v a Pre Ree, oe ferton AFFECT ‘The aspect of mind that dominates our existence, or so it seems, con- cerns the world around us, actual or recalled from memory, with its objects and events, human and not, as represented by myriad images ofevery sensory stripe, often translated in verbal languages and struc~ tured in narratives. And yet, a remarkable yet, there is a parallel men- tal world that accompanies all those images, often so subtle that it does not demand any attention for itself but occasionally so significant that it alters the course of the dominant part of the mind, sometimes arrestingly so. That is the parallel world of affect, a world in which we find feelings traveling alongside the usually more salient images of our minds. The immediate causes of feelings include (a) the back- ground flow of life processes in our organisms, which are experienced aS spontaneous or homeostatic feelings; (b) the emotive responses triggered by processing myriad sensory stimuli such as tastes, smells, tactile, auditory, and visual stimuli, the experience of which is one of the sources of qualia; and (c) the emotive responses resulting from engaging drives (such as hunger or thirst) or motivations (such as lust and play) or emotions, in the more conventional sense of the term, which are action programs activated by confrontation with numer-100 | THE STRANGE ORDER OF THINGS ‘ous and sometimes complex situations; examples of emo ir joy, sadness, fear, angel, envy, jealousy, contempt, compass von. The emotive responses described under agg ; (c) her than the spontaneous yan. indy admiral 9 erate provoked feelings rat mn from the primary homeostatic flow. OF note, the felt ey it emotions are unfortunately known by exactly the same ng, emotions themselves. This has helped perpetuate the 1° le that emotions and felings are one and the same phenoien,. arises ences of as the notion although they are quite distinct ‘Affect is thus a wide tent under which I place not only all ie sible feelings but also the situations and mechanisms responsible, responsible, that is, for producing the actions wha producing them, experiences become feelings. Feelings accompany the unfolding of life in our organisms, whatever one perceives, leamns, remembers, imagines, reasons, judges, decides, plans, or mentally creates. Regarding feelings as occasional visitors t the mind or as caused only by the typical emotions does not do justice to the ubiquity and functional importance of the phenomenon, ‘Most every image in the main procession we call mind, from the moment the item enters a mental spotlight of attention until it leaves, has a feeling by its side. Images are so desperate for affective com- pany that even the images that constitute a prominent feeling can be accompanied by other feelings, a bit like the harmonics of a sound or the circles that form once a pebble hits the water surface. There is no being, in the proper sense of the term, without a spontaneous mental experience of life, a feeling of existence. The ground zero of being corresponds to a deceptively continuous and endless feeling state, a more or less intense mental choir underscoring everything pointy sesarwaniawrirehveerrampryeaie caren i derived from the ongoingPeosek Affect | 101 she completeabsence of fecings would spell a suspension of being ayen a les radical removal of feeling would compromise human ve Hypothetically, fyou would reduce the elingtrack of your ml, you would be lft with desiccated chains of sensory images of 1 cero ordinal he familiar varitis-sights, sounds ouches rl tastes more oF less conerete or abstract, translated or not in : [ep “se symbolic form namely, verb, atsing from actual perception or OE rer vealed frot ‘Worse, if you had been born without the feel- ing tracks, the rest of the images would have traveled in your mind vaffected and tnqualifed, Once feeling would have been removed, youwould have become unable to desify images a beautiful or uy, pleasurable or painful, tasteful or vulgar, spiritual or earthy. If no feel- ings were available, you might still be trained, at great effort, to make aesthetic or moral classifications of objects or events. So might a robot, ofcourse. Theoretically, you would have to rely on a deliberate analy- 4s of perceptual characteristics and contexts and on a brute learning effort. Except that natural learning is difficult to conceive without the properties of reward and its attendant... feelings! Why is the world of affect so often neglected or taken for granted w life is inconceivable without it? Perhaps because nor- mal feelings are_ubiquitous but often demand little attention; luck- ily circumstances in which there are no major disruptions, positive or negative, tend to be the most numerous in our lives. One other reason for the neglect of feeling: affect has a bad reputation, thanks to some negative emotions whose effects are indeed disruptive or to the siren song of some seductive emotions. The conventional contrast between affect and reason comes from a narrow conception of emotions and feelings as largely negative and capable of undermining facts and rea- soning, In reality, emotions and feelings come in multiple flavors, and only a few are disruptive. Most emotions and feelings are essential to power the intellectual and creative process. Itiseasy to see feelings as dispensable and even dangerous phenom- na rather than indispensable supporters of the life process. Whateverof affect impoverishes the descripria, of ‘o satisfactory account of the human cultural ming i Osi the cause, the neglect nature. N without fact oring in affect. What Feelings Are we would not have direct knowledge of them if they were noy ~ feelings differ from other mental experiences on