0.1 The will and its relation to feelings  (Page 9/2)

Every thought that a human has is motivated by a feeling. However, which feeling would be the feeling behind that? It would seemingly be a selfish feeling, however, perhaps it is just at its core a selfish feeling. That is, humans have selfless feelings, however they are probably motivated by a more basic instinct that seeks to only respond to the human that is doing the action.

That makes sense - human being have instincts, and this can be compared to the human will. That brings up a question of definitions - what is the difference between the definition of instinct and the definition of 'will'?

In general, "will" does not refer to one particular or most preferred desire but rather to the general capacity to have such desires and act decisively based on them, according to whatever criteria the willing agent applies. However, instinct is an impulse, usually an innate impulse. So a human could have the will to follow an instinct, or a decision could be 'willful', 'instinctual', 'determined', or 'decisive'. They basically all mean the same thing - if someone is intending to do an action, then their feelings are going to be motivating the action - and if feelings are motivating an action it is going to be more decisive or driven.

The influence of feelings

Feelings are important to human beings because it makes them feel. That is a rather simple statement, however that doesn't necessarily mean that feelings are simple or that understanding feelings is simple.

If a feeling is simple would that mean that it is easier to understand? How could a feeling be understood, or what does that mean, to 'understand' a feeling? Humans can feel feelings, or they could understand them, or some combination of the two.

If a feeling is understood then it is probably a salient or powerful feeling. However, a feeling could be powerful but the person experiencing it might not know that it is a large or significant feeling. What then is the difference between a 'significant' feeling and a large feeling?

A feeling could be large but that doesn't necessarily mean that it is a salient feeling - salient means that the feeling is significant - however what makes one feeling important and another feeling not important?

If a feeling is important it probably has a greater impact on cognition. The persons thoughts are influenced by the feeling more, basically.

Feelings interact

Some feelings interact with other feelings, or it would probably be better described as drives interacting with other drives, because a feeling could be small and there could be many feelings, while there are probably only a few drives or strong desires a person can have at any one time.

A drive is like an emotion because it is powerful, however drives could be driven by thoughts while emotions could have any cause.

A feeling could be complicated, and have elements of thoughts and other feelings interacting. However some of this information about feelings isn't completely necessary for someone to understand in order to properly experience feelings.