Comments on: Human Morality and the Sport of Mutual Villification http://helian.net/blog/2010/07/05/morality/human-morality-and-the-sport-of-mutual-villification/ The world as I see it Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:54:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Helian http://helian.net/blog/2010/07/05/morality/human-morality-and-the-sport-of-mutual-villification/comment-page-1/#comment-1654 Helian Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:35:43 +0000 http://helian.net/blog/?p=1689#comment-1654 If you read through my posts, you will find that I am not without sin when it comes to appeals to emotion. This is one of those, "Do as I say, not as I do," things. Still, I think it is reasonable to avoid blindly indulging emotions that lost any connection to the reasons they evolved to begin with long ago. We do have large brains. If survival remains a positive value, we should try to use them. If you read through my posts, you will find that I am not without sin when it comes to appeals to emotion. This is one of those, “Do as I say, not as I do,” things. Still, I think it is reasonable to avoid blindly indulging emotions that lost any connection to the reasons they evolved to begin with long ago. We do have large brains. If survival remains a positive value, we should try to use them.

]]> By: M. Simon http://helian.net/blog/2010/07/05/morality/human-morality-and-the-sport-of-mutual-villification/comment-page-1/#comment-1644 M. Simon Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:41:58 +0000 http://helian.net/blog/?p=1689#comment-1644 Reason does not motivate the faithful or win elections. We will not see an end to appeals to emotion any time soon. Besides. Without emotion (or at least certain components of emotion) decision is impossible. i.e. we owe our ability to reason to emotion. You can look it up. It is a very interesting subject. You know how it works. You are looking for a solution to a problem and then after weighing as much as possible you pick the one that "feels" right. If you have trained your neural networks well the one with the right feeling will also be close to optimum. Reason is good. But when it comes to understanding human behavior it is way over rated. Reason does not motivate the faithful or win elections. We will not see an end to appeals to emotion any time soon.

Besides. Without emotion (or at least certain components of emotion) decision is impossible. i.e. we owe our ability to reason to emotion. You can look it up. It is a very interesting subject.

You know how it works. You are looking for a solution to a problem and then after weighing as much as possible you pick the one that “feels” right. If you have trained your neural networks well the one with the right feeling will also be close to optimum.

Reason is good. But when it comes to understanding human behavior it is way over rated.

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