What are emotions and why do we have them?

Question

I know what it's like to have emotions. They give me feelings and the motivation for living. I just don't understand why life saw fit to develop them. When did emotions become a staple of life? I'm assuming that lower lifeforms such as bacteria don't have emotions.

Are emotions necessary to life?

Answer 1

Justin -- If you believe that the universe is nothing more than the scientific objective reality, then emotions make no sense and you will never be able to explain them. If your universe is larger, and includes personal subjective realms, then emotions make sense and life would be incomplete without them (at least for humans).

Without emotions (be especially Love) there is no binding force between humans. "That feels so good" perception of lust is a driving force but has no binding power. Sex becomes meaningless as an act except as a method of propagation.

Emotions bind mother to child and this starts the lifelong events which bind humanity together. Emotions are also used as mental "tags" to thoughts stored in memory. They make it easier to remember past events.

There is no scientific theory behind emotions which can be proved objectively. The best model seems to point out that positive emotions can be felt without thought, but negative emotions are always mixed with thoughts.

Necessary for life? Perhaps not. Necessary to make humans what they are? I believe so.

Answer 2

Simply put, from a biological standpoint, emotions are a means by which your body tells you (whatever "you" are, some will say your spirit, soul, or conscience) that you are doing something wrong or right. "Wrong" or "right" mostly meaning something good or bad for your survival.

You feel happy when you eat food, copulate with an attractive mate, and when you accomplish something difficult, right? It's your body giving you incentive to do it in the future.
You'll feel sad when a girl rejects you, when you're short on food or resources, and when you fail at something. Why is this? Biologically speaking it means your body doesn't like you spending resources on trying to court a girl if it is all in vain, your body tells you it doesn't like being short on food and resources, and it certainly doesn't like when you spend energy and resources on stuff to which their is no positive outcome.

This is not to say that *all* emotions are wired directly into you from birth... the "nurture" part of the argument also has a large affect in what you do. If your priest and parents keep telling you that sex is bad and a sin before marriage then if you commit that act, even if biologically you feel great about it your "conscience" will also feel guilty because you've been taught that it's "wrong".

Emotions are a very good way for our body to manipulate what we do to make sure that we survive (and eventually so we procreate).
Nuff said. For each *natural* emotion there is a biological reason for that emotion, regardless of whether or not we know what that reason is.

Whether other organisms and animals feel emotions is up for debate as whether they have conscience or "soul" is also up for debate.

BTW you guys can not prove that simpe microorganisms do not have "emotions" (including any form of it) so as far as I'm concerned that is a moot point. At what point do animals/organisms no longer have emotions? I ask. And if microorganisms do not have emotions then what spurs them to eat and reproduce? I ask you to tell me what the stimulus is...

Answer 3

Well to me we were givin emotion because we are at a higher level of evolution then the single celled organisms. We raise children, we have families we make love. These have been proven that people and animals perform better and gow better with the proper nurturing and love.

I believe it was in WW2 that there was an experimient done and there were babies that were not talked to, touched or feed any kind of affection, they just recieved the "basic" necessities of life. Then there were some that were nurtured loved touched etc on top of the basic necessities. The babies that recieved no feeling or emotion died and the others grew and did very well...

JUst a tad bit of info for ya

Answer 4

Emotions are not necessary! They are there to distract you from the truth that God exists. Emotions don't keep you motivated... they make you feel things and that's all they do. You can be sane without any emotions, but only very spiritual people can do that. Emotions infact at times make you waver when you are near to doing the correct thing. They are just there as a test to see is you can look past the emotions and see yourself and the world for what they are.

Answer 5

Emotions are these impulses in your brain that make you do the things you do. In other words, it is human nature. We actually have them because we would just be like robots if we don't. One that does think but has no reason to think. God gave it to us so that we may be free to love. Without emotions, loving is impossible. So what do you think about not having love? It would be a world full of bland.

Answer 6

Emotions give us a reason to keep going and a passion to persue our dreams, but if we live by emotions without keeping them in check, they will drive us to insanity. We need balance! Hundreds of years ago, babies and people died all the time from disease and war, and time marched on, but yet in America, we are obsessed with being happy all the time. Hence, the Prozac nation we are. Suck it up and move on!

Answer 7

Emotions are what makes us human.They give us the capacity to love,hate. feel happy or sad. They connect us one to another. The Bible says that Jesus wept. Weeping is a result of an emotion.

Answer 8

i believe emotions are a psychological reaction to something just the same as your senses are the physical reaction. if you touch fire it hurts, if you eat something you like it tastes good, so goes the same with emotions...and technically no emotions are necessary for life, but it probably won't be a long one...

Answer 9

emotions are messages that are sent from one part of your brain to another....it depends on the balance of positive and negative vibes mixing around your brain...

emotions became a staple of life when you rely on them to dictate what you'll do in your life....when you always rely on "how you feel" today.....that's when emotions become a staple of life

lower life forms do not have brains capable of having emotions....they rely on instinct...not thought

Answer 10

They are the evolved mechanism influencing us to behave in advantageous ways. In a sense, emotions are no different than pain or hunger - without them we'd have long since gone extinct.

Answer 11

Emotions are not necessary for life. As you point out, bacteria (which are alive) do not have them. Why do we have them? My guess, because they do us some good.

Xan Shui,
Philosophical Philanthropist, Honest Man