several counts i their content always refers to the body of the organism in which : emerge. Feelings porttay the organism’s interior—the state of ae nal organs and of internal 0 conditions under which images apart from the images that portay result of those special conditions, the portrayal of the interior—thats the experience of feeling —is imbued witha special tat called lene “Valece anaes the condition of hfe deed in menes em md inevitably reveals the condition as good, bad or ‘moment tomoment somewhere in between. When we experience a condition that is con- dlucive to the continuation of life, we describe it in positive terms and call it pleasant, for example; when the condition is not conducive, we vibe the experience in negative terms and talk of unpleasantness ry extension, of affec. perations—and as we have indicate the of the interior get to be made se them the exterior world. Second, as dese: Valence is the defining element of feeling and, b This concept of feeling applies to the basic variety of the proces and to the variety that results from having multiple experiences of the same feeling. Repeated encounters with the same class of 6° gering situations and consequent feelings allow us to internalize the feeling process to a smaller or greater extent and make it less “bodily” resonant. As we repeatedly experience certain affective situations, We describe them in our own internal narratives, wordless or “wordy.” we build concepts around them, we bring the passions down a note y~Affect | 103 or two and make them presentable to ourselves and consequence ofthe intellectulization of feelings i ae eee sime and energy necessary for the process. Thi hes = counterpart. Some body structures are bypassed, My nov, sia try lop sone way o acerng ee min of si The circumstances, actual or recalled from memory, is infinit that cat feelings are infinite. By contrast, In cause the list of ele Sey organism of their owner, by which I mean components of the body itself and their current state. But let us dig deeper in this idea, and note that the reference to the organism is dominated by one sector of the body: the old interior world of the viscera that are located in the abdo- men, thorax, and thick of the skin, along with the attendant chemical processes. The contents of feelings that dominate our conscious mind correspond largely to the ongoing actions of viscera, for example, the degree of contraction or relaxation of the smooth muscles that form the walls of tubular organs such as the trachea, bronchi, and gut, as well as countless blood vessels in the skin and visceral cavities. Equally prominent among the contents is the state of the mucosae—think of your throat, dry, moist, or just plain sore, or of your esophagus or stomach when you eat too much or are famished. The typical content of our feelings is governed by the degree to which the operations of the viscera listed above are smooth and uncomplicated or else labored and erratic, To make matters more complex, all of these varied organ states are the result of the action of chemical molecules—circulating in the blood or arising in nerve terminals distributed throughout the viscera—for example, cortisol, serotonin, dopamine, endogenous opi- oids, oxytocin. Some of these potions and elixirs are so the degree of tension or relax- are part of the newer powerful that their results are instantaneous. Last, ation of the voluntary muscles (which, as noted, interior world of the body frame) also contribu ; feelings, Examples include the patterns of muscular activation of the tes to the content of104 | THE STRANGE ORDER OF THINGS x are so closely associated with certain motional} fi ‘ ; i ment in our faces can rapidly conjure up fa, MY, We do not need to look in the mirror tok Such Now face. They their deploy! joy and surprise. are experiencing su In sum, feelings are experiences of certain aspects of the S spthin an organism. Those experiences are not mere decornig oth, secomplsh something extraordinary: @ Moment-o-mornen, Thy on the state of life in the interior of an organism. It is temp rranelate the notion of a report into pages of an onlin fl ft o) be swiped, one at a time, telling us about one part or another Of bods But digitized pages neat lifeless, and indifferent ate nt, able metaphors for feelings, given the valence component we ju 7. ‘cussed, Feelings provide important information about the state of, but feelings are not mere “information” in the strict computa 6 ch states. ity, sense, Basic feelings are not abstractions. They are experiences of i based on multidimensional representations of configurations of the life process. As noted, feelings can be intellectualized. We can translate feelings into ideas and words that describe the original physiology is possible, and not infrequent, to refer to a particular feeling withou necessarily experiencing that feeling or simply experiencing a ple version of the original? When one explains what a thing is, it helps to be clear about what a thing is not. So that we can be clear about what basic feelings are not, let me say that if I now decide to go down to the beach—which ‘means that I have to take about one hundred steps down a stair before I walk on the sand—feelings are not primarily about the design of the movements I will make with my limbs, or about the movements of my eyes, head, and neck, all of which are also being carried out by my body, under brain control, and about whose operations my brain is also being informed. The precise notion of feeling only applies "°Affect | 105 n aspects of the event, namely, the energy or ease with which | ot own the stairs; the eagerness with which I may do so, and the il “re of stepping on the sand and being next to the