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From: sewilco@datapg.MN.ORG (Scot E Wilcoxon)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.lang.prolog,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Feeling and thought: which comes first?
Summary: Feelings are status reports from Terran body.
Message-ID: <2609@datapg.MN.ORG>
Date: 7 Dec 88 13:23:41 GMT
References: <17770@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <5626@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU>
Reply-To: sewilco@datapg.MN.ORG (Scot E Wilcoxon)
Followup-To: comp.ai
Organization: Data Progress, Minneapolis, MN
Lines: 21

In article <5626@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> pluto@beowulf.UCSD.EDU writes:
>One net-poster remarked that emotions and feeling are a natural
>by-product of thought.  I imagine that thought is a natural by-product
>of feeling and emotion.

Emotions and feelings are a "natural byproduct of" how our Terran bodies
and minds function.  Smell and internal chemicals (ie, "hormones")
trigger neuronal activity which humans interpret as emotions.  The
limbic system seems to report many things which we interpret as
"emotional feelings".

Some "feelings" are also triggered by instinct or feedback.  The
"fingernails on blackboard" sound appears to be a primate warning cry which
instinctively causes uncomfortable feelings in many humans.  Feedback
can cause feelings either due to memories triggering neuronal activity
which are a "memory" of past feelings, or due to thoughts causing
limbic-detected chemicals ("hormones") to be produced.
-- 
Scot E. Wilcoxon  sewilco@DataPg.MN.ORG    {amdahl|hpda}!bungia!datapg!sewilco
Data Progress 	 UNIX masts & rigging  +1 612-825-2607    uunet!datapg!sewilco
	I'm just reversing entropy while waiting for the Big Crunch.