Why We Feel the Science of Human Emotions

    There are six or seven main theraputic approaches to dealing with feelings that I have found in the literature so far. Why We Feel the Science of Human Emotions written byVictor S. Johnston clearly explains the theory that there is an evolutionary function of feeling and emotion in everything we do. His scientific approach gives us much food for thought.  Johnston postulates that feelings are key in the neuroscience of the brain.  He shows the biological link with a darwinian approach.  This provides important insights into the feelings that make us human.

     If we velieve that emotions are part of our biology, this book's premise works well for his idea that our predesigned dna make up creates a grand illusion for us to operate in the world.  He goes so far as to define attractive facial characteristics that encourage us to mate.  I find it cold and calculating, and I think there is more to the furtherance of the human race than the biology we inherit to create the way we experience the world. Perhaps our consciousness and emotions might even exist independent from our human body. I believe there is a spiritual aspect of feeling that is connected to our being on a solular level.  Designing a paradigm where we emote as a stimulus/response mechanism is very simplistic as complicated as he has made it seem.

  "So the questions remain: how does lifeless matter organize itself into a feeling? How do thoughts trigger emotions? How does external stimulation and its influence on our internal brain produce sensations like color, hearing taste, etc.? Can one eventually design a computer to simulate feelings to the point of actually feeling them? Other than imitation of our own feelings, how can we scientifically tell whether another human (or a computer) actually feels a sensation?

Although I hoped this book would answer these questions, Professor Johnston admits that we do not yet understand the mechanism of feelings (drat!). However, he does illuminate many of the reasons of why we feel based on an evolutionary approach (after all the title of the book addresses "why," not "how"). Johnston utilizes the results of brain research and describes the physiology of the limbic system (the feeling part of the brain), which appears consistent with a precursor to consciousness before higher thinking systems evolved in humans." (Jim Walker, Amazon Reviewer)