Homepage > Logic > Logic and Language > Emotive Significance

Quizzes Tests FAQ Links Search Readings Archives Syllabus

Philosophy 103: Introduction to Logic Emotive Significance

Abstract: Emotive significance, sometimes called "the slanting of language," is described with examples and exercises. I. Language can be analyzed into the two aspects of literal meaning and emotional meaning.

A. Emotive words are words that carry emotional overtones. These words are said to have emotive significance or emotive meaning or emotional impact. 1. Two different words or phrases can have literal (or denotative) meanings which are similar, but differ significantly in their emotive significance. 2. Often, we speak of "slanting" as emotive significance; i.e., a word or phrase can be positively slanted, neutral, or negatively slanted. B. Emotively neutral language is preferable when we are trying to get to the facts or follow an argument; our emotions often cloud our reasoning. 1. When our purpose in language use is to communicate (i.e., the informative use), then, if we wish to avoid being misunderstood, language having the least emotive impact is the most useful. 2. When resolving disputes or disagreements between persons, it is usually best to try to reformulate the disagreement in neutral language. In essence, as we will see later, we are distinguishing between the belief (i.e., factual reference) and the attitude (the emotional reference) expressed by a given speaker or writer. II. Examples of Slanting. Restate each of following essentially emotively neutral descriptions by (1) a positively slanted description and (2) by a negatively slanted description.

+ + + +

0 talkative 0 shy 0 intelligent 0 practical

A. We are often called upon to make use of slanting in attempting to persuade others. In the service industries, politics, and other cases of special pleading, putting your best foot forward often demands accentuating the positive. B. Many significant issues stem from the distinction between emotive and literal significance; some of these are covered in the section on the varieties of agreements and disagreements. III. As an exercise in separating the two kinds of significance, the following letter to "Dear Abby" will be translated from negatively slanted language into positively slanted language. Note that the original content of the letter is transformed from something which initially seems to be informative to something predominately expressive. Try your hand at the translation, word or phrase by phrase. Suggestions are given by clicking on the links.

Introduction and Setting: A neighbor's 9-year-old-grandson is spending most of the day at "NO OPEN HOUSE'S" home. Mrs. NO OPEN HOUSE does not know what to do. A reader responds by the following letter.

DEAR ABBY: In reference to NO OPEN HOUSE: Since the woman does not run a day-care center, she is not responsible for this little brat's welfare. And she doesn't have to be polite to him,either. Most likely this kid is pushed off on Grandpa because he's insufferable. And you feel sorry for him yet! The little monster should be made to stay with his grandfather all day. Nothing unfortunate will happen to him except maybe he will learn that life is not a bowl of cherries. If this poor woman lets him hang around her house all day, she might have to put him through college. If all else fails, why don't you take him Abby? http://philosophy.lander.edu/logic/emotive.html

Our Emotions

"Feelings are neither good or bad, they just are". I'm certain that many of you have heard this statement. Why then do the majority believe that some feelings are good and some are bad. Why are we afraid to feel our feelings? We know little about our emotions or feelings and even less about how to live with them, deal with them and process them out of our bodies.

We cannot chose which feelings we will or we won't have. They're automatic. They give us immediate feedback about how a particular person or situation is affecting us. Often an emotion we are feeling in the present moment is linked not only to the present situation but to a situation which occurred a long time ago. Past emotions that have not been dealt with, have a direct effect on our emotional reactions to situations in today. Emotions that are denied or suppressed stay in our bodies in our tissues, glands, muscles, organs and systems. They leave when we re-feel them or truly feel them for the first time, and release them.

There are two basic underlying emotions in all human beings with varying degrees of intensity. They are love and fear. Desire, joy, pleasure, contentment, acceptance, hope, peacefulness, excitement, selfesteem, assertiveness, and generosity are a few examples of love-based feelings. Anxiety, anger, sorrow, apathy, bitterness, jealousy, irritability, depression, rejection, pity, grief, aggressiveness, powerlessness, passiveness, loneliness, and irritability are examples of fear- based emotions. Different chemicals are produced by our bodies when we feel these two groups of emotions.

What is an emotion or feeling and how can we work with them. An emotion is a reaction to a person, situation or object in our lives, real or imagined. It is a reaction to what is before us or to a memory of a similar situation in the past. Many of us are afraid of our feelings, afraid that if we really feel them we will lose control. Or, we fear that if we begin to feel a feeling this process will never stop. We often deny our feelings and pretend they aren't there. We deny them, repress them, squelch them. We think that by pretending they're not there they'll go away. But feelings which are not faced and owned never go away. They are buried alive, ready to poke their heads out and come to the surface the moment they have a chance. I will speak later in this book on the different ways of processing emotions out of the body.

