental values do not depend on reason, only emotions and instincts. Reason only comes into play when you want to derive other values from your fundamental values.