Firstly, thank you for the feedback. :) > IMO, if things like novels and poems are considered art then it can be communicating truths, but truths that are diff

Firstly, thank you for the feedback. :) > IMO, if things like novels and poems are considered art then it can be communicating truths, but truths that are difficult to communicate in explicit, theoretical terms. You're absolutely right. I think that things like novels and poems are located a little farther towards the center on the spectrum I mentioned than something that purely communicates feeling (like an abstract painting). I think the reason they are so successful is that they deliver one or more logically digestible messages along with a feeling. It often seems that people aren't convinced by logic, but rather by a shift in how they feel about something. > This bit wasn't entirely clear to me and I thought it could be fleshed out a bit more. Again, you're absolutely right. I felt that way too but I ran out of steam at the time. I think I have the energy to expand on it now. :) What I was trying to say was that your motivations shift based on how you feel, and the more powerful the feeling, the potentially larger the shift. Something is out of balance if you're feeling something very strongly. You'll be motivated to correct that imbalance, and in the process consider a different course of action. I talked to a friend that had taken a course on AI and minds at MIT and he said he considered emotions a filter on decision space. > It might fit under that but, as I said above, I think it can be used as a means to communicate truths. Eg to broaden someone's perspective on the world I haven't quite figured out what a truth is yet. It's definitely a kind of message that emotionally resonates. I sort of sense that the framework I proposed could be worked to encompass them, but I haven't done enough thinking on it yet. In this article I was focusing very narrowly on the extreme case of pure feeling to distill important truths about it, but the middle ground is where most of the important stuff happens. Simple models are good for investigating complex phenomenal since you can see exactly how they work and break down. I'd be happy to hear your ideas!