Humans use may means to keep feelings stuffed down and suppressed. We smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol excessively, use recreational drugs and hard drugs, overeat, and participate in compulsive sex. These activities are used to stuff down feelings. Staying constantly busy is another way to keep from feeling our feelings. Individuals who are always busy and have difficulty sitting quietly by themselves usually have difficulty feeling their feelings. Individuals are more comfortable intellectualizing or talking about their feelings rather than feeling their feelings. We analyze them, turn them inside out and

upside down and break down our feelings to the smallest detail. But we go to great lengths to avoid feeling our feelings.

European and North American culture is uncomfortable with feelings. This is the age of being politically correct and that means that you should never show strong emotions to others at work, at home or in your social lives. Our culture teaches us to pretend that nothing really matters, to smile regardless of what is happening. What you do is not as nearly as important as the spin you put on what you do. It is unspoken, but in today's' world, fear or fear based emotions are a sign of weakness and vulnerability and should not be admitted to or exhibited at any time. To be vulnerable is to be weak. Its important in our society to hide weakness and vulnerability. These attitudes and practices are a recipe for disease and illness.

Repressed feelings don't go away. They can distort your present behavior and create illness and disease in your body. If you don't deal directly and honestly with yourself and your emotions you eventually become so disconnected from yourself you are not present to yourself or to anyone else. Eventually when you ask yourself who you are you dont know anymore. You have allowed major parts of yourself to leave. The good news is you can bring them back.

Many books have been written in the past few years concerning the direct effect emotions have on our health. Emotions are the direct cause of all illness in our bodies. This body of literature includes Deepak Chopra, Ann Louise Hay, Barbara Ann Brennan, David Roeland, and so many others. I strongly encourage you to read these authors to fully understand the breadth and depth of the impact our emotions can have on our physical health.

Our Minds:

What is a human mind? What is our brain? How are thoughts created? What is memory and where are memories kept for future recall? These are questions men much wiser than me have asked finding very few real answers. Webster's dictionary defines the mind as the element or complex of elements in an individual that feels, perceives, thinks, wills, and especially reasons. It speaks of intention and desire and the conscious and unconscious adaptive mental activity of an organism. What does a mind do? Is the mind contained in the brain? Do we have another mind elsewhere which deals with our emotions and deepest intentions and intuition? Are electrical impulses and light waves part of the thinking process?

In his book The Message of the Divine Iliad, Walter Russell states that man's actions are a direct result of his thinking. Human beings manufacture their own physical and mental agony by unbalanced decisions and actions regarding personal, business or social relations. Our brains are electric storehouses for memories recorded upon them as a result of the experiences of our senses. The brain is the nerve center of all parts of the body which motivates the body to perform various functions. The brain of man is not his mind. The mind is Cosmic.

Very few people think at all. I will say that again. Very few people think about anything at all. They simply react in response to their senses and do very little original planning, assembling, designing or creating. The majority simply imitate the thinking and behavior of others. People act automatically. The herding instinct is still strong in the human race. In their need to belong to a group and their fear of being alone, people imitate the behavior of the majority, without thinking of their actions and the impact on themselves or others.

The mind/brain stores, organizes, retrieves and analyses pieces of information. Western culture tends to be head-centered, using mind/brain-centered functions as the means to solve problems, collect information, analyze this information, and make decisions based on this analysis.. The mind/brain used in this manner is an incomplete tool. It does not include the intuition or deep intention that is contained in every human being. It does not include that moment of knowing, when we just know something, that moment of inspiration, directly from the Cosmic world. How often do we ask ourselves after having completed a mind/brain analysis what does the heart say. It often says something completely different from our mind/brain conclusion. I will give the following example to illustrate this concept.

EXAMPLE: James is discussing a possible change of employment with his friend Harry. He has analyzed the situation completely looking at the advantages, disadvantages, future upward mobility and financial returns of this potential change. His analysis has shown him that this new job has great potential for him, with huge opportunities for future advancement. He is reviewing his analysis with his friend Harry. Harry notices there is some hesitancy in James even though this job offer is such an exciting possibility. James agrees theres something bothering him. He should be so excited but he is lukewarm to this potential change and he doesnt understand why. Whats wrong. Instead of dismissing this feeling he takes the time to do some real thinking and soul searching. Jamie finally admits to himself that his heart isnt in this type of work. If he could find the resources, he would like to return to school and study biology to eventually work in wildlife parks. Hes afraid of such a major change in lifestyle. Hes anxious that he may not succeed in his dreams. He's afraid his friends will laugh at his dreams. He doesn't tell anyone about his dreams. James now has to make a broader and deeper type of analysis. James would

never have come to this point in his analysis if he had only listened to his mind/brain. His other minds or heart gave him the signals and information not contained in his mind/brain.

