Likewise, emotions have semantics; they claim things. Anger might claim to me that it was stupid or inconsiderate for someone to text me repeatedly while I’m trying to work. Excitement might claim to me that an upcoming show will be really fun. Longing might claim to young me “if only I could leave school in the middle of the day to go get ice cream, I wouldn’t feel so trapped”. Satisfaction might claim to me that my code right now is working properly, it’s doing what I wanted.
I think it’s clearer to say your emotions make you claim various potentially irrational things. This is one reason rationalists become particularly scared of their emotions, even though the behaviors your emotions induce might often be adaptive. (After all, they evolved for a reason.)
Emotions can motivate irrational behavior as well as irrational claims, so even people who aren’t as truth-inclined often feel the need to resist their own emotions as well, as in anger management. However, emotions are particularly good at causing you to say untrue things, hence their status as distinguished enemies of rationality.
(Edit: Or maybe our standards for truthful claims are just much higher than our default standards for rational behavior?)
I think it’s clearer to say your emotions make you claim various potentially irrational things
That doesn’t sound quite right to me; my emotions might be claiming various things to me, even as the overall-system-that-is-me recognizes that those claims are incorrect and doesn’t let them change my overall behavior. (But there’s still internal effort being expended on the not-going-along thing.)
I think it’s clearer to say your emotions make you claim various potentially irrational things. This is one reason rationalists become particularly scared of their emotions, even though the behaviors your emotions induce might often be adaptive. (After all, they evolved for a reason.)
Emotions can motivate irrational behavior as well as irrational claims, so even people who aren’t as truth-inclined often feel the need to resist their own emotions as well, as in anger management. However, emotions are particularly good at causing you to say untrue things, hence their status as distinguished enemies of rationality.
(Edit: Or maybe our standards for truthful claims are just much higher than our default standards for rational behavior?)
That doesn’t sound quite right to me; my emotions might be claiming various things to me, even as the overall-system-that-is-me recognizes that those claims are incorrect and doesn’t let them change my overall behavior. (But there’s still internal effort being expended on the not-going-along thing.)