Feelings, how many and what kinds

[Snarky]

Basing your PhD on an unsound idea is probably not a good idea. If I were you, I would take the concerns about the validity of your assumptions extremely seriously. In fact, I think you should consider abandoning this line of approach and start over from scratch. You really need to delve into the actual psychological research on this subject. A "canonical" list of "emotions" gathered from a web forum for an adventure game engine is not a strong foundation for a thesis.

[Helm]

I hope you mean something objective, not subjective.

[Nikolas]

Helm: Hum, yes. right! Objective not subjective

Snarky: Yes mate, thanks... I'll take it inot account but not too much. Since you don't know what exactly it is I'm looking for, I hardly think that you're validated to judge or even think that I would base my thesis on a web forum opinion. I'm treating this community and this thread while trying to discuss some things and get some ideas. Something like a pub discussion or something I'm sorry you feel it's wrong, but that's what I'm doing and it's been proving to me very helpfull. When I need to check if my idea(s) is/are good, you'll be the first to PM or e-mail.

[Kweepa]

Similarly, Snarky, taking advice about what makes a good foundation for a music PhD from some random guy on the AGS forums is presumably not a good idea either. I have no doubt Nikolas has a PhD advisor to help him there. Unless you actually have a music PhD, in which case, my apologies.

[Renal Shutdown]

Fear, Love, Anger & Hate.
The four basic emotions, as I see it.Ã,  Any other emotions is just a watered-down aspect of one of these four.

I've pondered this subject at great lengths, on many occassions.

EDIT:

Emotions don't have opposites.

[Nikolas]

Just to clear things up a little more.

I had a lenghty discussion with a phychologist, who wouldn not accept the breakdown of feelings.emotions. She simply said that you cannot measure the emotions of one, and that there are 1000s of emotions...

This does not mean that I will take my idea and shove it up my A*S (now what's the letter missing here?). But I will have to change phychologist!

Noseriously, that I will have to explain to the phychologist that I'm not trying to make a pjhychology experiment, but a music one Anyhow, I really appreciate all the help from you guys, and have to be sincere, especially Helm as he gave me lots of ideas.. And Snarky and everyboy else...

THANKS GUYS!

[biothlebop]

Spleen is on to something, at least in phrasing. Fear, Love, Anger and Hate are emotions, while happy, sad, angry and calm are states-of-mind those emotions can lead to. I'd probably add a word for the absence/balance of those four to the list as well.

Actually the first four of the wikipedia article correspond to those quite well. Love seems to narrow, and joy strikes better to me. Same goes with anger/hate that seem to have a similar meaning. So, guess my corresponding list would be straightly stolen from there (fear/anger/sorrow/joy) and the absence/balance of these as the fifth.

[Evil]

What about nausea? It's kind of a feeling all it's own. I suppose feeling "good" is something of an oposite. But happiness isn't the opposite.

[Renal Shutdown]

Sadness is not a genuine emotion.  It's fear of coping without something.
You're not sad that someone's gone, you're scared of coping without them in your life.
Joy is a concept of the Love emotion, you love the way you feel (physically, not "emotionally") whilst experiencing what you classify as "joy".

As I said, there's no opposites, Bio. Absence of something is not an absence.  There's no opposite to Green, just a lack of Green.  Lack of Green is not a color, though.

Also, I've never consulted wiki.  It's mostly meditiation and substance abuse that lead me to those four.

Anger and Hate are different.  You can be angry at something, and not hate it.  Just as you can hate something but not be angered by it.

Evil: Nausea is not really an emotional thing, it's more of a physical thing.

[biothlebop]

Spleen:
I like the reasoning behind sadness.

I think Love is understood by most people as an emotion between two people/a nurturing (mother emotion) thing. Looking animally, most species raise their offspring and split up. There are some that stay together (one interesting thing was sea lions, where two individuals that had been dealt bad cards by Darwin met up away from the centre of the yearly sea-lion orgy to mate in peace), but I believe there is not a thing called human love (Hollywood love). It is a product of other emotions and reasoning (initial lust decreases, fear and comfort issues take ower). When we get old it's not the sex that keeps us together. When our partner dies, we get sad, which applied to your ideas would be 'afraid to cope' with every new day alone.

Joy on the other hand can be felt when things go your way, and no-one has to be there to see it. It might be a bad word for that very reason (if a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound).

