EMOTION - TOKBMIS TOK – TERM 1 – 2012
THIS PRESENTATION IS AN ADAPTATION OF CHAPTER 6 OF RICHARD VAN DE LAGEMAAT’S ˆTHEORY OF KNOWLEDGE FOR THE IB DIPLOMA (2011)
EMOTION
Before this class, did you typically think of emotion as one of the ways of knowing?
When you make decisions, do you use emotions to do so?
Does this change for different types of decisions?
Explain
Discuss in your groups – 5 minutes
PRIMARY EMOTIONSHappiness
Sadness
Fear
Anger
Surprise
Disgust
People identify these with faces depicting them all across the world
Children born deaf and blind naturally show them.
But are there differences by culture on how much they are shown?
JAMES-LANGE THEORY“the emotions are essentially physical in nature, and bodily changes come before, and cause, emotional changes.” (de Lagemaat, p. 148)
So the idea is that if you take away the physical symptoms then the emotion goes away.
Also you can create an emotion by copying the physical symptoms.
When you EMPATHISE with someone you take on the physical symptoms – the mood.
BUT IS ALL THIS TALK TOO PHYSICAL – our beliefs are involved too – de Lagemaat argues this is how we are different from a dog.
http://www.google.mw/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/archive/f/f4/20090829082327!The_Scream.jpg&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Scream.jpg&h=1052&w=813&sz=150&tbnid=p93zxVwuY_9qyM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=70&zoom=1&usg=__eYEC3tHcKQVzoxbHWqGJx5ruS4I=&docid=FPvV0qo5lYz_nM&sa=X&ei=T-ipUNmjFqGb0QWluYC4Cg&ved=0CCIQ9QEwAA
THE SCREAM BY EDVARD MUNCH
How do you respond to the emotion in the painting?
If the human was a dog, how would you respond?
SOCIAL EMOTIONS - HUMANSAmbition
Contempt
Embarrassment
Envy
Gratitude
Guilt
Indignation
Jealousy
Pride
Shame
Sympathy
EMOTION – THE STUFF OF ENERGY
Emotion gives us energy to get things done
Thomas Edison: “Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.”
Academic work is often not thrilled with excitement but marked by lots of hard work, failure and boredom with a later pay-off.
EMOTIONS AS WOK
Emotions – obstacle to knowledge
Emotion – source of knowledge
Intuition
OBSTACLES
Distorts our other ways of knowing:
• Perception – emotional colouring – “love is blind”• Reason – “my way or the highway”• Language – use emotional and biased language
Rationalisations
• What do we do when we rationalize?
• Examples?
• The story of the fox and the grapes (p.152)
• The cigarette smoker
• Test was unfair!!!!
OBSTACLES
IRRATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Do we act rationally? As consumers? How do economists see us?
Stoics – ancient philosophers – focused on the idea of “apathy” – “without passion”
But what would life be like if there were no emotions?
EMOTION – SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE
What about Spock? De Lagemaat presents Steven Pinker’s view of Spock as being in control of emotions rather than without emotion.
Research on those with brain damage resulting in no emotion – psychologist Antonio Damasio – patient who had brain damage to emotion – could no longer make decisions.
Emotion – Reason – a continuum – we can gauge how rational our emotion is.
ARISTOTLE (384-322 BCE)
“Anyone can be angry – that is easy. But to be angry with the right person to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way – that is not easy.”
Two examples from Lagemaat – p. 157
INTUITION
What do you think intuition is? Discuss in your groups.
Core intuitions – the basic ones about life, etc.
Subject-specific intuitions – in areas of knowledge
Social intuitions – about people