RE: Emotions are intrinsically good and bad
November 3, 2017 at 2:08 pm
(This post was last modified: November 3, 2017 at 2:14 pm by Transcended Dimensions.)
(November 3, 2017 at 10:18 am)Khemikal Wrote: "Personal truths" aren't truths in any meaningful sense...they're nothing more than firmly held opinions. If, however, you're satisfied with your firmly held opinions...what impetus is there to argue their truth?
You haven't presented anything that would lead anyone to believe that their definition of a good life is wrong, and if you defer to your own firmly held personal opnions..you should probably extend that courtesy to others..particulalrly if there's no truth to be had in the first place.
Now, you told me earlier that my worldview was blatantly false because of the fact that all the things we see in this world disprove my worldview. I will keep an open mind towards the possibility that you are right and I will also keep an open mind towards the possibility that you are wrong and that you are just emotionally connected to your worldview rather than using a rational mindset. According to my worldview, even though our rational thinking does not bring our lives any real perceived values, it does allow us to perceive the truth. So, we can still use our thinking to arrive at certain truths.
But I am now going to present the 4 factors that basically summarize the support for my worldview. Therefore, I will begin by saying that, if a depressed or miserable person claimed that he saw real good value in his life through the helping of others and other endeavors, then one might think that this disproves my worldview since the depressed person lived a life and had the mindset that really implies that he really did have good value in his life. But let me present the 4 factors here now:
1.) The depressed person had a positive emotion on some level that allowed him to see some good value in his life regardless if he denies it and believes otherwise.
2.) This depressed person had another form of a positive emotion besides the biochemical ones. This positive emotion has taken on the form of his rational value judgments. Thus, making these rational value judgments real good value judgments which would bring this depressed person's life real good value.
3.) The rational value judgments can never be any real emotional state and any real value judgments, the depressed person had no biochemical positive emotion at all, and he was only deluding himself into thinking he saw real good value in his life when he never did. This would be no different than if a person has been taught the wrong definition of thirst, got up and had something to drink when he wasn't really thirsty, and believed he was thirsty.
Hunger and thirst are mental states which are analogous with our positive and negative emotions since they are the mental states that allow us to see good and bad value in our lives. I have payed very close attention to my inner universe during my miserable moments and I have clearly recognized that I was not thirsty or, in this case, not seeing the good values in my life despite using my rational mindset in believing otherwise. Despite the fact that many people are deluded by a false definition of good and bad, I did not fall for this delusion and I was able to easily see past it.
4.) The rational value judgments themselves can be real value judgments and real emotions in our lives. This is different than factor #2 because #2 required that the rational value judgments themselves had something more to them in order to transform them into real emotions and real value judgments. It required that the rational value judgments become their own biochemical emotions. But factor #4 would say that they don't need to be biochemical emotions and that they, in of themselves, are real value judgments and real emotions. I am very doubtful of factor #4 since factor #4, to me, is living a life of nothing but empty words and having no real perceived values in your life.