Interesting, particularly on the question of the relationship between emotions and consciousness. I think that raises quite interesting ideas in both directions:
1) Do you have to be conscious in order to have emotions? Consciousness and emotions seem to be related in living things, but that might just be a correlation based on shared cause: complexity. We can definitely have emotions without being conscious of the emotion at the time we're having it; but could you have emotions in general without ever being conscious? I dunno.
2) Do you have to have emotions in order to be conscious? Sci-fi writers love to posit emotionless beings and then reveal them to have emotions after all - think HAL and Vulcans. These examples seem to suggest that writers think that there are always emotions underpinning consciousness. I find this idea interesting because it is quite similar in a way to what I think - that there is always intentionality underpinning consciousness. The difference might be something like: an intentional state can direct your actions, but does not necessarily shape or affect your perceptions; nor does it have necessary physical correlates. An emotional state can direct your actions, and it shapes and affects your perceptions, and it has physical correlates (which can be suppressed, but only with deliberate effort).
I think I'd say that if intentional states can underpin consciousness, then emotional states can; but emotions don't seem to be necessary.
Yes, that seems right to me, Phil! Yet, I'm not entirely sure it makes sense to postulate a conscious system without goals, and there must be some way to track progress to or away from goals -- and maybe emotional experience of some sort would come along more or less for free with that?
Interesting, particularly on the question of the relationship between emotions and consciousness. I think that raises quite interesting ideas in both directions:
1) Do you have to be conscious in order to have emotions? Consciousness and emotions seem to be related in living things, but that might just be a correlation based on shared cause: complexity. We can definitely have emotions without being conscious of the emotion at the time we're having it; but could you have emotions in general without ever being conscious? I dunno.
2) Do you have to have emotions in order to be conscious? Sci-fi writers love to posit emotionless beings and then reveal them to have emotions after all - think HAL and Vulcans. These examples seem to suggest that writers think that there are always emotions underpinning consciousness. I find this idea interesting because it is quite similar in a way to what I think - that there is always intentionality underpinning consciousness. The difference might be something like: an intentional state can direct your actions, but does not necessarily shape or affect your perceptions; nor does it have necessary physical correlates. An emotional state can direct your actions, and it shapes and affects your perceptions, and it has physical correlates (which can be suppressed, but only with deliberate effort).
I think I'd say that if intentional states can underpin consciousness, then emotional states can; but emotions don't seem to be necessary.
Yes, that seems right to me, Phil! Yet, I'm not entirely sure it makes sense to postulate a conscious system without goals, and there must be some way to track progress to or away from goals -- and maybe emotional experience of some sort would come along more or less for free with that?