Once upon a timeBy Gabriel Okara (a Nigerian Poet)

Once upon a time, son, they used to laugh with their hearts and laugh with their eyes: but now they only laugh with their teeth, while their ice-block-cold eyes search behind my shadow. There was a time indeed they used to shake hands with their hearts: but that’s gone, son. Now they shake hands without hearts: while their left hands search my empty pockets. ‘Feel at home’! ‘Come again’: they say, and when I come again and feel at home, once, twice, there will be no thrice – for then I find doors shut on me.So I have learned many things, son. I have learned to wear many faces

like dresses – homeface, officeface, streetface, hostface, cocktailface, with all their conforming smiles like a fixed portrait smile. And I have learned too to laugh with only my teeth and shake hands without my heart. I have also learned to say, ‘Goodbye’, when I mean ‘Good-riddance’; to say ‘Glad to meet you’, without being glad; and to say ‘It’s been nice talking to you’, after being bored. But believe me, son. I want to be what I used to be when I was like you. I want to unlearn all these muting things. Most of all, I want to relearn how to laugh, for my laugh in the mirror shows only my teeth like a snake’s bare fangs! So show me, son, how to laugh; show me how I used to laugh and smile once upon a time when I was like you.

Emotions

Emotion•This is less measurable and tangible than our senses – it’s hard to count how many emotions there are•each of us is affected in a different way by our emotion•key question to do with emotion:- to what extent it helps, and to what extent hinder, us in building up an objective picture of the world?

How can we define emotion?

• here is the OED definition of emotion:

• noun 1 a strong feeling, such as joy or anger. 2 instinctive feeling as distinguished from reasoning or knowledge.

• — DERIVATIVES emotionless adjective.

• — ORIGIN originally denoting a public disturbance: from French, from Latin emovere ‘disturb’.

• Worthy of note is the distinction between emotion and reason – the first being instinctive, the second being something with which we are consciously involved.

Activity

1. Quickly list as many different emotions as you can in a one-minute period.

2.On the line below place five emotions from above on a scale from

• weakest (least effecting and shortest lived) to

• strongest (most effecting and longest lived)

Weakest Stronger Strongest

Emotion Assignment

The Question: Which Emotion is the strongest for humans?

1) Write down three strong brief arguments in support of your strongest emotion

2) Write down two strong brief arguments against the weaker emotions

…i.e. why do you think so?

Robert Plutchik’s (1928 – 2006) theory of emotion

The three-tiered model of emotionsA less concrete principle of ordering emotions, but one that uses similar ideas to Plutchik’s, is the one that orders them into three tiers, depending on how ‘basic’ they are to us. Primary emotions, again, are the ones most innate in us, secondary and tertiary ones come to us after we have experienced the initially emotional reactions. This can be seen in the following table:

Where do emotions come from?

• Imagination• Sleepy• Alert• Reason• Dreams• ….A state of mind?

Where do emotions come from?

Where do emotions come from?

• The debate:

Do emotions come from

the BODY or the MIND?

Where do emotions come from?

• emotion is believed to be generated from a physical source,

• the part of the brain responsible for it is the limbic system of the brain,

• made up of several structures located in the cerebral cortex.

• These structures register the levels of chemicals – called neurotransmitters - being manufactured by the body in response to certain conditions the person is experiencing.

Do you think with the heart or the mind?

• What is the connection between: reason and emotion?

OR to what extent are they linked?

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O92lCgX7208• (see next slide first)• What does it tell us about the relationship between

emotion and reason when it comes to making decisions?• How is this a reevaluation of the way emotion is

traditionally viewed?

Damasio’s: Descartes’ Error

• To the new generation of neuroscientists, the gap between emotion and reason is narrowing – and to some, there no longer is a gap.

• One of the best-known of these scientists is Antonio Damasio (1944- ), whose popular book, Descartes’ Error set out his theory:

• that far from being obstructed by emotion, as is usually assumed (how can we make rational decisions if we are angry, ecstatic, depressed, etc.) reason is often directed by emotion.

Phineas Gage

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12649555Read the above article and answer the following questions:

•What does the case suggest about the relationship between reason and emotion?

…But• Of course, Damasio does not say that all decisions are

made as a result of our emotions taking over. • ‘High reason’ is the term he uses for choices that are

made on the basis of weighing up logical considerations, without allowing emotion to interfere with the process.

• An example may be the type of car you buy: this important choice involves a comparison of price, fuel consumption, safety features, performance, and so on of different makes of car.

• You may also think about previous experiences you have had with the makes and models you are considering, and the opinions of friends and family members.

Activity

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8339647.stm• Read the article that you will find using the above

link• Respond to one of the views below it or write a

view/reflection of your own to the article. (Similar length as the others)

• http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/279

1. Is it possible to know anything purely through our emotions? Or are they always affected by reason, sense perception and language?

2. Are emotions biological or “hard-wired” into our psyches, and therefore universal to all human beings? Or are they shaped by culture and displayed differently in different societies?

3. Can feelings be based on rational ideas? Or is the concept of 'emotional intelligence' (the title of a book by Daniel Goleman) an oxymoron?

4. Bertrand Russell said: 'control your emotion or it will control you'. Is this possible? Does it depend on the culture from which we are from?

5. Are concepts such as nationalism and racism examples of collective emotions? 6. Is faith an emotion or is it a rational choice? Or is it neither of these things? 7. Robert Ebert said, 'your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you.'

But can emotions mislead us? And can other people help us to recognize emotions that we didn't realize we had?

8. Why is reason often considered more important than emotion in our process of building up knowledge?

9. David Hume claimed that “Reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions.” Is it true that emotions are the essential driver of any purposeful activity?

10. Hemingway said, 'I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.' What part does emotion play in assessing whether an action is morally justifiable?

11. What is more important in arriving at a moral conclusion: reason or emotion?

Emotion knowledge issues and links with other WOKs and AOKs

Work Cited

• http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/279• http://www.theoryofknowledge.net• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8339647.stm• http://TOKtalk.net