As we learned in lecture, emotions have subjective different views from different psychologists and philosophers. In the Film inside out, much of the film takes place in the head of an 11-year-old girl named Riley, with five emotions such as Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. Her overall goal is to make sure that Riley is always happy. But by the end of the film, Riley, and the audience learns that there is much, much more to being happy than just the thought of only positivity. Toward the end of the film, Joy seems to take control to some of her fellow emotions, particularly Sadness, Riley seems to achieve a deeper form of happiness. I think that this film shows adults and children a deeper meaning on emotion. As part of being human, Riley allows herself to feel sadness, in addition to fear and anger. This show us at the time when she thinks of running away from home. she decides not to go through with her plan. This choice reunites Riley with her family, giving her a deeper sense of happiness and contentment in the comfort she gets from her parents, even though it’s mixed with sadness and fear.
In Star Trek episode “Man of the People” As an ambassador mediates peace talks to end a fierce civil war, Deanna Troi begins to act emotional after spending some time with him. Troi begins aging rapidly and the crew must then race against the clock to figure out what Alkar has done to her, before she dies. Turns out Alkar is using Troi as a “receptacle” to telepathically shunt off all the negative emotions that he experiences during his negotiations. This episode seems to show them being emotionally innate more so than the “Inside out” view on emotions.During out lecture we spoke about Plato. The great philosopher.Plato as we spoke about, believed emotions typically include both pleasant and unpleasant aspects! however, Aristole believed that emotions are an original and integral part of ethics. Emotions are an inherent part of our moral reasoning and being, and therefore they should be an inherent part of any moral deliberation.
“Emotions are a process, a particular kind of automatic appraisal influenced by our evolutionary and personal past, in which we sense that something important to our welfare is occurring, and a set of psychological changes and emotional behaviors begins to deal with the situation.” – Paul Ekman, PhD
As we learned he described them they describe people to have seven basic emotions: fear, anger, joy, sad, contempt, disgust, and surprise!
Is it innate or is it due to a stimulus? I think it is subjective to each person. As the professor taught us… different emotions can happen differently depending on the individual!
One thought on “EMO tional”
Hi Elizabeth,
As I said in the first week of course, I’m also an emo girl, so I was very excited to see the title of your post.
As you note, our emotions are complicated. Not only do we have the emotions we are feeling, but we also have metaemotions—our feelings about our feelings. So, for example, I might be angry with my friend, but I might also feel bad about feeling angry. Or if I experience schadenfreude, I might feel bad about feeling good. As you note, Riley’s joy at the end of the film might not be pure joy like it was when she was a kid, but that’s what happens to our emotions as we get older; they become more complex.
I’m glad to see that you brought Aristotle and Plato into your discussion of Star Trek. If emotions are an important part of moral reasoning, what does it mean that Aklar refuses to experience negative emotions? How might that affect his reasoning? In addition, it is worth noting that it is not just moral reasoning that is emotional—all reasoning is emotional. Emotions are not, as Plato suggests, at war with rationality, they are an integral part of all of our reasoning.
Jessica Hautsch