emotions

[henrikhank]

1. Are emotions logical or illogical?
2. Are emotions extremely abstract?
3. What is the difference between the terms emotion and passion?
4. In Catholicism are you supposed to follow you emotions or should you be an extremely rational person? How can you even live your life without listening to your emotions? What is the Catholic way?

 

[cheezey]

I can only attest to the first question.
Yes.

Otherwise waiting for further discussion.

 

[JamalChristophr]

Human virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason and faith. They make possible ease, self-mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life. The virtuous man is he who freely practices the good.

CCC 1804

Let me touch on #4…

The Catholic way is to: know God, then to love Him, then to serve Him. Jesus had emotions, they are not intrinsically bad by any means. But emotions in and of themselves are unreliable guides. They must be governed by faith and reason. The Catholic way is to adhere to God at all costs, and that means to center your life, which is composed of your intellect and will, on growing in his friendship…part of that is keeping his commandments, seeking to discern and do His Will and not our own. It can be said that we move towards God through Faith AND Reason combined. Emotion and passions must be rightly ordered towards that end of keeping in right relationship with God.

(You may find it useful to read what the Catechism has to say about the passions: #1762-1775.)

vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c1a5.htm

 

[seagal]

1. Are emotions logical or illogical?

Emotions are neither, they are natural responses to circumstances or situations.

1. Are emotions extremely abstract?

I’m not sure how you mean the word “abstract”. There are several definitions:
a) existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence;
b) consider (something) theoretically or separately from something else;
c) a summary of the contents of a book, article, or formal speech;
d) representing reality, as in an abstract work of art;
e) difficult to understand; abstruse.

None of these applies to emotions IMO.

1. What is the difference between the terms emotion and passion?

Passion is intense emotion so I’d say the difference is in degree, or how strongly you feel about something.

1. In Catholicism are you supposed to follow you emotions or should you be an extremely rational person? How can you even live your life without listening to your emotions? What is the Catholic way?

Jesus said we should love God with our whole heart, soul and mind. So emotionally we love God, but we also need to study his law as revealed to the Church. But you don’t need to go to extremes either way. I don’t know any Catholics who are either blinded by their emotions or so rational as to be cold and unfeeling. Moderation is the key.

 

[ClearWater]

1. Are emotions logical or illogical?
2. Are emotions extremely abstract?
3. What is the difference between the terms emotion and passion?
4. In Catholicism are you supposed to follow you emotions or should you be an extremely rational person? How can you even live your life without listening to your emotions? What is the Catholic way?

Our feelings are our feelings, but they are influenced by all kinds of things even from our early childhood to date. They probably make a lot of sense, provided you understand EVERYTHING that person has been through, his personality, genetics, environment, about human behavior, psychology, etc. Not understanding that, they can seem illogical, make absolutely no sense.

Our feelings change from moment to moment as a result of everything from hormones, to sleep, lack of, if we have eaten or not, when…a HUGE variety of factors…upbringing.

I’m not sure how to answer if emotions are abstract or not.

As to the difference between “emotion” and “passion”, I would say “passion” is one kind of emotion. “Emotion”, to me, would be the category, and “passion” would come under “emotion”, as sort of a subset.

Insofar as Catholicism, I’m not the right person to ask, since I’m struggling with my faith. I have some of those same kinds of questions.

 

[ClearWater]

I think the word “passion” actually has several meanings. It can mean a sexual feeling. It can refer to another feeling, which may, or may not, be sexual in nature…just intense…intense about…something…or someone.

You would probably need to define what you mean by “passion” to get the answer you are looking for. Which kind of passion do you mean?

 

[ThinkingSapien]

1. Are emotions logical or illogical?

Emotional motivations are non-logical. This is not necessarily the same as illogical. Non-logical us simply not from the rules of logic. Illogical is contrary to the rules of logic.

 

[acadiANNA]

We are human, we have emotions. It is how we react to the emotions that matter. My opinion.

 

[AnneElizabeth]

1. Are emotions logical or illogical?
2. Are emotions extremely abstract?
3. What is the difference between the terms emotion and passion?
4. In Catholicism are you supposed to follow you emotions or should you be an extremely rational person? How can you even live your life without listening to your emotions? What is the Catholic way?

The answers you get will depend on who you ask. Might I suggest that you search The Word of God for answers to these questions. Holy Scripture speaks of emotions. I don’t beleive they ever should be ignored, but that does not mean they should always be considered right. The Word of God says to hold every thought captive. I would take that to mean not all our emotions and thoughts are correct and will need correcting and meditation and reflection upon them. This is why prayer is so important. I would say passion is a term used for intense overwhelming emotion.

Following your emotions can sometimes be rational. I don’t understand the separation between the two you referenced. I don’t beleive there is supposed to be a cut off from one or the other. We are not robots. The Catholic way, following Jesus Christ and believing in Him is Whole. It’s not cookie cutter cut outs, but growth into likeness of Christ through love.

.

 

[henrikhank]

I think the word “passion” actually has several meanings. It can mean a sexual feeling. It can refer to another feeling, which may, or may not, be sexual in nature…just intense…intense about…something…or someone.

You would probably need to define what you mean by “passion” to get the answer you are looking for. Which kind of passion do you mean?

The writers of the CCC use the term passion instead of emotion.

 

[Bahman]

1. Are emotions logical or illogical?

Emotion has nothing with logic or illogic. These are aspects of mind and emotion is another aspect of you.

1. Are emotions extremely abstract?

No.

1. What is the difference between the terms emotion and passion?

Emotion is general term and passion is very specific dealing with a need to have something.

1. In Catholicism are you supposed to follow you emotions or should you be an extremely rational person? How can you even live your life without listening to your emotions? What is the Catholic way?

Both.

 

[seagal]

The writers of the CCC use the term passion instead of emotion.

Can you point out a passage where passion is used? Context would be helpful.

 

[henrikhank]

Human virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason and faith. They make possible ease, self-mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life. The virtuous man is he who freely practices the good.

CCC 1804

Let me touch on #4…

The Catholic way is to: know God, then to love Him, then to serve Him. Jesus had emotions, they are not intrinsically bad by any means. But emotions in and of themselves are unreliable guides. They must be governed by faith and reason. The Catholic way is to adhere to God at all costs, and that means to center your life, which is composed of your intellect and will, on growing in his friendship…part of that is keeping his commandments, seeking to discern and do His Will and not our own. It can be said that we move towards God through Faith AND Reason combined. Emotion and passions must be rightly ordered towards that end of keeping in right relationship with God.

(You may find it useful to read what the Catechism has to say about the passions: #1762-1775.)

vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c1a5.htm

 

[ynotzap]

Emotions are human experiences composed of feeling and thought. We are union of body and soul. Feeling belong to the body, and thoughts belong to the soul, through the faculty of intelligence, understanding. Example. If one is driving, and sees that he is going to have a head-on collision, then suddenly his heart starts to race, he begins to perspire, muscles tighten up anticipating a collision. His feelings are strong, the adrenalin is working hard. There were two reactions necessary to make an emotion. A) he perceived. comprehended a dangerous situation, this is done by the mind (spiritual understanding by a spiritual faculty) and B) then there was a physical response from the body ( a physical reaction triggered by the perceived danger. This is human emotion, and it takes place in all human emotion. If you lack one or the other, it is either all feeling, or all comprehension and not an emotion. Now is some emotions such as fear, feeling are sometimes exaggerated, because instead of the comprehension taking control, the imagination implicates itself, and the feelings of fear become excessive, and we have hysteria. We are not angels (all thought) and we are not animals (all feeling) we are a combination of both, and when we are we are wholly human.