Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[Mosesquine]

All feelings like anger, discompassion and hatred, etc., are not symptoms of weakness. US army, stronger, can hate Islamic State army, weaker. In many cases, stronger things can be angry or can hate weaker things.

[Karpel Tunnel]

Though those facets of the stronger thing could still be weaknesses. IOW each of those armies could be weaker due to those qualities.

If I meet some steroid addicted body builder, he can very likely kick my ass, but he's still got a weakness with his steroid addiction.

[LuckyR]

Totally depends on the criteria (definition) to meet the terms

[Karpel Tunnel]

Totally depends on the criteria (definition) to meet the terms

And even if they are well defined, it becomes 1) tricky to not have value based, rather than objective based evaluations 2) and even if one manages to get some kind of value free criteria, hard to measure.

[Maffei]

I am not saying they are weaknesses, but rather that they are symptoms of weakness.

To me the key to an answer lies on this slight but fundamental difference.

The difference is solved if we put theses affects in the way they manifest themselves – as movements. Like the following:
1. I have an image that an certain object of my hate somehow decreases my power to act/hinders or threatens my existence/discourages me, therefore makes me weaker.
2. My reaction is to eliminate or subjugate this image somehow (whether acting on the object or just on the image). This reaction is done with an increase of strenght. That's why the hatred manifestation seems to be a sign of power.
3. The result is only the disappearing of just one of my hatred cause. The other part lies in my own construction of my hatred elaborated in the course of my life. So I remain weak, because the only reason not to get hatred again depends on external causes.
4. If there is a possibility of the external cause of my hatred appear again, It will light up my weakness again, and I will react with hatred again.

I would not include compassion or discompassion in the same tendency, because they arise from the recognition of similarity that the object has with me, in such a way that I can recognize their emotions in myself. As we see, the increase or decrease of the power to act is not the factor. Maybe one can seem that ignore another human being but, instead of being cold, he is just avoiding to lose control with someone he actually hate. This would be a case of veiled hatred and not of discompassion.

If you liked it, read Spinoza's Ethics

[aveenire]

Favourable emotion can only be attained in certain states of mind in certain individuals. People are driven by various forces; the mind consists of different parts and can manifest in different states: some can be controlled, and some cannot. Therefore it should be taken into account what people’s minds are put through and how their environment and genetics contribute to their state. I’m sure courts take this into consideration.

[Mans]

in some situations,yes.

Anger is two kinds:

Wise anger and stupid anger.

Wise or rational anger usually happens against cruelty and injustice based on a right.

Stupid anger usually happens because of selfishness, arrogance or jealousy

The second anger is because of feeling a shortcoming and weakness

[LuckyR]

in some situations,yes.

Anger is two kinds:

Wise anger and stupid anger.

Wise or rational anger usually happens against cruelty and injustice based on a right.

Stupid anger usually happens because of selfishness, arrogance or jealousy

The second anger is because of feeling a shortcoming and weakness

So what is a feeling of weakness about injustice?

[Mans]

May you explain more?

[Papus79]

(original topic) - they can be but context is everything. When you see it as a general behavioral rule it's usually someone trying to make up the difference for taking more from the world than they give back and knowing they've gotta scalp the competition to keep what's on their plate. I don't think perpetual zero-sum games help this much though and there's plenty we could talk about on how much individual character flaws reflect their cultural context and vice verse.

[Repoman05]

From the title this seems more of a psychological question than a philosophical one. Note, both philosophy and psychology are pseudoscience. Psychology is a pseudo science of physiology and biology where as philosophy is a pseudoscience of mathematics.

[Repoman05]

That write-up doesn't seem the least non-objective. The best argument I've heard so far is that anger comes from having incorrect assertions. But honestly, that could be said about any other emotion and be largely accurate if a bit myopic at the same time. Any assertion is going to be incorrect in some regard or another. I suppose you could say weakness is an incorrect assertion one might become angry so I don't think you're completely wrong but you're at least half wrong. You can bring on anger any time you like. It's an emotion that's completely at your disposal to summon or banning as you see fit.

Reading the pop I'm reminded of the childhood arguments we used to have about how to tell when someone was lying. "you're lying, I can tell because you're angry I called you on it." "no, I'm angry because you called me a liar." this OP just seems like a 'one-step up' from first grade philosophy. Sorry.

Love is not an emotion, it's a lie to cover-up selfishness.

[Repoman05]

You can bring on anger any time you like. It's an emotion that's completely at your disposal to summon or banish as you see fit.

Knowledge isn't spread by misinformed rhetoric. Misinformation is never a responsible decision.

[Pattern-chaser]

Do you think that anger, discompassion and hatred are usually symptoms of weakness? Why or why not?

I think they're signs of a failure to communicate socially. This is something of a specialist subject of mine. I.e. being autistic, I have experienced this many times. But - also because I'm autistic? - I have no idea what to do about it. That it happens, often, I can confirm. My mention of my "specialist subject" reflects how often it has happened to me. But is it a sign of weakness? I'm really not sure. Can we really dismiss intolerance as simple 'weakness'?

[Pattern-chaser]

You can bring on anger any time you like. It's an emotion that's completely at your disposal to summon or banish as you see fit.

Oh, I think you are badly mistaken if you think we humans can rationally summon and dismiss anger. An angry human is out of (rational) control, or something close to it. In this state, they cannot think or act rationally, except by coincidence. They certainly cannot dismiss their own anger, as you suggest they can. You are writing about Vulcans, not humans, I think.

Live long and prosper!