Feeling

Feelings are affective states of consciousness, triggered by physiological changes arising from both sensory perceptions and memories in comparison to internally stored norms or ideals. Thinking, or the active comparing and contrasting of data, involves mental states that symbolize physiological changes and can be perceived as such.

Fear, for example, is an anticipation of injury to ones body, self image or goals. In healthy subjects, it is triggered by stimulii which indicate the presence of risk or direct danger. However direct physical stimulii is not necessary. Thoughts and/or unconscious brain patterns can promote conditioned responses, where a feeling of fear could result from imagined situations when there is no direct threat present.

Perception of the physical world does not necessarily result in a universal reaction among receivers (see emotions), but varies depending on one’s tendency to handle the situation, how the situation relates to the receiver's past experiences, and any number of other factors (see further http://www.feelingdictionary.com).

Thoughts and feelings often coexist. Generally, a human cannot have a thought without a feeling and vice versa. This may be arguable philosophically; however, it may seem contradictory.

Harvard professor Abraham Maslow suggests that human beings are all born with an innate sense of positive and negative being-values. We are attracted to positive being-values such as justice, honesty, truth, beauty, humor, liveliness, power (but not abusive power), order (but not nit-picking), intelligence. Likewise, we are repulsed by injustice, deadness, uglyness, weakness, falseness, deceit, chaos, etc.

Maslow asserts that positive being-values are only definable in terms of all other positive being-values—in other words, we cannot maximize any virtue and let it contain some negative being-values without repulsion. For example, beauty that is associated with deceit becomes repulsive. Justice associated with cruelty is repulsive.

This innate capacity to feel attraction or repulsion forms part of the foundation for consciousness—that is, feelings, perceived, help shape the individual's moral judgements. Natural inclinations towards "good" and "bad" are by no means universal and can vary between individuals.

Translations

• Hebrew: רגשּׁ (root letters: to feel)
• Hebrew: נגע (root letters: to touch)

The List is different from tradition to tradition. Tibetan Buddhism has a different list. It also needs to be understood that language also plays an important part in culturally defining feeling and different cultures have different way of perceiving and identifying feelings. some feelings in the list may not exist at all in a particular cultural-linguistic context.

See also

• Wikipedia: emotion, feeling rules, intuition, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, qualia, touch
• Wiktionary: emotion, intuition, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, qualia, touch

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