When I am in my most miserable/hopeless state, then it is really like I am blinded by darkness. I truly cannot see the good values and beauty of this life and neither can I be in a state of love or joy since it is like I am blindfolded. But the moment I fully recover, then that is like taking the blindfold off or clearing up the darkness. Likewise, then I feel a positive emotion and cannot feel any negative emotion for the time being, then it is like I am blinded by the light. I cannot see anything bad and neither can I be in a state of misery, despair, anger, sadness, torment, etc. since it is like I am filled with the light of joy and beauty in my life. It doesn't matter what I tell myself otherwise, believe otherwise, or judge otherwise; positive emotions do not allow me to see the bad values in this life and negative emotions do not allow me to see the good values in this life. Having no emotions at all (anhedonia) would put me in a state where I can neither see the good nor bad values in this life. My life would, therefore, be completely neutral since there would be no value in my life at all.
One last thing here. Since positive emotions are objectively (always) good value judgments and since negative emotions are objectively bad value judgments, then our non emotional (reasoning) form of value judgments would have to be objectively neutral value judgments. This means that we cannot make any real value judgments independent of our emotions. If you felt nothing but a positive emotion from getting high off of drugs and you believed these drugs to be bad since they would harm you in the long run, but you could not feel any negative emotion from judging these drugs as bad, then we wouldn't define this as a bad value judgment.
We would instead say that you had nothing more than the idea going through your mind of these drugs being harmful, but that these drugs were truly nothing bad from your perspective. The same idea applies to wanting and liking. Our positive emotions are an objective form of wanting and liking and our negative emotions would have to be an objective form of not wanting, disliking, as well as a negative form of wanting since there can be a negative form of wanting such as wanting to harm someone, wanting to escape from danger, or wanting to just give up on life.
Of course, the positive form of wanting would be something such as a feeling of excitement or joy from getting your new favorite movie. But like I was saying, the only way something can matter to you is if you want it, like it. not want it, or dislike it. Otherwise, nothing could truly matter to you at all regardless of what you believe otherwise. Since our positive emotions are an objective form of wanting and liking and since our negative emotions are an objective form of not wanting, disliking, and a negative form of wanting, then there can be no subjective form of wanting, liking, not wanting, and disliking just as how there can be no subjective form of value judgments as I've stated earlier. Subjective refers to our thoughts and the objective refers to our emotions. Having no emotions would have to be an objective form of no wanting, liking, not wanting, disliking, and a negative form of wanting since we are talking an objectively neutral emotion (no emotion).
From here, states of mind that possess a real positive quality are what make things matter to us in good ways while states of mind that possess a real negative quality are what make things matter to us in bad ways. Therefore, this means that nothing can matter to us in good ways as long as we are feeling a negative emotion and nothing can matter to us in bad ways as long as we are feeling a positive emotion since positive and negative emotions are the only real positive and negative quality states of mind we can have. Having no emotions at all would be a state of mind where nothing could truly matter to us one way or the other at all. Lastly, here is the study which points to objective wanting and liking (our positive emotions) as being the reward wanting and liking:
We have found a special hedonic hotspot that is crucial for reward 'liking' and 'wanting' (and codes reward learning too). The opioid hedonic hotspot is shown in red above. It works together with another hedonic hotspot in the more famous nucleus accumbens to generate pleasure 'liking'.
‘Liking’ and ‘wanting’ food rewards: Brain substrates and roles in eating disorders
Kent C. Berridge 2009 Mar 29.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2717031/
One last thing here. Since positive emotions are objectively (always) good value judgments and since negative emotions are objectively bad value judgments, then our non emotional (reasoning) form of value judgments would have to be objectively neutral value judgments. This means that we cannot make any real value judgments independent of our emotions. If you felt nothing but a positive emotion from getting high off of drugs and you believed these drugs to be bad since they would harm you in the long run, but you could not feel any negative emotion from judging these drugs as bad, then we wouldn't define this as a bad value judgment.
We would instead say that you had nothing more than the idea going through your mind of these drugs being harmful, but that these drugs were truly nothing bad from your perspective. The same idea applies to wanting and liking. Our positive emotions are an objective form of wanting and liking and our negative emotions would have to be an objective form of not wanting, disliking, as well as a negative form of wanting since there can be a negative form of wanting such as wanting to harm someone, wanting to escape from danger, or wanting to just give up on life.
Of course, the positive form of wanting would be something such as a feeling of excitement or joy from getting your new favorite movie. But like I was saying, the only way something can matter to you is if you want it, like it. not want it, or dislike it. Otherwise, nothing could truly matter to you at all regardless of what you believe otherwise. Since our positive emotions are an objective form of wanting and liking and since our negative emotions are an objective form of not wanting, disliking, and a negative form of wanting, then there can be no subjective form of wanting, liking, not wanting, and disliking just as how there can be no subjective form of value judgments as I've stated earlier. Subjective refers to our thoughts and the objective refers to our emotions. Having no emotions would have to be an objective form of no wanting, liking, not wanting, disliking, and a negative form of wanting since we are talking an objectively neutral emotion (no emotion).
From here, states of mind that possess a real positive quality are what make things matter to us in good ways while states of mind that possess a real negative quality are what make things matter to us in bad ways. Therefore, this means that nothing can matter to us in good ways as long as we are feeling a negative emotion and nothing can matter to us in bad ways as long as we are feeling a positive emotion since positive and negative emotions are the only real positive and negative quality states of mind we can have. Having no emotions at all would be a state of mind where nothing could truly matter to us one way or the other at all. Lastly, here is the study which points to objective wanting and liking (our positive emotions) as being the reward wanting and liking:
We have found a special hedonic hotspot that is crucial for reward 'liking' and 'wanting' (and codes reward learning too). The opioid hedonic hotspot is shown in red above. It works together with another hedonic hotspot in the more famous nucleus accumbens to generate pleasure 'liking'.
‘Liking’ and ‘wanting’ food rewards: Brain substrates and roles in eating disorders
Kent C. Berridge 2009 Mar 29.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2717031/
