Emotion-vs-Thinking

THIS EMOTION -vs- THAT THOUGHT

The path to morality is not the territory

~Soph Laugh

"There's an old-fashioned word for the body of skills that emotional intelligence represents: character." (Daniel Goleman) 

George Washington University social theorist Amitai Etzioni describes character as "the psychological muscle that moral conduct requires."

I love to philosophize about the nature of existence and my/our place in it, but when it comes to interacting with people, psychology is my go-to field for emotional balance. The snide philosopher in me would like to claim that there is a difference between thinking and feeling and that psychologists belong to the latter group of individuals (a remark made in derision by one of my professors skilled in striking egotistical cords in young, impressionable students). 

Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio blew my professor's theory right out of the water in a groundbreaking study where he discovered that emotions were linked to our ability to make decisions. Apparently there is no rational way to think ourselves through a decision without simultaneously having an emotion. 

So it's,

Off to see the Wizard of Emotions ... 

From here (the place where one receives or can give to oneself good or expert counsel) I can better evaluate the efficacy of actions I wish to take. I can also modify actions that have a less intense but cumulative affecting value which will hopefully result in my making better decisions over time.

Consulting my inner psychologist does not mean that my behavior will radically change without this type of study and reflection, but the thoughts I associate with my behavior will differ. This buffering (the time between reflection and action) buttresses a new stable foundation from which I can better see how the majority of my every day life decisions interact to create a whole. The trajectory our decisions take is directly related to the forms our decisions erect. 

When one's decisions come from a place of self-discipline, emotional intelligence is controlled by human will. When one leaves decisions up to fleeting or *ignored emotions, the corresponding behavior often times lacks what is commonly referred to as good moral character. 

The nature of our existence as it relates to our present bioenergetic form requires our coparticipation with forces that do not always feel harmonious to our own. When this happens, studies in virtue, empathy, compassion, and understanding can temper quick and whimsical emotional reactions that ignore sound emotional reason (which takes time to cultivate) in favor of (unreflected upon) easily adopted biased stereotypes, which breed intolerance and rejection of differences. 

Unreflected upon (and thus unmanaged) emotions can detour human reason from its rational course, resulting in a person's inability to function, to control and channel their urges. Reflecting upon emotions more easily results in our ability to make sound decisions. 

But how does one reflect upon emotions? Do we seek out books on emotional intelligence? Do we consult wisdom literature? Do we look to world leaders and the successful for guidance? Who is the ultimate authority on human idealism, and is there such a thing? 

One could consult a variety of sources, or one could even consult humor for insights into human behavior. One could push the snooze button on all this thinking business and go pour oneself another cup of coffee (one moment, please, I'll be right back). 

(I'm back. Now, where was I? Oh yes, where do we turn for sound advice?)

THIS EMOTION -vs- THAT THOUGHT

THIS EMOTION versus THAT THOUGHT are our two expert sources. The result of the specifics of this engagement become our rationale for acceptance or rejection of a thought or idea. 

There is not one single source of material that can answer our questions on which actions to take, but we are more likely to experience successful outcomes if the material matches our highest goals and desires. 

To determine whether or not the material you consult is aiding your emotionally based decisions look to the results of your actions for answers. If your life closely resembles that of your desires, then the material you are consulting is directly proportional to your innermost hopes. If your life does not resemble that which you desire, then consider exploring new material. 

All material is relevant to a given area of existence or it wouldn't exist. As such it is not about finding the best among all the materials available for human consumption. Success comes from choosing the correct material to aid us in making decisions that feel effortless ('effortless' does not imply the absence of work). When decisions feel sound they usually result in positive outcomes. 

Nature suggests that polar opposites exist. As such a positive outcome for one might indicate a negative one for someone else. This negative outcome could be as innocuous as someone simply not choosing to formulate an opinion on a given material (rejecting stereotypes in favor of purposeful non-judgment) until such time consideration is due. 

Not all information is necessary for human beings to make sound life decisions. So long as the decisions we make relate to our highest goals, ideals, and personal desires - keeping in mind the understanding that everyone has their own version of happiness - we can make decisions that feel like the best choice among the many. 

We cannot consult all material sources in the world (it is physically impossible). We cannot manifest every experience by mere human will given the limitations of nature. BUT if from within this sphere of existence we can manifest the best that our specific experience can offer us, we can be sure that our expert guides (emotion & thought) will be available to guide us so long as we invest equal interest in both their well-being (well, as in health; being, as in existence). 

*late 15th century in the sense 'be ignorant of'from Latin ignorare 'not know, ignore,' from in- 'not' + gno-, a base meaning 'know.'

The Odyssey of Genius

Jupiter, Mercury and the Virtue (1515-18)

Dosso Dossi (1490-1542)

Wawel Royal Castle, Poland

 இڿڰۣ 

Genius, Virtue, and Reputation, three great friends, agreed to travel over the island of Great Britain, to see whatever might be worthy of observation. But as some misfortune, said they, may happen to separate us, let us consider, before we set out, by what means we may find each other again. “Should it be my ill fate,” said Genius, “to be severed from my friends – heaven forbid! – you may find me kneeling in devotion before the tomb of Shakespeare; or rapt in some grove where Milton talked with angels; or musing in the grotto where Pope caught inspiration.”

