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How should you know? Actually an interesting problem: A1. You say you don't experience emotions. A2. What you call emotions is what you see others do when the

How should you know? Actually an interesting problem: A1. You say you don't experience emotions. A2. What you call emotions is what you see others do when they say they are acting emotionally. You don't think you are this way. A3. Your doctor says you're right. Or: B1. You say you experience emotions. B2. Others say you are wrong.

buro9 11y ago
I wondered the same thing. How can anyone really know whether what they experience in their black box is the same as what another person experiences? Evidence of enthusiastically communicating an experience isn't the same as being able to prove that you actually experienced it. Likewise, not communicating an experience doesn't mean that it wasn't experienced.
drdeca 11y ago
This reminds me of something Wittgenstein apparently talked about. I don't have a better explanation than the comic I saw about it though : http://existentialcomics.com/comic/94 http://existentialcomics.com/comic/94
rightnow321 11y ago
You're completely right at it's heart is an innate doubt over whether this is actually a problem or just a manifestation of some weird thought process. The only way to really get outside this kind of introverted bubble is to ask people or confide in them. This leads to conversations like whether an emotion like happiness is an actual thing or not that they can identify and actually feel. In the sense that they are actually sitting there and willing to state "I feel happy", it's different from yesterday. Most people are hence why I diagnose myself in line with this article. Or, another way is people generally have an answer to the "Tell me about a time you were very happy"... a lot of people can reel something off really easily here. Sometimes it's like a wedding and you think "you could be saying that because it's accepted as a good answer" but other people say a certain day at the beach where something really specific happens and that lends credence to the idea they feel this emotion and I don't.
- xixi77 11y ago
  I personally believe it is a problem, having (mostly) been in that state and (sometimes) out of it, it is indeed quite a difference. When it happened for the first time (at age 33), it was like "oh my, so this is what all those people were talking about all along, isn't that something". I do wish I could change states at will, but historically it has always been a result of some sort of external influence.
SilasX 11y ago
I agree, it sounds like this all just regresses to the qualia problem: "does my internal experience have the same attributes as yours?" It reminds me of my inquiry into the mystery of why everyone "likes alcoholic drinks" but I don't. Eventually I broke it down into specific questions: - Do you enjoy the feeling of alcoholic drinks passing through your mouth? - Do you require the drink to be loaded down with non-alcohol flavors for it to be bearable? - On taste alone, would you prefer a milkshake? - Do you enjoy the feeling the drink produces on your mind? Does that matter to you more than the taste? ... and it turned out, I had the exact same answers to these questions as people who said they do like alcohol; it's just that they characterized that state as "liking alcohol", and I didn't. If people similarly broke this issue down into specific questions on observables, I suspect a lot of the differences would vanish, and it would make more sense to characterize it as "different emotional response" rather than "no emotions" -- though a big part of the problem is the arbitrariness of the labels!

buro9 11y ago

I wondered the same thing. How can anyone really know whether what they experience in their black box is the same as what another person experiences? Evidence of enthusiastically communicating an experience isn't the same as being able to prove that you actually experienced it. Likewise, not communicating an experience doesn't mean that it wasn't experienced.

drdeca 11y ago

This reminds me of something Wittgenstein apparently talked about. I don't have a better explanation than the comic I saw about it though : http://existentialcomics.com/comic/94 http://existentialcomics.com/comic/94

rightnow321 11y ago

You're completely right at it's heart is an innate doubt over whether this is actually a problem or just a manifestation of some weird thought process. The only way to really get outside this kind of introverted bubble is to ask people or confide in them. This leads to conversations like whether an emotion like happiness is an actual thing or not that they can identify and actually feel. In the sense that they are actually sitting there and willing to state "I feel happy", it's different from yesterday. Most people are hence why I diagnose myself in line with this article. Or, another way is people generally have an answer to the "Tell me about a time you were very happy"... a lot of people can reel something off really easily here. Sometimes it's like a wedding and you think "you could be saying that because it's accepted as a good answer" but other people say a certain day at the beach where something really specific happens and that lends credence to the idea they feel this emotion and I don't.

xixi77 11y ago
I personally believe it is a problem, having (mostly) been in that state and (sometimes) out of it, it is indeed quite a difference. When it happened for the first time (at age 33), it was like "oh my, so this is what all those people were talking about all along, isn't that something". I do wish I could change states at will, but historically it has always been a result of some sort of external influence.

SilasX 11y ago

I agree, it sounds like this all just regresses to the qualia problem: "does my internal experience have the same attributes as yours?" It reminds me of my inquiry into the mystery of why everyone "likes alcoholic drinks" but I don't. Eventually I broke it down into specific questions: - Do you enjoy the feeling of alcoholic drinks passing through your mouth? - Do you require the drink to be loaded down with non-alcohol flavors for it to be bearable? - On taste alone, would you prefer a milkshake? - Do you enjoy the feeling the drink produces on your mind? Does that matter to you more than the taste? ... and it turned out, I had the exact same answers to these questions as people who said they do like alcohol; it's just that they characterized that state as "liking alcohol", and I didn't. If people similarly broke this issue down into specific questions on observables, I suspect a lot of the differences would vanish, and it would make more sense to characterize it as "different emotional response" rather than "no emotions" -- though a big part of the problem is the arbitrariness of the labels!