Darwinism and emotions?

Question

What is the point of emotion according to Darwin's Theory of Evolution? If everything is just a matter of surviving and procreating, what purpose does emotion serve? It would seem to me that having a weakness such as sadness or love (assuming you loved something that died would make you weak) would make you inferior to something that was more of a machine that did not react to good or bad.

Any ideas?

Thanks!!

Answer 1

That is a wonderful question.

Indeed, our being emotional is a weakness rather than strength when it comes to adapting to environment. We are cleverer than we are emotional. We keep our emotions just for each other, so to say, just within ourselves and as far as the nature and the environment is concerned, we use logic and intelligence and not emotion. It is something like we have the cake even as we manage to taste it !!

Answer 2

Well, we know that emotions are caused by endorphins, this is good for babies, if mama doesn't feel good about baby then baby is in trouble right?
Fear is the fight or flight response caused by adrenylin, fighting or running helps keep you alive sometimes.
Those are just two of the many chemicals involved in the range of emotions that many higher animals have.
Why would you look at emotions and decide that god must have done it as a specific instance?
You already look around and conclude that god must have done everything anyway, don't you? Why would any animal need to have emotions? The answer is .. bonding.
Sorry that this answer is a bit jumbled .. I'm trying to get a handle on what you are really asking... it can't just be the bonding thing... that was too easy.
BTW, Darwin proposed a Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection ... the Theory is the Natural Selection bit.
There is no question that evolution happened and is happening... the scientific theory is as to how it happened and is happening and natural selection is the way it seems to work.
So those are my ideas. Bonding.. if something is wrong with a loved one ...you feel stress.. until you are happy that the loved one is okay... how would this not be good for passing on your genes.
If emotions were not necessary we'd be more like reptiles.. and primitive reptiles at that.. maybe more like fish. I don't think even fish are just happy all the time.. do they get stressed if they lose sight of their shoal? Probably yes.

Answer 3

Well, first, no one ever said evolution is perfect; in fact, that is just the point: it's a continuing "experiment." Features that are not beneficial often fade away and disappear. But emotions are good for humans, despite the fact that some are negative. How about love and compassion? Those, for example, are just what we need to continue life and maybe improve it just a bit. By the way, I am disappointed you use the word "theory" in regard to Darwin; there is such a preponderance of evidence for evolution that all right-minded scientists call it a "scientific fact."

Answer 4

You could express it as survival of the fittest. Therefore the emotional could be the week who will not survive.

Love however is a strong bond found throughout the animal world especially in birds where staying permanently together offers greater protection and ensures a strong blood line through a number of years of breeding cycles. In many animals it causes the alpha male to protect the pride/herd and it's breeding stock.

It may be that homosexuality is a natural way of limiting the species growth since it is a non-breeding emotion.

Why do you see emotion in a negative sense. What about emotions such as wonder, love, fear, awe etc. They are all strong and positive emotions.

Sadness could also be positive making people want to help.

Emotion therefore could be an inbuilt survival mechanism!

Answer 5

Emotions are helpful to our survival. Fear for example causes us to avoid situations that could get us hurt or killed, and also prepares us for the fight if one is immanent. Love of course is a bonding emotion and since we are social animals this is essential to our survival. It causes us to care for those in our group and work to protect and keep everyone in our group well. It also helps in our child rearing. Human children have a long gestation period as well as a long road to maturity. Parental love is essential in the survival of our young.

Not everything in Darwinian selection has a purpose as well. Some of these emotions that seem like weaknesses could be side effects of the helpful emotions. As Richard Dawkins puts it, it's like the moth that flies into a flame... This is not helpful to that animals survival but they still do it... why? Because it's an unhelpful by-product of the moth's natural navigation system which uses points of light (stars & moon) at infinity to find it's way. when a point of light is not fixed at infinity it confounds the system and the moth is prone to fly right into it, harmful or not.

Lastly, there is nothing wrong with saying "i don't know" I really don't know much of this as supported fact... However, saying "i don't know, let's find out" is much more helpful than dismissing it and attributing it to some god. It seems like a simple answer, but in reality it only complicates the problem.

Answer 6

Good question.

Everything is about reproduction if you see life from the point of view of the gene. Genes invented bodies to protect them from the environment until they could reproduce themselves. Another way to say it is bodies are machines for carrying genes through time. Bodies are slaves to genes.

Love is clearly about reproduction and raising the offspring until it is old enough to do the same. Sadness may be about learning to survive better, avoiding certain situations in the future, or gaining advantage somehow. Ditto anger, jealousy, hate etc. You can be certain they are all part of us because they helped genes move forward in time. A machine without such feelings may not be as successful at passing on genes.

Answer 7

I believe sadness and love are a result of cultural factors in conjunction with physiological responses. Emotions in the extreme biological sense are just physiological reactions environmental stimuli. Modern emotions involve the cognitive interpretations of those stimuli.

Answer 8

Emotion has no bearing on evolution. It is all instinctual. Emotions are a thing of the moment. They don't last for a lifetime.

Answer 9

DARWIN SUCKS. His theory of Evolution did not include one race.A very significant one.Come on science boy figure it out. You sound like the kind of guy with a good GPA.