ocean; or, for a atter, the fatigue I might feel coming back up, a while later. Feel- th are primarily about the quality of the tate of life in the body's old eee in any situation, during repose, during a goal-directed activ- jp onimportanly during the response to the thoughts one is having, wether they are caused by a perception of the outside world or by a recollection of a past event as stored in our memories. Valence valence is the inherent quality of the experience, which we apprehend as pleasant or unpleasant, or somewhere along the range that joins those two extremes. Non-feeling representations are well designated by terms such as “sensed” and “perceived.” But the representations known as feelings are felt, and we are affected by them. This is what makes the class of experiences we call feelings unique—beside the sin- gularity of the content of feelings, that is, the body to which the brain belongs The deep origins of valence go back to early forms of life prior to the emergence of nervous systems and minds. But the immediate ante- cedents of valence are to be found in the ongoing state of life in the organism. The “pleasant” and “unpleasant” designations correspond, ina principled manner, to whether the underlying “global” state of the body is generally conducive to the continuation of life and to survival, and to how strong or weak that life trend happens to be at a given moment. Malaise signifies that something is not right with the state of life regulation. Well-being signifies that homeostasis is within the effective range. In most circumstances, there is nothing arbitrary in the relationship between the quality of the experience and the physio-THINGS 196. | THE STRANGE onveR OF . 1 shebody. Even depression and manic sane, 4. n pecnuse basic homeostasis remains align, or positive affect. However, patho), ption because situations of Togical state of escape this Tule extent, with negative xce} hhism are an such as masoc " oa n snced as pleasurable, at least in part, be experi injury @ . ‘ence ‘The feling experience is 2 natura! i its prospects: Valence “judges” the current efficiency ee ee felng ances te judgment t0 he Body’ uy Ms states ions inthe state of life, within the standar within the standard range are mon. ful i to,” % Othe logical, selfing, isa natural process of evaluating i re re ings express fuctuati and outside it. Some states : ac ihan others and feclings express the degree of effing svithin the central homeostatic range is a necessity; life upregul, to the flourishing edges is desirable. States outside the overall ha static range are pernicious, and some are so pernicious that hehe kill you. Examples include ungainly metabolism during a general infection or accelerated metabolism in an overactive, manic state Given tat weal experience feelings continuously itis astonishing that for the most part its so difficult to explain their nature satisfac torly. The matter of contents is about the only fairly straightforvar and manageable aspect of the puzzle, We can agree on some ofthe events that constitute feelings, on the sequence in which they oor, and even on how events are distributed and sequenced in our bodies. In response tothe bigolt ofan earthqueke, for example, one can sense the premature heartbeat that came fuller and earlier than normally and called attention to itself, or the dry mouth that came at the sane time or just before or just after, or the tightened throat perhaps. A simple study from Riitta Har’s laboratory, in Finland, confirms the observations that several of us have long been making and agrees with the brilliant intuitions of poets. It shows that a large group of human beings consistently identified certain regions of the body as being oe during their typical feeling experiences relative to both get wMomeostatic and emotional situations? The head, the chest, atAffect | 107 ipdomen were the most commonly engaged theaters of feeling, Pe are indeed the stages on which feelings are created. Wordsworth pa have been pleased. He did write about “sensations sweet, felt in ne plood, and felt along the heart,” those sensations that, as he said, Pd into the “purer mind, with tranquil restoration.”* cronsl the precise feelings that comparable situations evoke nay well be tuned by cultures. Apparently, the nervousness of stu- dents before an exam can be experienced by German students as but- terflies in the stomach and by Chinese students as a headache.> Kinds of Feelings ‘At the beginning of this chapter, I mentioned the main physiological conditions that result in feelings. The first condition produces sponta- neous feelings. The other two yield provoked feelings. Feelings of the spontaneous kind, the homeostatic feelings, arise from the background flow of life processes in our organisms, a dynamic ground state, and constitute the natural backdrop of our mental lives. They have a limited variety because they are closely tied to the hum- ming of the living organism and to the necessarily repetitious routines of life management. Spontaneous feelings signify the overall state of life regulation of an organism as good, bad, or in between. Such feel- ings apprise their respective minds of the ongoing state of homeo- stasis, and for that reason I call them homeostatic. It is their business to “mind” homeostasis, literally. Feeling homeostatic feelings corre- sponds to listening to the never-ending background music of life, the continuous execution of life’s score, complete with changes of pace and thythm and key, not to mention volume. We are tuned to the work- ings of the interior when we experience homeostatic feelings. Nothing could be simpler or more natural. The brain, however, is a permeable intermediary between the out-RANGE