Do you think there's any truth in emotion?

Answer 1

Yes! The truth is I'm feeling the emotion of anger at the moment. Do you know why? It's because your questions really bug me. One word for you, my friend -
smug.
Why don't you just ask the one question each day i.e. how long is a piece of string?
Urrhh!

Answer 2

Emotional energy is constant; it takes a form in response to a person's response to a real, remembered, or imagined event. It has its own reality; for instance, if you experience anger, it is not advisable to try to push it down and say 'I'm quite calm', or, 'I'm very sorry you feel like this.' The truth will be there; that you feel angry. On the other hand, it is possible to manage your emotions, by first recognising the validity of an emotion, and allowing yourself to feel it, without acting on it (unless you are in a situation where there is a practical reason for it, for instance, fear of a specific danger). You can then look at the situation in another way and allow the emotion to shift or dissolve.

I said that specific emotion arises in response to a situation; the essential concomitant (= accompaniment) of this is the person's ATTITUDE.
Specific emtions arise because of your attitude. It's raining. You can think 'O, no, I'll get wet/I hate grey skies/ I want to play outside, I'm fed up now'. Or you can think 'Oh, thank goodness, my plants/crops won't die/I love dancing outside in the rain/ My sweetheart will stay a little longer till; the rain stops' These are all personalised views of a neutral event. We even get into 'My father hated rain, I hate rain; that's the way it always has been and that's the way it always will be. Don't talk to me till it's over.'
You will feel an emotion in keeping with what you think. It works the other way too, an emotion bubbles up and we quickly find a reason to attach it to; in the absence of a recent event, we have the childhood treasure trove of misunderstanding to fall back on.

For each of us, attitude is a 'take' on reality; therefore a distortion, however slight, of the fundamental nature of reality. We don't need it, but we tend to view the ragbag collection of these attitudes as our identity.
I'd say, rather, it's a concealment of the true identity.
Hence it pays to observe your attitude/viewpoint/assumptions/attachments (for example 'I am at a disadvantage in the world, others are meaner/more aggressive/richer/luckier then me', or 'I am a wonderful person and everybody should pay attention', or 'they're out to get me', 'it's a dog-eat-dog world', 'men are smarter than women', 'I am an artist' etc etc etc, good game, eh?)

By the way, my use of 'you' and 'your' is not because I am pointing at you particularly, it's a way of stating the general human condition. 'I' seemed too me-ish, and 'one' is awkward.

Anyway, in conclusion .. emotions by virtue of the logic shown above do not reflect reality reliably at all; they reflect a person's attitudes and development, possibly physical health also (for instance, alcohol is a depressant and so are a number of foods.) I don't mean to devalue them either, only that they should not be viewed as determiners of action or perception.

Emotion is real, and therefore can be truthful when truly acknowledged; it does not reveal underlying objective truth though. Only in a person's psyche.

Answer 3

I cannot help but wonder why you have phrased your question like this. It could be that you see rational thoughts as expressions of truth in the mind, whereas emotions are whimsical in nature leading up to nothing but self-fulfilment mental gratification.

There is truth in existence behind all things that inhabit human mind. And human experience of that truth is realised in form of our emotions, even most rationally orientated thinking has its joy and delights. For it is the human passion that brings out brilliance in the mind; if it were not for the fantastic dream of flying, for instance, no one might have thought of inventing it ever. If we are searching for truth in life along the footsteps of reason, then emotions are the light, warmth and the sense along the way.

Answer 4

Good question...Star!!

The truth in an emotion is the accumulated experience which causes the emotion as a reflex action to a situation or perception... this reflex action neither needs nor waits for any supplementary fresh inputs of logical thought. In that sense, it is our deeper truth that has got embedded in us through our past experiences.

Answer 5

Emotion can be based on truth, or not.

Example. You get angry because you heard that your bf/gf was cheating on you. If the cheating actually happened, there is truth in your emotion. If you find out later that it wasn't true, then there was no truth. That's one way to look at it.

Another way to look at it is that emotion, in and of itself, cannot have truth or falseness. Emotion is a reaction to perceived truths.

Answer 6

If you were in love, and trying to decide whether to get married, would you overlook your emotions, and turn to some computer program to give you the answers?

I think the problem with your quesion lies in your idea of "truth." You need to clarify what "truth" is.

As stated, your question is too vague to be answered, except in the intuitive response I've given in the first paragraph.

Answer 7

There is absolute Truth and there is personal truth.

Emotion may stem from Truth, personal truth, or a combination of the two.

If I am angry, it may be because I was Truthfully wronged, or it may be because my personal truth - made up of my own perceptions and experiences - caused me to feel anger, although the actual cause of my anger (a perceived slight, for example) may or may not be Truthful.

There is always personal truth in emotion, but not always absolute Truth.

Answer 8

What does 'truth' mean? 'Real' emotion is a result of something. but emotion can happen for lots of reasons many of which are uncontrollable. Like a computer gone haywire, humans can go haywire too. And there are actors who show emotion but of course that emotion is created by intention.

Answer 9

Emotion is directly linked to your sensitivity towards any
particular object or situation. Both objects and abstracts
can and will provoke an emotion in all normal people,
depending on their sensitivity towards the particular subject in
question. Only as a reminder, an object is tangible whereas
abstracts are intangible.

Answer 10

As a Briton and as a man I can often be quite reserved and go by instinct instead of emotion. I like to follow my instincs instead of my emotion because in times of grief or happyness we can me the wrong desision. But I guess emotion is what makes us human.