Do Feelings exist? matter exists. energy exists. what about feelings? are they real? can they be measured?
well, thoughts do have electromagnetic properties as do feelings. so I guess we could indeed say that feelings exist in a scientifically measurable way.
I believe so. They are a bit complicated so we can't measure them accurately at the moment, but that's a technological and practical limitation, not a physical one. Most people will not let you dig around in their brains. There is a problem with the word "exists" for certain concepts such as patterns. Let's say there is a circle of stones. The circle exists. If the pattern of the circle is broken, the circle stops existing without any material going missing. The concept isn't hard to understand, but it can be quite tricky to explain it, since some words, like "exists", "physical" and "real" don't always make the distinction quite so well as a writer would hope. That being said, I believe feelings are patterns and/or processes. They don't exist in the same way as matter does, but they are still verifiably "real".
super sensitive brain scanners can surely acknowledge and detect brain activity directly connected to specific feelings and emotions experienced at a specific time. so in that sense, as feelings are often accompanied by actual brain activity and electro/hormonal/chemical events, we could say that feelings do actualy exist in a physical sense.
Well, "feelings" can be accurately measured, but there's normalcy bias across multiple points of view. And, forum like this, such a wide open space, cannot really discuss much in detail without qualifying the terminology to such an extent there's not enough time in the day to post it all. Would be like trying to squeeze a lifetimes worth of study into a few paragraphs, doesn't really come out too well. It's probably much easier to use anecdotes or even fictional stories to convey metaphors, some will "get it" but some will not, that's just how it goes. Machines are helpful because it's clockworks, you type a letter on your keyboard, there's an automatic process that results in that letter appearing on the screen, subjectivity is limited in that. But it's still the same old question that has been around for thousands of years, at least since the advent of Genesis, probably since even before ancient Egypt but who really knows? Essentially, we have a distinction between hardware and software because the ways of the machines reflect the philosophies of people about the distinction between bodies and souls. Art imitates life, I mean. Okay, so what happens is, it's a challenge to find the who/what/when/where is the boundary between the physical substances and the metaphysical substances. It's really easy to consider, like where does the solid paper and ink of a book end and the non-solid ideals and meanings of the words begin? That is a similar question as, do you believe the Bible is literal or figurative, you see? Perhaps the Freemasons would interject with some question about operative and speculative institutions, just to illustrate how pervasive that question is into all manner of spheres of influence, but you'd have to realize that mystery box takes on a different persona in every context where it's found. It's like, in America we have an expression, probably originates in black/urban culture, "keeping it real." Seems like some lofty philosophical debate, but it's extremely relevant to every last man, woman, and child in the United States because of the dollar and it's value. What began as a kind of promissory note, bankers promising there's a certain amount of real gold or silver locked up in a vault somewhere represented by each paper dollar printed, has lost it's physical substance. Dollars are now ghosts without bodies, up in the air, and have to land on something real in order to have value. Notice how more glamorous the esoteric symbolism drawn on the paper gets over the years of inflation, needs all that sigil magic to attract physical substance to it. But, what happens when people stop believing in that ghost altogether? I'll spare you all the Obamacare rant for now if you all promise to give serious thought to "gold" and "silver" and "bronze" plans and why they use those labels, and why it's such a strange coincidence that the law goes into effect just at the same time that the federal government is desperate to find the collateral to refinance the 17+ trillion national debt.
This is a difficult subject as many things in life are a matter of perception. As to where I stand on this subject, feelings do exist as they shape your everyday choices and the way people see you. They can influence wether or not you should be friends with someone as they may have aggravated you causing bad feelings from you to them. However their are those who's matter of perceiving feelings is simply a series of chemicals entering your brain causing changes in your brain's nuero-chemistry which is relayed into a series of actions that you may or may not unconsciously take. As I said, this is a choice for you to make and something you will have to build your own perception on. If you asked this because you just got out of a relationship and are questioning your own feelings, I wish you a good day and a lovely follow up to your not so great happening.
If by "feelings" we mean the subjective interpretation of a brain function then, yes, they exist. If we called the subjective interpretation of a brain function "emotions" then they exist. In fact we could call them "late for dinner" and they'd still exist.
I have felt anger when reading posts here from time to time... ok... a lot. Can a feeling be measured.. meh... perhaps to an imperfect degree... like asking "on a scale from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest... how angry do you feel at this moment?"
