Sam:
> I would argue that 'emotion' cannot be reduced to either
> the biological, the social, or even the intellectual level.
> It is a combination of all the different parts of
> human being. It would also be true to say that the
> intellectual level depends upon the social and biological
> for both existence and proper functioning.
Hi Sam,
thanks for your post. I think that emotions are biological as they arise at the biological level. And thought also. IMO it's a frequent mistake here to equalize thought or mind with intellect.
Your statement that "the body, particularly the emotions, play a central part in our
reasoning capacity, most importantly when it comes to making decisions", enforces my point that both emotions and thought are biological. The most mammals have these possibilities, even if not so refined as in humans. And they take decisions.
Then, of course, emotions and thought play a great role in the above levels.... but also matter play an important role, isn't it? The social and the intellectual level use emotions and thought, instinct and sensations, matter and energy as support (in general, all what's below can be used for the level's purposes) .... But social and intellectual level are something else; something... more.
Particularly, the social level is about those behavior that make it possible for alive beings to live together: Language, Rituals, Politics, Economy, Giants. And the intellectual level is about all those things that make it possible for the individuals to be free from social constrictions (without going back to the biological level, possibly): self-consciousness, knowledge, theories, human rights, individual freedom...
Back to the ability to take decisions, we don't need social or intellectual patterns in many cases. We take the decision to jump off the hot stove at the biological level. Then we immediately will communicate with a scream the experience (an instinctual mean to notify the peril to our social companions ); and in the end we'll rationalize it. But it is not necessary to be socially or intellectually focused to save the memory of the pain, in order to avoid in the future to sit on the hot stove again. Every animal with a minimum biological capacity of sensing, thinking and remembering will avoid the experience in the future.
So when you point out that emotions play a role in decisions, I agree and think we are just talking of pure biological level.
thanks again
Marco
p.s.
I've recently talked of an "emotional intellect", but I was meaning of those intellectual activities that use emotions as support. Mainly art, that is, IMO, the intellectual exploration of emotions.
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