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>Yeah but there's more to mental states than how they make us feel. They have content and meaning. Which may affect subsequent and contingent feelings, for exam
by Bakary 7y ago
>Yeah but there's more to mental states than how they make us feel. They have content and meaning. Which may affect subsequent and contingent feelings, for example.
Could you explain the distinction?
- winchling 7y agoWe're learning creatures. But the knowledge we gain can't be predicted in advance. So if I'm aiming for a mental state I'm not going to know in advance all the features of that state. If I could, it would have to be an undesirable state since I wouldn't be learning anything. I can only go for a feeling. Yet the choices of subsequent future mental states based on the feelings I predict they will elicit will depend on details of what I learned last time. So we're not really aiming at mental states. Nor are we accumulating them because in reality we forget most of the details of our experiences.