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-- What's the worst emotion one can feel?
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quote:

Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN you mean like arbiter?

lol, no, no. If anything, I think it's really interesting because we see the world from entirely different perspectives, but he's anything but apathetic (which would be a person without emotion)

quote:

Originally posted by Arbiter Pity.

Funny you should say that, because that's exactly what I'd rather have felt. Correct me if I'm wrong and there's nothing Nietzschean about your choice, but even though one can feel superior with pity (and it can be rather damaging), I reckon it's still a somewhat desirable trait.

Given the fact that we live in society, and compassion is fundamental to achieve any sort of social cohesion, pity is less likely to be a problem than, let's say, scorn. Like Domesticated said:

quote:

Without scorn there could be no greatness in the world. Without scorn, there would be no peer pressure and no-self motivation. We would all be languishing in mediocrity.

Scorn can really propel us to success by giving us the will to overcome mediocrity. But are these emotions inevitable? Does pity really make us feel superior in a way we don't want to admit? Is scorn really necessary to avoid failure?

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Originally posted by Lira lol, no, no. If anything, I think it's really interesting because we see the world from entirely different perspectives, but he's anything but apathetic (which would be a person without emotion)

let's turn this into another arbiter-thread!

Whilst I agree that he�s not apathetic, if you can find a more cold, calculating, logic-driven, non-emotional poster on here I�d be impressed.

quote:

Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN let's turn this into another arbiter-thread! Whilst I agree that he�s not apathetic, if you can find a more cold, calculating, logic-driven, non-emotional poster on here I�d be impressed.

Hmm... I agree about the logic-driven bit, but I'm a bit reluctant to say he's not emotional... and I guess that's because emotions have completely different meaning to us

But, yeah, I see what you mean, and I can't really think of anyone else.

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Originally posted by Lira Funny you should say that, because that's exactly what I'd rather have felt. Correct me if I'm wrong and there's nothing Nietzschean about your choice, but even though one can feel superior with pity (and it can be rather damaging), I reckon it's still a somewhat desirable trait. Given the fact that we live in society, and compassion is fundamental to achieve any sort of social cohesion, pity is less likely to be a problem than, let's say, scorn.

Well, every emotion is probably desirable in some sense, since all emotion is a product of our evolutionary development (granted, it's possible that some emotion might be entirely a spandrel, but I can't think of any obvious candidates.)

I would tend to agree that scorn is largely useless: if someone is really so unworthy, then they probably aren't even worthy of enough consideration to be the object of any serious scorn.

However, it still has some aversive benefits: it helps reinforce behaviors that differentiate the subject from the undesirable characteristics of the object.

Pity performs a similar function, but it is parasitic in nature: it benefits the subject at the expense of the object. Further, it does this in a particularly insidious way, since the object is likely to not realize that they are being exploited.

The benefit of pity is essentially the same as that of scorn, it helps to reinforce behaviors contrary to those which led to the adverse condition of another (an additional "benefit," if you want to call it that, is that people socialized to believe that there is virtue in pity may derive pleasure from the act of pitying; personally, I would not regard that as a benefit). However, unlike scorn, which--at least to the extent that it is expressed--will also tend to reinforce in its object behaviors contrary to those which led to its adverse condition, pity may in some cases encourage its object to repeat the very behaviors that made it the object of pity in the first place, obviously to the further detriment of that person.

For that reason, I would generally regard scorn as preferable to pity, though neither is particularly useful.

any emotion that controls you is a bad emotion

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Originally posted by Arbiter Well, every emotion is probably desirable in some sense, since all emotion is a product of our evolutionary development (granted, it's possible that some emotion might be entirely a spandrel, but I can't think of any obvious candidates.)

Self-pity, perhaps? Even though it is a self-soothing emotion, so to speak, it's so harsh on the bearer that I can't see it as a product of any evolutionary development

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[b]Originally posted by Arbiter [/b I would tend to agree that scorn is largely useless: if someone is really so unworthy, then they probably aren't even worthy of enough consideration to be the object of any serious scorn. However, it still has some aversive benefits: it helps reinforce behaviors that differentiate the subject from the undesirable characteristics of the object. Pity performs a similar function, but it is parasitic in nature: it benefits the subject at the expense of the object. Further, it does this in a particularly insidious way, since the object is likely to not realize that they are being exploited. The benefit of pity is essentially the same as that of scorn, it helps to reinforce behaviors contrary to those which led to the adverse condition of another (an additional "benefit," if you want to call it that, is that people socialized to believe that there is virtue in pity may derive pleasure from the act of pitying; personally, I would not regard that as a benefit). However, unlike scorn, which--at least to the extent that it is expressed--will also tend to reinforce in its object behaviors contrary to those which led to its adverse condition, pity may in some cases encourage its object to repeat the very behaviors that made it the object of pity in the first place, obviously to the further detriment of that person. For that reason, I would generally regard scorn as preferable to pity, though neither is particularly useful.

