Well, there's at least somewhat of a biological basis for
expressing one's feelings alongside one's thinking:* The
amygdala ->prefrontal cortex circuit from the thalamus. It seems
that the data stream (if one wants to use a computer-science
analogy; it could easily be colored water in hoses) - goes from
the thalamus and breaks up into two parallel streams, one for
the prefrontal cortex and one for the amygdala. But the stream
to the prefrontal cortex is slow and thin but the hose going to
the amygdala is fat and fast; like a firehose. But then the
amygdala feeds forward into the prefrontal cortex as well, with
the force of a fireman's hose, influencing rational thought
before rational thought even begins. that being said - the
prefrontal cortex ALSO has a stream that feeds BACK into the
amygdala, allowing one to utilize rational thought to inhibit or
mitigate the power of the amygdala. But it's thin and slow and
not a strong connection at first.* It can be built up through
training (apparently), explaining the strength of many
philosohpies/schools of thought/religions that have us "master
our emotions". Yet, how much training does it take for your
emotional to take over our rational thinking processes?* None,
it seems! Emotion always influences reason [unless one has a
damaged amygdala... ppl like that are in a perpetual state of
reasoning... never able to commit to a decision because there's
no emotional "push" to decide "true"/"false"/"best"/"worst"...
must truly be a hell-on-earth.. .at least for those around them
with functioning amygdalas]. So, in that sense, not that it's a
requirement to pair up emotion and rational thought, it does
make some biological sense.* At least, if one believes the whole
circuitry notion of brain function anyhow.* We're still seeing
what we want to see, after all, so that our scientific
hypothesis and discoveries end up happening to match up to
common patterns of existing human thought, it shouldn't be
surprising. We've been primed to already :P
