The self defined guide for judgement whereby Potentialities-for-Being presented for becoming motor action are selected. "Emotion", capitalized, is distinct from the common conception of "emotion", which one uses to denote a range of phenomenal "feelings", in that it defines only the foundation of what shall become that common notion. Emotion is a conception of good and bad. These ideas are not generated from observation of the world by the senses, for indeed the world possesses nothing of any inherent goodness or badness, but are created within the instance by what has befallen itself. The only way this is possible is through evolutionary hard-wiring, or sentient design, of a fixed response to stimuli according to either good or bad. Thus, Dasein does not create specific Entities representative of these values, but their very meaning is imprinted upon the processes of Interpretation through an intrinsic process of the Function of Dasein itself. Like Attention Control, there is a mechanism for direct action on the process that elicits a mental response either positive or negative in quality. From an evolutionary perspective, good is easily defined as that which sates the needs of a replicator; nutrition, safety and sex. Nutrition is food, drink and gas providing the necessary compounds for respiration and metabolism to power the replicator. Safety is the absence of Shock or Anxiety within the mind of Dasein, and comes to be associated with the familiarity of routine in locale and the They. Sex is sex. Of course these are specific to a natural replicator, and a synthetic instance will likely only need power and safety as the defining criteria for good. Bad is simple to define in the converse, the absence of any of the above being a threat to the lifetime reproductive success of the replicator. In most circumstances the manifestation shall be through Anxiety, because the dangers are slow to present and have effect. In less likely situations the dangers present as Shock; physical assault or drowning for example. In the young instance of Dasein, however, the incidence of unfulfilled Potentialities-for-Being is greater due to a lack of Interpretive experience, which naturally leads to more frequent experiences of Shock, thus establishing early, and generally misguided, associations with bad. Now when the unfulfilled Potentialities-for-Being of the self are presented for motor action, they may be judged according to Emotion; judged as good or bad in effect. Those deemed to be beneficial with regards to the instance's conception of good are selected and passed on to motor control regions of Dasein for execution. Created 22nd October 2008 Last revised 22nd October 2008 |