Posted: May 27, 2017 10:16 am
jamest wrote:Keep It Real wrote:Yes, fear exists in response to expected future events. Suffering/unconsciousness/death is fear in the present or something fearful manifested.
I want to make it clear again that fear is an instinctive emotion which reacts in the present to any perceived event. Whereas fears for the future are thoughts about one's fears which may well induce [some] physical symptoms usually associated with fear
Err... no. The same thing doesn't change its makeup purely through difference in time frame. Fear is an emotion, whether it is fear of something happening now, or of something happening in the future. Thoughts are what engender emotions, and emotions then frame subsequent thoughts. So one has a thought about the future which induces a fear response. The thought must come first, otherwise how would fear arise? Then in the context of the emotion of fear, more thoughts ensue, coloured by the fear. Thoughts and emotions - two separate things, but closely linked.
The distinction between thought and emotion is marked,
You may care to notice that you are contradicting yourself here. Previously you describe fear of the future as a thought, as though the line between thought and emotion can be jumped so long as there is enough time between oneself and the anticipated event. Now you say the distinction is marked.
as is the distinction between emotions and thoughts about it, even when such thoughts induce a physical-emotional response to some degree. Hence the distinction between pure instinctive fear and thought-based anxiety.
Not really. All emotion is thought-based (I prefer cognition-based), even that which appears instinctive. It is just a matter of lightning fast brain processes. Anxiety is not thoughts about emotion as you somewhat quirkily describe it. It is an emotion induced by thoughts of a possible event outcome. The emotion is about the evisioned event. It is not about the thought itself. Basically, it's an emotion just like any other, and just like any other it can be appropriate or not, depending on how closely our THOUGHTS represent the actual situation.
Or, to be clear, fear doesn't give two shits about the future. You can blame all of that on your own skull.
That's being clear, is it?
Fear doesn't give a shit about anything because it is not a sentient being, not because it distinguishes between present and future. If you really must blame your skull for something, you can blame it for the THOUGHT PROCESSES it goes through in order for you to react with the emotion of fear. Fear which is the same animal whether it concerns now or next year. It is thought processes, against the backdrop of perception, or frame of reference, which constitutes the difference.