- A sufficient account of the evolution of mind must go deeper than our power of propositional thinking – our rarefied ability to manipulate linguistic representations. We will have to understand a much older capacity – the power to feel and respond appropriately. We need to think about consciousness itself as an archaeologist thinks about layers of sedimentary strata. At the lower layers, we have basic drives that prod us (and other animals) out into the environment for the exploitation of resources. Thirst, lust, fear and so on are triggers in evolutionarily earlier regions of the brain that stimulate vertebrates toward satisfaction and a return to homeostasis (physiological balance). At the lowest primary level, fear, for example, is radical. Under threat, the fearful animal voids its bowels, and a surge of activity in the amygdala and hypothalamus readies it for defence or escape.
- The brain of mammals creates a feedback loop between these ancient affective systems and the next layer up – the experiential learning and conditioning that the creature undergoes. At this secondary level, fear (to continue our example) becomes more specific – rats are afraid of light, while humans are afraid of the dark. Same fear system, different threats. And, finally, in humans, another feedback loop exists between the neocortical ‘rational’ cognitive processes and the aforementioned subcortical triggers and learning systems. At this top level, the tertiary level, fear is enmeshed with higher-level conceptual and narrative thinking. Ruminations and thoughts, underwritten by language, symbols, executive control and future planning constitute this tertiary level, though they are energised by the lower-level emotion. At this third level, we arrive at uniquely human emotions, such as those elaborate and ephemeral feelings so beautifully articulated by introspective literary savants such as Henry James, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and, in the case of horror, Edgar Allan Poe.
Thank you for posting. This has been a topic I've been struggling with for a long time and I don't think I've come any closer to finding any answers. I am just very confused. I don't know about you, but I've encountered people in my personal life who seemed to have lost the ability to experience emotion. This goes beyond pointing to how "irrational" the world is and how very little makes sense. That people - and societal institutions - should always behave in accordance with some pre-defined logic. And either the assumptions underlying that logic cannot be questioned or worse, they don't believe they're even making an assumption to begin with. Sometimes those statements are backed up with needless cruelty. But I don't know what makes a person different to not think in that way. This person could not understand why anyone would ever want to go to a concert and dance. It's so illogical. You're just paying money to listen to music you could get at home. And music is a waste of time too. Sorry if this sounds like an aside, but it's a train of thought that feels connected to this point. Similarly, it's a cliche and a traditional gender hierarchy, but people will say when men complain we're looking for a solution and when women complain they're looking for sympathy. I ended up calling it the "art experience," beauty, form, whatever. It's a kind of subtle shift in understanding of reality that I think happens to most people in early adolescence. The idea that things have an emotional depth beyond the analytical mind and that being able to think rationally about things only goes so far. And that love and compassion aren't just important, but necessary. Because up until that point, 13 or 14 or so, kids can be needlessly cruel. They don't feel the emotions yet. From a scientific perspective - the article nails it as the myth is the intellect is largely a recent development. The neocortex is responsible for most higher-order thinking skills with the earlier parts of the brain being more responsible for emotions. As such, viewing "emotional" reactions as primitive can be justified in this way. Sometimes emotions can kill. But sometimes "rationality" can kill too. So what is good when the neocortex built the killing machines. A "feedback loop" should be obvious to anyone. I don't know where I'm going with this but when I was in the 8th grade I thought I was a genius and smarter than everyone else. I judged everyone and cracked mean jokes. All I did at that time in my life was try to compile Gentoo. Had I seen a psychiatrist, they may have tried to diagnose me as ASD. I had an enormous ego and the world was rational. Afterward things changed. The world became a lot more emotional and feelings mattered a lot more to me. So I feel it's an essential part of brain development rather than a cloud. But some people never go through that.
This subject is really endlessly fascinating. Peoples' propensity towards thinking that rationality and emotion are somehow separate, that emotions are something that need to be suppressed because they make you less rational is something of a pet peeve of mine, so this ties into that in interesting ways
Human culture and cognition evolved through emotions. Emotions saturate every thought and perception with the weight of feelings. The Emotional Mind reveals that many of the distinctive behaviors and social structures of our species are best discerned through the lens of emotions. Even the roots of so much that makes us uniquely human—art, mythology, religion—can be traced to feelings of caring, longing, fear, loneliness, awe, rage, lust, playfulness, and more.