Fri, Dec 12 · 7:00 PM PST
We often talk about emotions as if they're tools: fear keeps you alive, anger helps to enforce boundaries, joy rewards useful behavior. From an evolutionary angle, emotions look suspiciously "instrumental" fast heuristics that steer organisms toward survival and reproduction. But by that definition of "instrumental" almost everything human beings care about could be reframed as instrumental too: music, friendship, art, dignity, and so on. In this meetup, we'll explore two intertwined questions - one practical, one philosophical:
The philosophical question : Are emotions ever ends in themselves? Do we value certain emotions intrinsically - love, awe, gratitude, righteous anger - because they're part of what a good life is, not merely because they produce good outcomes? Are some emotions forms of perception or understanding (ways of "seeing" value), rather than mere internal weather?The practical question : Should you manipulate your emotions to achieve other goals? Is emotional regulation like basic maintenance, like training a muscle, or like self-deception?
Related discussion questions:
Is "feeling the right emotion at the right time" a moral achievement?
If you could delete one emotion permanently (envy, guilt, boredom, anger…), which would you choose—and what would break in your life if it vanished?
Is "authentic emotion" even a coherent ideal? If your feelings are partly shaped by habits, culture, and self-talk, what would authenticity mean here?