Another way of looking at the mind is looking at the process used to make a decision. Ask yourself if youre making it with your mind or with your heart. Since we can separate feelings from the mind/brain function we can eliminate love centered emotions to affect our behavior. You can ask yourself what would my mind or sense of logic want me to do and then what does my heart want me to do. Often they are two different decisions or sets of actions. The mind/ brain is said to override our emotions, our nervous systems, and most of our physical needs. We can control many functions in our bodies with our minds. Biofeedback is one method used to have the mind control what the body does. But we need to learn to think with our hearts as well as our heads.

The power of the mind is beyond our imaginations. Since thought always precedes action we come to the conclusion that if we can change our thinking we can change our behavior. And we can. The foundation of our thoughts are the beliefs and values we have developed over time. These beliefs and values must be identified, reviewed and changed if we want to change our thought patterns and subsequent actions.

Thoughts and ideas can be transmitted over distances and can be used to affect the behavior of others. The American, European and Russian military have been researching and experimenting for years with the power of thought and time dimensions. Its unfortunate this research is classified for military purposes since this information could be used in the betterment of mankind. Native Australian Aboriginal Tribes have been communicating telepathically using mental pictures for many years. So, why are we so afraid to use the power of our minds?

Visualization is a powerful tool in using the mind to have a positive effect on the body. A great deal has been written on various ways to use the imaging process. Imaging commands the body to respond in a desired direction. A number of therapists use imaging to affect progress towards health when working with conditions which were deemed hopeless. Dr. Martin Tatz of Ottawa, Canada is well known for his use of visualization for the management and elimination of chronic pain. But an individuals limiting beliefs have to be shifted for visualization to work as a healing agent.

The mind and emotions are constantly responding to the condition of the physical body and the physical body is constantly responding to the meanings and perceptions of the mind and the emotions. This is

why when dealing with illness and health the mind, emotions and body must be dealt with in a integrated manner.

One example of the power of mind over matter is well represented by the group of psychic surgeons who originated in the Philippines. They are able to place their hands and penetrate an individuals physical body and perform surgery without any anaesthetic or pain for the patient. Their hands literally go through the skin, organs and tissues. They perform surgery on cancer patients who are deemed to be inoperable. Some of the adjustments include spinal adjustments, removal of tumors or cancerous growths, the alignment of bones, the adjustment of internal organs including the ovaries, kidneys, liver, pancreas, heart among others. This is truly the power of high vibrations. And yet some of these same individuals find a recurrence of their malady in another part of their body leading many to speculate that thoughtforms that were not changed are continuing to create energetic blockages which in turn create illness.

In a book titled Healing and The Mind by Bill Moyers, MD, various physicians speak of their experiences related to the mind rather than the body and the importance of dealing with the mind when dealing with health and illness. One stressed that we need to think about our medical system as a health care system rather than a disease treatment system and goes on to say that this would mean looking closely at medical education and our public funding priorities. If we are to deal with health and health care, a complete rethinking of health is required by the medical profession.

We do not understand completely how the minds of children are developed. We are told that the beliefs of children are set at an early age. Can adults change belief systems? Its an interesting question. Children today are exposed to information at an amazing rate. This information comes from many sources including day care centers, the formal educational system, and various mediums of communication including the Internet, television, movies and magazines. Children are being exposed to positive knowledge about nature, the earth, science and technology. They are also being exposed to images of cruelty, violence, racism and intolerance. Media is barraging children with excessive advertising, developing materialistic demands in children. The world needs to think seriously about the impact of this exposure on children. Perhaps our educational systems need to develop new courses to help young people develop the skills to analyze, accept or reject what they view and hear through the media.

We need to research the impact of this bombardment of information on the development of young minds. When a crisis occurs and a child goes into school and guns down fellow students there is an immediate outcry of concern. But governments are not funding the research which is required to fully

understand the impact of all this imagery on children. What is the impact of this imagery on the mental, emotional and physical health of children? What are the factors which are alienating so many of our children. http://www.mkprojects.com/fa_PEMHealth.htm