It is often asked, not unreasonably, why feelings should feel like anything at all, pleasant or unpleasant, tolerably quiet or like an uncontainable storm. The reason should now be clear: When the full constellation of physiological events that constitutes feelings began to appear in evolution and provided mental experiences, it made a difference. Feelings made lives better. They prolonged and saved lives. Feelings conformed to the goals of the homeostatic imperative and helped implement them by making them matter mentally to their owner as, for example, the phenomenon of conditioned place aversion appears to demonstrate. The presence of feelings is closely related to another development: consciousness and, more specifically, subjectivity.
The value of the knowledge provided by feelings to the organism in which they occur is the likely reason why evolution contrived to hold on to them. Feelings influence the mental process from within and are compelling because of their obligate positivity or negativity, their origin in actions that are conducive to health or death, and their ability to grip and jolt the owner of the feeling and force attention on the situation.
This distinctive account of feelings illustrates the fact that mental experiences do not arise from plain mapping of an object or event in neural tissue. Instead, they arise from the multidimensional mapping of body-proper phenomena woven interactively with neural phenomena. Mental experiences are not “instant pictures” but processes in time, narratives of several micro events in the body proper and the brain.
It is conceivable, of course, that nature could have evolved in another way and not stumbled upon feelings. But it didn’t. The fundamentals behind feelings are so integral a part of the maintenance of life that they were already in place. All that was needed in addition was the presence of mind-making nervous systems.
Ultimately, feelings can annoy us or delight us, but that is not what they are for. Feelings are for life regulation, providers of information concerning basic homeostasis or the social conditions of our lives. Feelings tell us about risks, dangers, and ongoing crises that need to be averted. On the nice side of the coin, they can inform us about opportunities. They can guide us toward behaviors that will improve our overall homeostasis and, in the process, make us better human beings, more responsible for our own future and the future of others.
- Anthony Damasio, Why Your Biology Runs on Feelings
The value of the knowledge provided by feelings to the organism in which they occur is the likely reason why evolution contrived to hold on to them. Feelings influence the mental process from within and are compelling because of their obligate positivity or negativity, their origin in actions that are conducive to health or death, and their ability to grip and jolt the owner of the feeling and force attention on the situation.
This distinctive account of feelings illustrates the fact that mental experiences do not arise from plain mapping of an object or event in neural tissue. Instead, they arise from the multidimensional mapping of body-proper phenomena woven interactively with neural phenomena. Mental experiences are not “instant pictures” but processes in time, narratives of several micro events in the body proper and the brain.
It is conceivable, of course, that nature could have evolved in another way and not stumbled upon feelings. But it didn’t. The fundamentals behind feelings are so integral a part of the maintenance of life that they were already in place. All that was needed in addition was the presence of mind-making nervous systems.
Ultimately, feelings can annoy us or delight us, but that is not what they are for. Feelings are for life regulation, providers of information concerning basic homeostasis or the social conditions of our lives. Feelings tell us about risks, dangers, and ongoing crises that need to be averted. On the nice side of the coin, they can inform us about opportunities. They can guide us toward behaviors that will improve our overall homeostasis and, in the process, make us better human beings, more responsible for our own future and the future of others.
- Anthony Damasio, Why Your Biology Runs on Feelings
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