Part 1 (I hate these LJ limits)guntarFebruary 1 2008, 20:42:56 UTC
The philosopher Wittgenstein talked about emotions this way:
Imagine that everyone has a box, and everyone looks inside their own box, but cannot look at anyone else's box. People come up with a name for what's in the box, and have vague words to describe what is in it. So long as these words share some sort of vague resemblance to what is in each person's box, each person will believe that, more or less, he or she have the same thing in their box as everyone else has in theirs.
So, it is important to get our terms as precise as possible. The more precise our terms, the more accurate we can be about each thing in our box.
Therefore, we have to distinguish between fear, anxiety, and dread.
Anxiety is more about ignorance than fear. I am anxious about something, and afraid of something. This is an important difference. One is afraid of the dark, and anxious about what is going to happen in the dark. One of afraid of a specific thing. People often have a fear of spiders, but are not anxious about them unless the spiders are
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Re: Part 2 (I hate these LJ limits)guntarFebruary 1 2008, 20:43:24 UTC
I wrote two poem about excessive fear. They are not great poems, but convey my image of it better than any non-metaphorical words could:
Home
Your home of bone and stone is strong, And it protects you. Inside, you are sheltered: Hail stopped by the roof; Howls absorbed by the walls. Outside, you are frightened: Wind rips away your warmth; Wolves circle beyond the light.
So, your home of bone and stone is strong, And it protects you. Inside, you are sheltered, Anxious, and alone.
Re: Part 2 (I hate these LJ limits)kagiri9February 2 2008, 00:22:39 UTC
These are some interesting points, though this does prompt some clarification. In the context of Ekman's universal emotions, I don't think we can distinguish fear from anxiety or dread, neither can we distinguish happiness from joy or elation
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Re: Part 2 (I hate these LJ limits)guntarFebruary 2 2008, 14:51:57 UTC
I don't distinguish anxiety and fear based upon what causes them, but it goes back to Wittgenstein: we have no real vocabulary for emotions because they are not quantifiable. With a colour, you can point to it and say "red" and "blue." What can you do with an emotion? Describing it, I think, is useless--emotions aren't something we can have a precise language for. What is best is to describe a situation in which you would feel the emotion, so that the person hearing the description can say, "Oh, yes, I know what that feels like." Anxiety feels very different from fear. How do I describe that difference? By describing the situation in which I feel it, as opposed to the situation in which I feel fear.
How would I describe it to a being that had a completely different set of emotions? How would I even begin? You, too, described fear with what causes it ("injury, promised or perceived"). You then get to describing fear's function. But none of these actually describe fear itself. What does fear feel like? I know, you know,
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Comments 4
Imagine that everyone has a box, and everyone looks inside their own box, but cannot look at anyone else's box. People come up with a name for what's in the box, and have vague words to describe what is in it. So long as these words share some sort of vague resemblance to what is in each person's box, each person will believe that, more or less, he or she have the same thing in their box as everyone else has in theirs.
So, it is important to get our terms as precise as possible. The more precise our terms, the more accurate we can be about each thing in our box.
Therefore, we have to distinguish between fear, anxiety, and dread.
Anxiety is more about ignorance than fear. I am anxious about something, and afraid of something. This is an important difference. One is afraid of the dark, and anxious about what is going to happen in the dark. One of afraid of a specific thing. People often have a fear of spiders, but are not anxious about them unless the spiders are ( ... )
Reply
Home
Your home of bone and stone is strong,
And it protects you.
Inside, you are sheltered:
Hail stopped by the roof;
Howls absorbed by the walls.
Outside, you are frightened:
Wind rips away your warmth;
Wolves circle beyond the light.
So, your home of bone and stone is strong,
And it protects you.
Inside, you are sheltered,
Anxious, and alone.
The FireDo you rear your fire from fear ( ... )
Reply
Reply
How would I describe it to a being that had a completely different set of emotions? How would I even begin? You, too, described fear with what causes it ("injury, promised or perceived"). You then get to describing fear's function. But none of these actually describe fear itself. What does fear feel like? I know, you know, ( ... )
Reply
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