Bill Wiltrack wrote: ↑Wed Mar 21, 2018 8:10 pm
.
All due respect, think you are a bit confused on knowing yourself and labeling your functions as a human.
I am, in no way, discounting the horror that you must have felt at one point.
I think I understand you. Connotation of a few words only - perhaps separates you & the responses that you have had here so far...
Good luck in whatever your focus is within this thread.
.
But, by describing them as feelings of joy, beauty, and horror, you would be admitting that they really were horrible, beautiful, and joyful feelings. So, you would be admitting that these feelings really do make my life horrible, joyful, and beautiful. Therefore, you have just contradicted yourself when you told me that you didn't discount the feelings of horror I experienced, but, at the same time, denied the idea of my emotions being the source of horrible and beautiful value in my life. I am now going to point out something else here which would hopefully prove to everyone how our emotions really are the perception of value as I say.
Positive emotions are the reward wanting and liking as pointed out by this study. I will give the link to the study soon enough. If you were to conduct a survey and ask many people if their positive emotions are a form of wanting and liking, they would say "no." These people would instead tell you that it is their morality and intellect which allows them to want and like things. This also shows here that these people are in denial when it comes to their positive emotions because they deny the fact that they are a form of wanting and liking.
It is through our positive emotions that we want and like things such as if you felt excited about the idea of getting a new movie or video game. Since people are in denial, then why would you expect me to trust them when they make the claim that their morality and intellect is a real form of value and a real form of wanting and liking in their lives? I have only my own personal experience to go by and I cannot trust humanity no matter the things they say. With all of this being said, here is the study:
We have found a special hedonic hotspot that is crucial for reward 'liking' and 'wanting' (and codes reward learning too). The opioid hedonic hotspot is shown in red above. It works together with another hedonic hotspot in the more famous nucleus accumbens to generate pleasure 'liking'.
‘Liking’ and ‘wanting’ food rewards: Brain substrates and roles in eating disorders
Kent C. Berridge 2009 Mar 29.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2717031/
Now, as pointed out in that food and reward study, our positive emotions are the reward wanting and liking. When you want something and like something, this means it matters to you. When something matters to you, this means it is something good or something bad from your perspective. When something is good or bad from your perspective, this means you are judging it as good or bad. Therefore, our positive emotions are value judgments. They are a positive form of wanting which means they are a value judgment of good and beautiful value in our lives. They are a form of liking as well which also means they are a value judgment of good and beautiful value.
Our unpleasant (negative) emotions would have to be the disreward not wanting and disliking which means they are a value judgment of bad, horrible, and disgusting value in our lives. In addition, there is also the negative form of wanting such as wanting to harm someone or wanting to give up on life which is also a value judgment of bad value. So, there you have it. This is my own personal argument that supports the idea of our basic emotions being value judgments. When our brains are rewarded with those feel-good chemicals that make us feel positive emotions, we are not just being rewarded with something pleasant. We are being rewarded with good and beautiful value in our lives.
When something is rewarding for you, this means it is something that matters to you which, in turn, means it is a value judgment for you. This all goes back to what I just said about positive emotions being value judgments of good value. With all of this being said, the good and beautiful value in our lives does not come about through a strength of character or a sense of morality and intellect as I said before. Instead, it is like we as human beings need to be rewarded through our positive emotions to make our lives something good and beautiful.
Getting a big reward would be like winning a lottery of much beauty, joy, and good value in our lives. Depressed and miserable people who believe their lives have much good value and beauty would, therefore, be no different than poor people who believe they have won the lottery when they haven't. Another thing here. Our emotions are a form of drive and motivation. An example would be sex drive. When you are driven and motivated in regards to something, that is no different than saying this thing matters to you. When it matters to you, that is a value judgment. This is yet another reason why our emotions are value judgments.
Atla wrote: ↑Wed Mar 21, 2018 8:27 pm
So people who enjoy and find value in killing others, should just keep pressing that nuclear button, it's the most valuable thing they can possibly do?
Your idea is pure genius..
There is much more to my worldview than meets the eye. That is why I have given all of these supporting arguments for it in this topic. Now, I am not some sadist or psychopath trying to justify the idea that harming and mistreating others is a good thing if you felt positive emotions from that. Sure, my worldview does say that it would be a good thing. But my positive emotions are such beauty and joy to my life that it doesn't matter what the moral implications are; I am convinced that positive emotions are still the only good things in life no matter what. Not only based upon my own personal experience, but based upon all the arguments I give to support my worldview as well. I just don't agree that there is any other personal experience out there that can replace the joy and beauty that my positive emotions bring my life. I could be wrong, but my positive emotions have always been the only source of good value in my life.