McPherson: Are Feelings Important?

Today's culture is defined by feelings. It's not hard to find someone who is upset about something, and probably demanding that the world stop spinning on its axis and revolve instead around their hallowed sense of victimization. Worse, these same people think that their feelings – their emotions – are the single greatest measure of all truth, and anyone who disagrees is probably a racist. Feeling angry or hurt is the sacred preserve of the modern-day political Left.

What are feelings? Allow me to quote Leonard Peikoff at length:

"A feeling or emotion is a response to an object one perceives (or imagines), such as a man, an animal, an event. The object by itself, however, has no power to invoke a feeling in the observer. It can do so only if he supplies two intellectual elements, which are necessary conditions of any emotion.

"First, the person must know in some terms what the object is. He must have some understanding or identification of it (whether true or false, specific, or generalized, explicit or implicit). Otherwise, to him, the object is nothing; it is a mere cognitive blank, to which no one can respond.

"Second, the person must evaluate the object. He must conclude that it is good or bad, desirable or undesirable, for his values or against them. Here too the mental content may take many forms; the value-judgments being applied may be explicit or implicit, rational or contradictory, sharply defined or vague, consciously known to the person or unidentified, even repressed. In whatever form the individual holds his values, however, he must estimate the object in accordance with them. Otherwise, the object – even if he knows what it is – is an evaluative blank to him. Such an object cannot trigger an emotional response; being regarded neither as a positive nor a negative, it is a matter of indifference.

"Emotions are states of consciousness with bodily accompaniments and with spiritual – intellectual – causes. This last factor is the basis for distinguishing 'emotion' from 'sensation.' A sensation is an experience transmitted by purely physical means, it is independent of a person's ideas. Touch a man with a red-hot poker, and he unavoidably feels certain sensations – heat, pressure, pain – regardless of whether he is a savage or a sophisticate, an Objectivist or a mystic. By contrast, love, desire, fear, anger, joy are not simply products of physical stimuli. They depend on the content of the mind [emphasis added]."

Put another way, emotions – or feelings – are a physical reaction to a value-judgment. When we see or hear something it is evaluated, consciously or unconsciously, according to our individual values. According to our minds. Emotions are the product of something threatening, contradicting, or confirming that judgment.

But feelings are not a means of cognition. The truth or falseness of a statement, idea, etc. is not rightly defined by our emotional response to it. Rather, we have already developed (again, consciously or unconsciously) an opinion about the issue in question, and the emotion we experience is a result.

For example, if someone says, "healthcare is a right," that will likely elicit an emotional response. A person who disagrees will probably experience negative feelings about that statement. Another person may feel glee. "Republicans are racist," is another example. We who know better roll our eyes. Leftists applaud – no doubt feeling a sense of personal elevation equal to their boundless self-congratulation.

Emotional reactions, however, are not a measure of a statement's accuracy. Emotions do not decide right and wrong. For that we require reason and logic – we have to think, debate, consider.

Does that mean emotions are without value? Not at all!

Emotions provide us with an important piece of information: What we think about something (consciously or unconsciously). Our thinking may be flawed or accurate, rational or insane – but at least we will know what we think.

Then comes the really hard part: We have to ask ourselves why we are experiencing that emotion.

For example, if my wife says, "I want to go out with my friends tonight," and I am hurt or angered – does that mean she is wrong to go out with her friends? Maybe, maybe not – but that conclusion isn't determined by my feelings. Perhaps she doesn't spend enough time with me, and that's why I'm angry. Then again, maybe I am being unduly possessive and am threatened by her friends.

My emotions only tell me what I feel about the matter – not the truth of it. A rational human being should engage in some introspection, discussion, and evaluation to seek the truth. (I should add that we are fallible beings; even our best efforts in search of the truth are no guarantee of success.)

Our culture of (constantly hurt) feelings uber alles is an attempt to destroy reason, logic, debate, and consideration – and ultimately, truth itself. Take the "transgender movement." (Please.) Some people claim that because someone feels like a man or a woman, it makes them so. Does that mean a person who feels like Napoleon Bonaparte is, in fact, that French general reincarnate? Once upon a time we encouraged such people to seek professional help. Calling me "trans-phobic" for questioning the questioning isn't championing the truth; it's a cowardly attempt to usurp the quest for truth through emotional bullying.

When emotional outbursts, usually in the form of screeching and name-calling, replace thought and discussion we have abandoned the formation of value-judgement by rational means, in favor of mystical "truths" discovered through no greater effort that experiencing an emotion. The lure of this approach is understandable: It's easier to call someone a Nazi than to go through all the effort of a rational debate.

At which point we are not interested in finding the truth at all, but instead hand power to those who screech the loudest. This might appeal to Antifa thugs, college Leftists, "progressive" Democrats, professional victims, Hollywood halfwits, and Ariana Grande fans, but it's no way to govern our personal lives – or a country.