Thinking vs. Feeling
 

How many emotions exist?
Are there primary emotions?

Some say there exist only four distinct primary emotions, like primary colors, and everything we feel in our lives is some sort of blend of these four, joy, fear...

Another surprisingly popular theory says there are only two emotional states, rage and non-rage...

Personally I think people are quick to label as emotional any reaction where they cannot recognize or remember their conditioning, and we constantly transfer what we have learned to other things and situations... Ever met someone and didn't like them even before they spoke a single word? That's transference.

Comments?

emotions are like flavors... there's some distinct basics.. but then nuances that blend them all...

I would say that they are right

My own understanding of human emotions is they are part of the reptilian brain acording to the theory of vertebrate evolution.

As such, I consider them a primitive and untrustworthy part of my self. I experience them to the necessary degree but that's where it stops.

I also notice quite a lot of wallowing in emotions going on in human beings...

...ergo, I see a lot of "emotional illness" out there.

but yet this is what makes us human.

i wouldn't trade it.

cold calculation, is sometimes just that.
there is good, there is bad.
the journey is fascinating.

emotions are the color, the flavor.
how boring otherwise.

All emotions, reguardless of what they are, are the best and worst in man. They are what separates us from the animals. Sure cats and dogs feel glad and sad, but they don't have the emothional depth to feel persay love or dire fear. An animals primary code is to survive, our code is to live through emotions. I think they very well may be primary emotions (Hope, Faith, Love) just to throw some out. It's all virtues and vices. Consider the seven deadly sins as emotions and see where that takes you. Man has the inherit evil and good, what he chooses to do with it is up to him/her.

I think that rather than fear and joy, the basis for all emotions would have to be based on pain. After all, fear is nothing more than the anticipation of pain and joy is nothing more than the avoidance of pain. If you really wanted to convert it to a yin and yang, emotions are based on pain and not pain.

rogue,
Yes.
That's why I said, "I experience them to the necessary degree..."
My implication is not that they have no value.
They have value when experienced to the degree necessary.
Beyond that, it's wallowing.

Emotions are uncontrollable, just as relfexes are. Emotions are survival reflexes so to speak. But just like ART said, they are primative. We have grown out of the need for some of them. And some are only good to a certain extent. I am glad we have them for they make us realize the complexity of life.

I disagree in that I think anger is a base emotion and it certainly isn't a factor of joy and is entirely a different thing from fear. You can be enraged without having any fear or your anger being caused by fear...just as you can be afraid while not being angry at all.
Just a thought.
I read an article that claimed to have as many as eight different groups. One of them being shame....go figure.

Here's A Chart
 

this is something much more complex than i thought it was. there are many theories about this, heres a chart with some.
http://www.personalityresearch.org/b.../plutchik.html

<TABLE BORDER=1 CELLSPACING=2><TR><TD><P><B>Basic Emotions</B></TD><TD><P><B>Basis for Inclusion</B></TD></TR><TR><TD><P>Acceptance, anger, anticipation, disgust, joy, fear, sadness, surprise</TD><TD><P>Relation to adaptive biological processes</TD></TR><TR><TD><P>Anger, aversion, courage, dejection, desire, despair, fear, hate, hope, love, sadness</TD><TD><P>Relation to action tendencies</TD></TR><TR><TD><P>Anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise</TD><TD><P>Universal facial expressions</TD></TR><TR><TD><P>Desire, happiness, interest, surprise, wonder, sorrow</TD><TD><P>Forms of action readiness</TD></TR><TR><TD><P>Rage and terror, anxiety, joy</TD><TD><P>Hardwired</TD></TR><TR><TD><P>Anger, contempt, disgust, distress, fear, guilt, interest, joy, shame, surprise</TD><TD><P>Hardwired</TD></TR><TR><TD><P>Fear, grief, love, rage</TD><TD><P>Bodily involvement</TD></TR><TR><TD><P>Anger, disgust, elation, fear, subjection, tender-emotion, wonder</TD><TD><P>Relation to instincts</TD></TR><TR><TD><P>Pain, pleasure</TD><TD><P>Unlearned emotional states</TD></TR><TR><TD><P>Anger, disgust, anxiety, happiness, sadness</TD><TD><P>Do not require propositional content</TD></TR><TR><TD><P>Expectancy, fear, rage, panic</TD><TD><P>Hardwired</TD></TR><TR><TD><P>Anger, interest, contempt, disgust, distress, fear, joy, shame, surprise</TD><TD><P>Density of neural firing</TD></TR><TR><TD><P>Fear, love, rage</TD><TD><P>Hardwired</TD></TR><TR><TD><P>Happiness, sadness</TD><TD><P>Attribution independent</TD></TR></TABLE>