I didn't mean these to be extreme opposites, more like provide a palette and words from opposite ends of the spectrum. Continuing with the color theme, is a lack of colors invisible or white/black?
White and black are not considered colors, and we cannot ever see true invisble, but the things behind. Still, though white and black ought to be neutral, black is associated with sad and white with happy. Maybe there should be two words for absence of emotions corresponding to these. Apathy seems like a good equivalent to black, but i cannot come up with a snappy "white" corresponding word, so let's say Calmness.

Anger is the instant/pure emotion. Hate is the prolonged anger that involves fear as well. Animals don't go around hating each other.

[abc123]

I think human emotion can be divided into two categories:

• Attraction
  
• Repulsion
  
  This is made on two premises:
  
• Emotions are a reaction by the mind in response to the perception if a certain event is occurring in a desirable manner or not (are the atoms morphing towards their goal? - see second premise). The emotions are a maneuver by the mind in order to instruct on if a certain path should be continued upon, or whether it should be deviated from.
  
• Life is nothing more than a series of atoms morphing in order to achieve a goal.
  
  Following on from this, we can categorise any emotion under these two basic categories:
  
• Attraction: happiness, love, calmness
  
• Repulsion: sadness, surprise (minds initial perception is repulsion, no matter if surprise is positive or negative), hate, fear
  
  I haven't thought this theory through much, it's just my uncensored mental diarrhea - but I thought I'd post it here just in case it might be of use, or inspire you to think. It's an interesting concept (the breaking down of human emotion).

[biothlebop]

I can agree with that. It seems like a good way to divide emotions into two opposing ends. Although individual emotions would have no exact opposites, there is a need to place everything somewhere so every emotion can relate to another and they can be defined (like constant motion can only be defined in a coordinate plane that relates to a point/origo). The way individual emotions relate seem to me more like a mind map (with several paths), that can be constructed from different skeletons, but attraction/repulsion should be an excellent base.
It might not have much use in real life (nothing is that simple), but if you (Nikolas) are going for some simplified model, this is the best one so far.

[Nikolas]

Yep, I will agree this is something that I can really use!

I actually had yet another discussion with someone who did suggest that something rather objective (difficult to contradict really in real life), is the meanings of positive and negative. something we like and something we don't. Exactly as abc123 (lovely name indeed) puts it. But here is where the personality of each one of us, and the different circumstances come in play. Cause something that might be positive at one time, for someone could be immently negative in another situation.

Anyway what I've thought of, is to 'define' (not really but this is why the ' ' are there for), emotions into subcategories, but also with a plus or minus in the side. Cause simply enough, I'm really really fine when I'm nostalgic (although I do miss something), but terrible when I'm mourning my mother, for example. It's loss in both situations, but the first is positive while the second is negative. Also anothe idea is that too much amount of one emotion/feeling could be really bad. Anxiety can help people cope with problems better, and have adrenaline so as to respond better. Panic (too much anxiety), can paralyze.

Guys, I have to say that this is the most helpful thread, ever for me. (I won't say thanks once more... I won't, I won't)

[Tom S. Fox]

Haven't you learned anything from "Donnie Darko"?Ã, 

[Seleceus]

Emotions aren't rational, or prone to objective analysis, they can't be.  By the time someone's done quantifying, categorizing, or comparing them, they've changed anyway.  Emotions are simply a means of coping with situations and communicting what we need to effectively deal with those situations.

I see the chain of ANY emotional reaction going something like this:
     STIMULUS -> OBSERVATION -> INTERPRETATION -> JUDGEMENT -> LIMITATION -> EXPRESSION[/size]
Example:  Someone overhears a piece of conversation.  Depending upon how much they see or hear, they will come to a conclusion.  Their actual reaction will be a product of personal experience, physical ability to communicate, and the hundreds of bio-chemical factors that make-up their mental state.  Let's not leave out education, culture, religion, or mental illness. (and I'm summarizing horribly, so please don't be too critical.)

Now, this discussion has been mostly centered on the other side of emotions.  What others observe, and how 'they' interpret the reaction.  I see it following the exact same path as above, with one notable addition:
     SEMANTICS[/size]
What one person may call 'happy', another may call 'content', or 'silly', or 'manic', or 'in denial'.  'Sad' can become 'depressed' at any moment (especially in our pharmaceutically driven advertising world, at least in the US).  How does the observer interpret the emoter's interpretation?  How much did the observer see of the original stimulus, and what's their reaction to it?  Where did..... this can go on ad nauseum, so I'll stop.  I think everyone should get the point.

Anyway you try to divide it up, it's messy.  But good luck on the PhD.