One emotional state

We do not recognize that we are often in one emotional state – happy, sad, anxious, lonely, starving, excited, bored, etc. - at one time. We cannot recognize this, because, when it is powerful enough, we are in it – it is shaping our entire experience.

Urges precede Reasons

If we did not have urges we would be dead. They are what guide us toward what we need. Everyone knows the urges to drink, eat and sleep. These urges compel us to action. And as we become more emotionally sophisticated these turn into broader and broader goals.

No matter how much we train each other to be reasoned, logical thinkers, we can not sidestep these emotions and urges, nor should we want to. They come first. It is a fact of human existence that we are always in some emotional state, and our emotions are always guiding our behaviors, even if we cannot place them. There is no other motive that we have for action. Logic and reason can help us determine out how to do things, but they can never tell us what to do. In the world of survival, logic can’t respond to the question of what to do next.

Logic & Senses

A = A. This is the first law of logic, the law of identity. When something is X, it is always X. If a chicken all of sudden were a duck, we would be shocked. Not only would be shocked, but we would be unable to do anything. We would have no control. The law of identity gives us control over nature by saying that whatever something is, it must be.

We keep this logic intact despite overwhelming contradiction from our senses. Children become adults, caterpillars change into butterflies, candles melt into a puddle of wax and a house emerges from an arrangement of wood and glass.

Human Meaning

We label things and then we believe in our labels. Oxygen powers our lives. No. We breathe (our name for it), and a component of what we breathe is called oxygen. All things gain meaning in terms of what we humans do.