Emotion

Reason and emotion — the “mind” and the “body” — are inextricably entwined. Hope is a feeling and an idea. That twinge of jealousy is also a jealous thought. Clinicians report that rational decision-making is impossible when the emotion centers of the brain are impaired.

Emotions are at the center of moral feelings and esthetic experience. We encounter the world as full of values, and emotions are our connection to the value in the world. Does that mean that the world has been filled with significance by the chemistry of our own nervous systems?