Why are self knowledge and the minds of others important in evaluating emotional knowledge?

Question

This is a philosophy question. Answer only if you are smart.

Answer 1

Emotions strongly affect what we are disposed to do, how we are disposed to do it, and how others might react to that. So emotional knowledge is a strong indicator of our success in anything requiring social interaction. This includes our work and promotion prospects, our romances, our learning, our friendships, our family lives and our participation in the community. Some studies have shown that EQ (Emotional Quotient) is a stronger predictor of social status and income than IQ. (Please see the Time article linked below to get a feel for why.)

Self awareness includes our ability to recognise our moods and feelings, what impacts they have on our perceptions and decisions, and how those impacts are displayed to others

Understanding the minds of others includes the ability to understand how others perceive, interpret and react to the behaviours we display.

If in addition, we can manage and use our emotions, then we have means to make them an asset in our social dealings; if we lack self- or other-awareness, or the ability to manage what we do with emotions then emotions (ours and others) become an unpredictable and unmanageable impediment to our intentions.

Answer 2

True Self-ishness always leads to joy, because it
is motivated always by the desire to feel as good
as possible. It is only when we are Self-ish
enough to be, do and act in accordance with our
desires (not someone else’s) that it is possible
to stay balanced. Energetically speaking, a desire
is a rush of life force energy, a connection to
the divine inner self, which can never result in
actions that are harmful. It is only when true
desires are blocked that they become twisted and
ugly. This statement goes against the common
wisdom that human nature is greedy, violent and
primitive. Human nature is precisely the opposite:
we are born knowing ourselves as powerful,
eternal, spiritual beings. Petty, competitive,
churlish and violent behavior must be overcome
with suitable practice. Observe your family,
friends and coworkers. Almost all of them are good
people, trying to do the best they can. It would
simply not be possible to build a sophisticated
society if human nature was so base. All
successful societies are based upon cooperation,
not competition. Competition works not because it
is adversarial, but because it inspires teamwork.
Ask two angry guys to get something constructive
done, it is not going to happen. All success is
based upon cooperation. That is because we live in
an attraction based universe.

These natural impulses are supposed to be
dangerous because they stem from a primitive
survival instinct. But human being has a better
mind than animals. Just look around at the mess
the world is in! But that is a delusional
assertion, a denial of the basic nature of
consciousness itself. The natural impulses of
human nature stem from a connection to life force,
and it is resistance to this divine impulse which
causes the selfish behavior people object to.

If you observe people you will quickly see that
those persons who are most alive are full of
desire, and those who look lifeless have little or
no desire. Desire = life force. Shut off desire =
selfish behavior. It's ironic that selfish
behavior actually results from self-denial.

Human nature is not a primitive, biological
instinct based on survival of the fittest, it’s a
pure connection to source energy. It is divine.
It's only when that connection is closed off that
selfish behavior is demonstrated. Every one of
your desires is, in its non-resisted state, joyful
and balanced, because that is an inherent property
of consciousness itself. True selfishness is
allowance of desire, without resistance, and
results in the impulse to give freely to others.
But it is first necessary to allow that impulse
within yourself.

http://kjmaclean.com/Selfishness.html

Answer 3

Because 2 minds are better than 1.

Dependency - unable to act for yourself
Independence - able to act for yourself
Interdependence - ability to weave together your independence w/ the independence of others to create something more.