True that. But, wouldn't you say that pity may help we drag someone out of the condition we despise in the first place? If I feel pity for a child on the street, and not only give them food but also education and shelter, am I not helping this child out? Sure, this largely overlaps with the definition of compassion, but I think you can see where I'm coming from

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Originally posted by bas I'd say rejection.

+1

I think emotions are mostly pretty rational. They just take into account many axioms that you wouldn't consider consciously. I feel that confidence in your own 'gut' feelings will often lead to rational decisions, even if you can only afterwards consciously rationalise that decision

As for the original question, jealousy and envy.

I think it's pity to oneself. Because that alone combines many other emotions -- jealousy of others, fear of others pity on you, depression, the feeling that you're getting rejected by someone/society.

Terror is the worst emotion

insignificance.



Try to realize it's all within yourself
No one else can make you change
And to see you're really only very small
And life flows on within you and without you

I'm so small in the scope of the entire universe. What does it matter if I save the human race or even the milky way? I'm so small, a spec of carbon, hydrogen, phosphorus, nitrogen, calcium, and oxygen. All I can achieve is success in the eyes of a few other specs of elemental dust. Make me faster. Make me richer. Make me god.

Shame and guilt seem to be pretty worthless endeavors into unnecessary adherence to social stigma. Really though, most any emotion that lends itself to the exploitation of others is bound to be a "bad" or a "negative" one, because expression shall always pose the risk of exposing the ego's greatest vulnerabilities. Emotion is a primary social interface, secondary only to language at times, so I'd say that validating certain emotions by their utility is not dissimilar to picking and choosing your favourite and least favourite words to use... the flaw in this being that sometimes the right situation calls for a specific word that simply cannot be expressed otherwise without severely detracting from the genuineness of the circumstances.

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Originally posted by Nurdy South Terror is the worst emotion

Actually, yes. I am going to change my vote to that.

I once woke up at age 15 or 16. I don't know what the fuck had been going on while I was dreaming, but I was too scared to get out of bed. I sweated for half an hour with irrational panic and total fear. To this day I still get a chill remembering it.

There is nothing as overwhelming and all-consuming as complete fear or terror, whether it's in anticipation of something as serious as being killed or as trivial as getting bad exam results.

Who knows where you'd be had you not been scared straight though.

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Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On Who knows where you'd be had you not been scared straight though.

Pffft, as if he's straight.

Fear as a primal emotion serves a basic purpose in the human psyche to get people out of some immediate threat to themselves, its pretty bad but you can push through it and overcome.

Anger is a much more complicated emotion that encapsulates a half dozen other tertiary traits and for the most part they're all destructive in some way or another. Either to other people, yourself or the environment around you.

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Originally posted by Sushipunk Pffft, as if he's straight.

given his earlier post i think its a bit rough to be teasing him about his late-night-sneaky uncle.

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Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN given his earlier post i think its a bit rough to be teasing him about his late-night-sneaky uncle.

What? No you don't.

Leave him alone, guys - he obviously didn't even like it all that much.

Anxiety for me..

If I don't have a rough plan I usually suffer from small bouts of this.

Goes hand in hand with uncertainty for me. Once I know what's going I'm 100% fine. It's the lead up to not knowing what's next that gets me sometimes.

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Originally posted by Domesticated I once woke up at age 15 or 16. I don't know what the fuck had been going on while I was dreaming, but I was too scared to get out of bed. I sweated for half an hour with irrational panic and total fear. To this day I still get a chill remembering it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Chills

More like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_terrors

I'll bet that's exactly what it was.

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Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On More like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_terrors

Yeah, but if you had read the book I linked, you'd understand.
In the book the same things happen to people who are drugged to make them susceptible to mind-control through subliminal messaging.

It was a good read, but not as good as his newer stuff IMO.

quote:

Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On More like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_terrors I'll bet that's exactly what it was.

yeah, those sucked as a kid. everything seemed so much scarier as a child.

You mean they still let Dean Koontz write?

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