[MD] Emotions

[Andre Broersen]

Squonk to Andre,
Would you do me a favour please?
If quality is not the same thing as an emotional biological response
to it, how is quality experienced?

Andre:

Hi Squonk (and John):
I'll do my best. Phaedrus is quite clear on how it is experienced: 'He
simply meant that at the cutting edge of time, before an object can be
distinguished, there must be a kind of nonintellectual awareness,
which he called awareness of quality. (ZMM, p 241)

'The easiest INTELLECTUAL analogue of pure Quality that people in our
environment can understand is that 'Quality is the response of an
organism to its environment'[he used this example because his chief
questioners seemed to see things in terms of stimulus-response
behaviour theory]'.

Then the example of the amoeba comes in and he continues:

"If it had a nervous system it would act in a much more complex way to
overcome the poor quality of the environment. It would seek
analogues... .(ZMM, p 244-5).(my emphasis)

In other words the responses become more complex (as in varied) with
the complexity of the organism i.e. the more 'requisite variety' the
organism can display.
I am persuaded that there is an 'overlap' here between the responses
displayed by organisms called 'animals' and animals called 'humans'.

I also want to stress that all behaviours displayed at the inorganic
and organic (biological) levels have been designated with social level
symbols and interpretations [language] to wit: lots of 'animal' as
well as 'human' behaviours which are not necesarily untrue.

I think there are exceptions to this when it comes to emotions such as
 (for example) 'shame' and 'jealousy' which appear to me to be an
intellectual construction 'imposed' on social behaviour.

Hope I haven't shot myself in the foot with this one.

Is this helpful or have I muddled things up from a MoQ perspective?

Regards
Andre