Do you think there's a connection between emotion and intellect? And if so, in what sense?

I could give my opinion here, I have one - but I don't know of any evidence either way, just personal experience, and I wouldn't want to colour the issue either way before getting others' opinions.

So what do you think?

EvF

Emotion or instinct is what controls us when intellect fails. In the event of trauma instinct can take over completely, for example. There's a fine balance to be struck between emotion and intellect. I think it's wise to follow your heart, but then intellect has to control it.

You can train yourself to control instinct. Hypnosis is an example. As people get older I think intellect becomes dominant. Instinct or 'heart responses' are more controlled through experience.

Instinct is autopilot. Intellect is manual control.

Mental states can be effected by emotion. Is that emotion instinctual or intellectual? Did our intellect produce the emotional response? I'm thinking sadness & happiness are intellectual states and not instinctual. Instinct is more a gut reaction (inner brain again) to fear, hate, desire etc.. A gut reaction doesn't lower our libido, intellectual consideration does. And intellectual consideration can be independent of reality.

Is emotion instinctual or intellectual? An intellectually constructed instinctual response?

I can't say I wholey disagree or agree there. I can understand the perspective. But I would say that I don't think it can be blank and white, that either your emotions or your intellect is in control fully. I think it seems that way... but really, if there is to be a connection it's all blended in and vaguer that it seems.

Yes the intellect is very different, but I think think that if the two can affect each other - as I think they can - then where do you draw the line? From observation you can draw where it seems clear to draw the line...but if there's indeed really a connection...where exactly is it, actually?

If you're in a croddy emotional state then this affects your intellect, your logic gets less rational for instance because you're rather 'out of it'.

And what you think intellectually can affect your beliefs and beliefs in turn affect your emotions. For instance... if you think a problem through and come to a conclusion....and the conclusion you've came to in your thinking, leads you to believe that you've solved it - then that can effect your emotions, you can feel satisfaction from that for example.

If people are in a traumatic situation - or I'd also argue perhaps also an overly ecstatic one, 'overly' meaning so long as they're also out of control, - then their emotions tend to take over more, and if they are more stable then there intellect is more in control.... but irrespective to this - I reckon there is still a connection.

EvF

I'm not a very emotional person. Actually I've been told I'm quite cold. I also have a 3.75 GPA.

I am a very emotional person, although fully in control. I have been called an idiot before.

(August 19, 2009 at 9:19 pm)Pippy Wrote: I am a very emotional person, although fully in control. I have been called an idiot before.

Really? Colour me shocked!

Kyu

I do not know if there is a connection, as such. I think there is certainly a connection between emotion and the way people use their intellect. For instance, poets or writers tend to be very emotional (the good ones, anyway), but does that make them less intelligent than, say a biologist? I don't think so. Byron may have not been able to write a book on evolution (I know the theory had not been published before his death-its a hypothetical), but Darwin certainly could not have written a poem which captured the human condition in all its squalid splendor. I think it is intelligence in a different manner.

Well said Dagda,

I agree - there are different forms of intelligence, it's not all about IQ.

EvF

What are you intellectualising over if you think sadness influences rational thought? An instinctual response of course produces a rational scenario you have to follow. Your intellect is bypassed to respond instinctually.

There definitely is a connection between the two, depending on the circumstances the intellect or the emotions influence our decisions in certain situations. For example: you are offered a promotion at work, if you accept it you will have to work everyday with a colleague that you strongly dislike for some reasons, but your new position will bring you a much needed pay raise. The odds are higher for an emotional person to refuse the promotion whilst an intellectual might try to find a compromise.