So, after deciding to take this week for a presentation, I find myself confused and wholly disappointed in the articles I read. I have yet to finish The Cognitive Dimension because it's too boring for me. I think I may be thinking too hard to trying to find a topic and render myself in a mental block.
What does one do to get over a block? Take a bath to get away and then write out the problems.
The most comprehensible article was Damasio's. I appreciate his lauding of Shakespeare right away. This old dead white guy knew everything about everything and the faster we accept this the better.
So Damasio argues that emotions beget feelings. He firsts separates feelings from emotion, the former being private and the latter public. "emotions and related phenomenon are the foundation for feelings." (28) Alright, I almost believe this dude. Feelings are shadows "of the external manner of emotions." (29) Sooooo the public expression causes the private experience? Not following.
Then he goes into this homeostasis machine tree upside down lung thing explanation which is not confusing in structure, but I get lost as to how this relates to emotions being the cause of feelings. I have the desperate need to slow this article and break it down into manageable pieces.
Fact 1: We are supposed to solve problems automatically
How I make sense of this: Theory of Mind automaticity. Humans are trained to be social beings that interpret each other very very very quickly, which gives evidence that nature equipped us with the ability to solve things quickly. We also want to live, so solve problems quickly gives us the chance to die another day. Got it.
Fact 2: Homeostasis machine enables us to do that. This causes actions like moving, activity levels and cooperation with the environment to keep us from dying. Rock on.
Branches:
Low: metabolism, basic reflexes, immune system. Stuff that is necessary to be alive that we do not think about. See fact one.
Middle: Behaviors associated with pleasure/punishment. Example: healing a hurt knee or a cold. So this is where the emotions come in, I think. He cites the public actions of the body, like holding a recently banged knee or of my own thoughts, one scrunches up their nose when they smell something bad. Similarly, when one's body functions well, it shows it. The walk is loose and open, perhaps a smile may flit across the visage. Endorphins are released, too! These physical features of wellness or sickness manifest themselves in a public manner. But apparently, "the experience of pain or pleasure is not the cause of the pain or pleasure behaviors and is by no means necessary for those behaviors to occur." (33) What? You just said that when our body functions well we show all these things. If the experience does not cause behavior, what the heck does? I'm
going to read on to clear up confusion.
Next level: Drives and motivations; desires and appetites.
Topish: Emotions-proper
Top: Feelings!!!
Alright, so these all work together and have developed because we want to live. These also all nest together, but in a very messy way. Some project back and some forward.
Then this dude gets to what he I think he is really saying. One aspect of emotions is that they facilitate social relations, also stave off dangers and help take advantage of an opportunity.
Okay, but how does scrunching my face do any of this stuff? I can see how it warns other people that something is up, but what about these other three? How does holding a broken hand help me stave off dangers? Unless I missed something, this guy never goes in depth as to why exactly emotions came to be. Help????
Now I'm hoping that the Vermeule article will make sense of the previous article.
So we animate everything because it is better to think something is alive and pay attention to it than to ignore it and possibly die. We look for social cues above all and eye contact is the main mode of finding these cues.
Alright, I think I can talk about something here. With the idea that we animate everything, I began to search in the poems for instances in which animism occurs. Dream Song 14 is very interesting because the first line claims life to be boring. Is it really? Life is a concept noun, not a thing that is actually alive. Humans are alive and life is the span of our years, so life is like time in that it goes on no matter what. Life ends individually but at the same time it onyy ends at the end of the world. So, life is not boring. Human perceive it as boring.
I found "the sky flashes" really interesting because this would be a very useful animation. If our forefathers and mother were walking in Africa hunting, noticing the sky flashing would indicated perhaps a storm and this encourage them to seek shelter.
Now the sea yearning, that's a tough one. Does she yearn for the sailors who sailed upon her face during hurricane season? Does she yearn for the shore which is why she laps upon it?
The final motif, the "tranquil hills" who of course cannot be tranquil. They sit for thousands of years, which one understands why we ascribe peacefulness to them. This technique could communicate safety or a place of reset.
Perhaps life is actually boring because it cannot make itself interesting due to its lack of life. But to acknowledge that it is us who is boring is socially taboo and we should make life more interesting by doing stuff. But does that make life more interesting or is it we become more interesting?
Ugh, struggle bus tonight.
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