QotD

[brynndragon]

"Logic is the opiate of those who are afraid of their feelings."

*dons asbestos suit*

EDIT: We have competition for QotD: "Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. Give him ramen noodles, and you don’t have to teach him anything." (from Momofuku Ando's obituary)

Comments

[divineseduction.livejournal.com]

I think you're very, very right.

When I was dealing with some serious jealousy issues with Nic, I kept saying that my reactions bothered me because they weren't logical. I never really thought about it until Nic mentioned it, but I tend to steer clear of emotion-laden things. Whether it be movies, tv shows, whatever.

[ellyfialy.livejournal.com]

Mmmm... opiates. But wait, I thought House had Vicodin. He has Logic, too? Damn him! He needs to learn to share his drugs with the group.

(Also: I think I'm getting iller by the minute. So do I drive to the doctor, or walk? It's cold out... But I'm dizzy. Buh. Enough of a tangent, sorry.)

Again. Mmm. Opiates.

[the-xtina.livejournal.com]

I suppose that's a way of putting it... I'd go more for like a huge-ass shield or mask, more than opiate.

/logical

[fengi.livejournal.com]

And science is the bastion of those to souless to trust faith.

Really, be careful where you get your solipisims, because they often echo the fascists.

[gothfather.livejournal.com]

Dude, the second quote is so much better than the first. It clearly wins. :)

[feylike.livejournal.com]

each tool has its domain of applicability. logic has its domain. emotions have another.

[brewergnome.livejournal.com]

I like the second. It's funnier.

However, on a more serious note, I am fearful of any person who cannot acknowledge the strengths of both logic and emotion. There are many conclusions that can be reached by one without the other that are grave and terrible when viewed with balance.

But then I'm the logician who worries about whether I lack emotion.

Chaos and emotion

[dragontdc.livejournal.com]

Just as there is no such thing as pure chaos, merely systems so complex that they are impossible to define, so too is there no such thing as pure emotion. Emotion comes from a process of logic so complex it is impossible to define.

But for both we can make inroads to better understanding. With chaos, mathematics and quantuum physics can help model some of the less easily understood parts of the system. With emotion, psychology (especially understanding the subconscious) can help sort out why we feel the way we do.

Those who champion logic over emotion are probably ignorant of the true nature of emotion. That, or they are lazily seeking simple systems that they can cope with.

[lionofgod.livejournal.com]

Hm.

I love the second quote, but I'm afraid the first one bothers me. A lot.

I used to be very emotion and instinct focused, for all that I was logically trained as far as academics went. I discovered the hard way that although emotions *can* be useful for below-the-conscious-level information and observations, they can also go haywire in a way that is very, very hard to debug, and when they do, you're fucked.

See, human beings are biological critters. There may or may not be some kind of non-biological mechanism (i.e. souls) involved, and I'm still working on figuring out what I think of that idea; but we are, undeniably, dependent on our biology. And when those neurotransmitters get out of whack, you get emotional junk input; depression, paranoia, mania, all sorts of things. For someone like me, who used my emotions as a tool for understanding the world around me, that can wreak total havoc on your ability to do tasks, communicate with others, or otherwise deal with the world. Worried that your friends hate you? No, that's not subtle evidence adding up; that's just fucked-up brain chemistry. Feel like getting out of bed would be a real mistake? Not internal diagnostics saying you need more sleep; just fucked-up brain chemistry.

Logic, unlike emotions, can be checked by other people. If you're making decisions *logically*, when you can't trust your brain, then you have some way of getting feedback and learning how to route around the bugs. If you're making decisions emotionally, you've got many fewer tools in your toolkit to let you fix the problem. Not to mention that many of the current 'fixes' involve artificially changing that chemistry, with associated emotional changes... and what does that mean if you're trusting your emotions to feed you truth?

I certainly wouldn't want to live in the all-logic all-the-time world that some people I know do; it would be boring and missing a whole lot of life. But don't knock logic. It probably saved my sanity, if not my life.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Logic is a refuge of those who are too afraid to be wrong to accept what might be.

[travelingtim.livejournal.com]

Interesting quote.

And for every quote, there is an equal and opposite quote:
Logic is the lawyer of the heart

(I heard that in school, but I have no idea who the teacher was quoting)

[d-klein.livejournal.com]

I strongly believe that the opposite is true.

[white-and-nrdy.livejournal.com]

I like horned1's version better:

"Build a man a fire, he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, he'll be warm the rest of his life."

(Shameless plug: available at TheHornedOne.com )

study

[robertdfeinman.livejournal.com]

There is a sub-branch of economics devoted to the study of rational irrationality.

Just thinking about such a possibility helps explain much of human behavior.

[null4096.livejournal.com]

There's a perspective I'd like to suggest, that people may take or leave, and that is that logic depends on first principles, so you can make a perfectly rational argument for or against many propositions depending on your initial assumptions. If I believe that maintaining traditional values is important to the health of a society, I'm going to feel very different about anything from abortion to young people's rights (can't think of any political issues starting with z) than I will if I believe that individual freedom is paramount.

So an argument against evolution might seem perfectly rational if you take it as axiomatic that the Bible cannot be wrong.

To be honest, the whole logic versus emotion thing seemed very exciting at 15 and now just seems kind of silly. Damage to the limbic system results in all sorts of awfulness, and damage to the neocortex...well, ever seen someone with Alzheimer's? Also, attempts to rigidly regulate and deny emotion are usually motivated by emotions such as, yes, fear. I mean, if you didn't have emotions, you couldn't care about not having them, right?

[babydraco.livejournal.com]

just want to say, totally OT, that I saw your post on nonfluffypagans and I agree with you. I'm sorry people gave you such a hard time.

[lawbard.livejournal.com]

I think one of the worst of those "Teach a man" quotes I've seen runs like this:

"Build a man a fire, and you keep him warm for a night. Set a man on fire, and you keep him warm for the rest of his life."