            Virtue, with a sigh, acknowledged, that her friends were not very numerous; “but were I to lose you,” she cried, “with whom I am at present so happily united, I should choose to take sanctuary in the temples of religion, in the palaces of royalty, or in the stately domes of ministers of state; but as it may be my ill fortune to be there denied admittance, inquire for some cottage where contentment has a bower, and there you will certainly find me.”

            “Ah, my dear friends,” said Reputation very earnestly, “you, I perceive when missing, may possibly be recovered; but take care, I entreat you, always to keep sight of me, for if I am once lost, I am never to be retrieved.”

Genius, Virtue and Reputation, Aesop’s Fables

Penelope Weeping over the Bow of Ulysses, (c. 1779)

Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807)

Wolverhampton Art Gallery

இڿڰۣ

Genius expresses her devotion to productions of herself, and unlike Penelope in her letter to Ulysses –

            Your Penelope sends you this, slow Ulysses (Heroides 1.1)

- maintains that devotion by kneeling before genius, by allowing herself to be enraptured in the grove where Milton communed with angels, and in her musings in the grotto where the Pope found himself in accordance with inspiration.

            In Penelope’s epistle to the absent Ulysses, the reader ‘knows’ from Homer, Penelope’s anxiety in Ulysses’ ‘delay’ in returning home may have erotic causes, that behind the mora may lie amor (74-6), is not as foolish as she proclaims. This gap in ‘knowledge’ between the Ovidian reader and the fictive writer makes irony the dominant mode of Heroides I and is central to the ironic relationship humans have with knowledge and the source or essence from which it derives.

The Cyclops Polyphemus

Annibale Carracci (1560-1609)

இڿڰۣ

            The other heroines of Aesop’s Fables play similar roles in illuminating our understanding. Virtue, sighs in acquiescence and resigns herself to taking sanctuary in the temples of religion, in the palaces of royalty, or in the stately domes of ministers of state, much like how Odysseus, after his encounter with the Cyclops, must achieve a new epic identity, an epic about his homecoming, about his own nostos  'return', but, for the moment, his confidence in his power to bring about this nostos is reduced to nothing. He has lost his confidence in the power of his own mētis 'craft' to devise a stratagem for achieving a nostos. When he reaches the island of Circe and learns that this place, though it first seems familiar and reminiscent of his own island, is in fact strange and alien and antithetical to home, he despairs (10.190-202). The wording that expresses his desperation connects the hero’s metis with his nostos:

              My friends, I am speaking this way because I do not know

              which place is west and which place is east

              -which is the place where the sun, brining light for mortals,

              goes underneath the earth

              and which is the place where it rises. Still, let us start thinking it

              through, as quickly as we can,

              whether there is still any craft left. I must tell you, though,

              I think there is none.

                                                                               Odyssey 10.190-93

Odysseus and Penelope (1802)

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (1751-1829)

Private Collection

இڿڰۣ

            The hero feels he has no craft left in him to devise a stratagem for a successful homecoming, and like Reputation, expresses his despair and feeling of disorientation. Unlike Genius and Virtue, Reputation, like the epic hero Odysseus, must live out the master of her own heroic life, and like Odysseus must have a nostos or ‘homecoming’. For Odysseus to succeed in coming home to Ithaca, however, his nostos must be more than simply a ‘homecoming’: it must also be a ‘song about a homecoming’. The kleos or 'epic glory' of Odysseus depends on his nostos, that is, on the song about his homecoming, which is the Odyssey. By contrast, the kleos of Reputation depends not on Reputation’s nostos but on Reputation staying home.

            For Odysseus to get over the Iliad, he must sail past it. For Reputation to stay in tact, she must remain home and not venture forth into the ironic and disoriented domains of Genius and Virtue. But staying home is a false Iliad, which is why, like Odysseus, Reputation must sail past the Island of the Sirens. The Sirens, as false Muses, tempt the hero by offering to sing for him an endless variety of songs about Troy (Odyssey 12.184-91). The sheer pleasure of listening to the songs of the Sirens threatens not only the homecoming of Odysseus, but the self-knowledge that may be gained by Reputation from embarking on an Odyssey into genius.

Genius of Music (Allegory of Music) 

François Le Moine (1688-1737)

 Hermitage 

இڿڰۣ

            It is tempting to linger and never stop listening to the endless stories about Genius, but just as Polyphemus the Cyclops was deceived and blinded by a false name, so too does the designation Genius deceive and blind Reputation.  

            The noun noos means thinking in the sense of being conscious, not being unconscious: like the noun nostos, it is derived from the root *nes- in the mystical sense of returning to light and life.

            Odysseus’ nostos ‘return’ connects with his noos ‘thinking’ not only in the explicit sense of thinking about saving his own life but also in the implicit sense of being conscious of returning home. This implicit sense is encoded in Aesop’s fable when Reputation expresses her belief that once she is gone, she cannot be retrieved.

Return of the Prodigal Son, 1773

Pompeo Batoni

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

இڿڰۣ

            The very idea of consciousness as conveyed by noos is derived from the metaphor of returning to light from darkness, as encapsulated in the moment of waking up from sleep, or of regaining consciousness after losing consciousness, that is, of “coming to.”

           This metaphor of coming to is at work when one embarks on an Odyssey of discovery, when we venture forth from belief and return awakened from our journey. As Reputation warns, we may not retrieve that which we lose by doing so, but what we gain in return is as illuminated as the morning star that welcomes the coming of the dawn in each person’s homeland.