ORDER OF THINGS 108 | THES side world—actual OF memorized-—and the body. Whey ide 5 t! responds t0 brain messages that command it to engage in 2 bay rere Faions speed uP respiration o hare, conan sea group or another, secrete molecle X—the body at rapes of is physical configsration. Subsequently, en constructs representations of the altered organism seometos aig aos the alteration and make images oft Ths isthe source ry oe ed felings, the kinds of feelings that, unlike the homeo re veal from a wide variety of “emotive” responses caused by ae vvamali ox by the engagement of drives, motivations and emo, the conventional sense. i The emotive responses triggered by the properties of sens stimuli—colors, textures, shapes, acoustic properties—tend to py, duce, more often than not, a quiet perturbation of the body sy ‘These are the qualia of philosophical tradition. On the other hang the emotive responses triggered by the engagement of drives, mai. tions, and emotions often constitute major perturbations of organism function and can result in major mental upheavals. The Emotive Response Process ‘A good part of the emotive process is hidden from view: The conse quence of the hidden component is a change in the homeostatic state and a possible change in ongoing spontaneous feelings as well. When you hear a musical sound that you describe as delightful the feeling of delight is the result of a rapid transformation of the state of your organism. We call that transformation emotive. It com sists ofa collection of actions that change the background homeost sis. The actions included in the emotive response include the releas* of specific chemical molecules in certain sites of the central nervors system or their transport, by neural pathways, to varied regions ofAffect | 109 she nervous system and ofthe body. Certain body sites—for instance, the endocrine glands—are brought into play and produce molecules apse of changing body functions on their own, The upsho ofall this bustle is a collection of changes in the geometries of viscera—the caliber of blood vessels and tubular organs, for example, the distension ‘of muscles, the change of respiratory and cardiac rhythms, As a result, in the case of delight, visceral operations are harmonized, by which {mean that the viscera act with no impediment or difficulty and the harmonized state of the body proper is duly signaled to the parts of the nervous system charged with making images of the old interior; metabolism is changed so that the ratio between energy demand and production is reconciled; the operation of the nervous system itself js modified so that our image production is made easier and abun- dant and our imagination becomes more fluid; positive images are favored over negative ones; one’s mental guard is lowered even as, interestingly, our immune responses are possibly made stronger: It is the ensemble of these actions, as it becomes represented in the mind, that makes way for the pleasant feeling state that one describes as delight and encompasses a minimal amount of stress and consider able relaxation.® Negative emotions are associated with distinct physi- ological states, all of them problematic from the perspective of health and future well-being.” The feelings newly provoked by emotive responses literally ride, physiologically speaking, on top of the wave of spontaneous, homeo static responses, already traveling along in their natural flow. The pro- «ess behind emotive responses is a far cry from the relative immediacy and transparency of the process behind spontaneous feelings. Feelings may be more or less prominent in our minds. Minds engaged in a variety of analyses, imaginings, narratives, and decisions Pay more or less attention to a particular object, depending on how relevant it may be at the moment. Not every item merits attention, and this is true of feelings as well.x 110 | THE STRANGE ORDER OF THINGS Where Do Emotive Responses Come From? ‘The answer to this question is clear Emotive Tones orig specific brain systems—sometimes in a specific region, a lh Frrmanding te varied compet ofthe respon yr cal molecules that must be secreted, the hveccral changes thar ae wcompiched, the movements of face, Limbs, or whole boy be gar of a particlar emotion be it fear, anger, or joy. as Ine brow where the cit rain regions ar located. Mos consist of groupsof neurons (nuclei) in the hypothalamus, in the tas a region known as the periaqueductal gray is a mien) and inthe Bas forebrain (where the amyl ny vod the eon of the nucleus accumbens are the lead structures) af these regions can be activated by the processing of specific mena contents. We can envision the activation of a region as the “matching” ofa certain content with the region. When the matching occurs, which js the same as saying that the region “recognizes” a certain configura. tion, the triggering of the emotion is initiated.® stem (whe ‘Some of these regions do their jobs quite directly; others act via the cerebral cortex. Directly or indirectly, these small nuclei manage to ‘each into the enti organism, via the secretion of chemical molecules or the action of nerve pathways capable of initiating specific move- ments or releasing certain chemical modulators in a particular brain region. This collection of subcortical brain regions is present in vertebrates and invertebrates but is especially prominent in mammals. It houses the means to respond to all manner of sensations, objects, and circum- stances with drives, motivations, and emotions. Figuratively, you can see this as an “affective control panel,” provided you do not imagine the emotions as immutable sets of actions triggered by a button. The pee ie he ty mare the probability that certain ee Pen ial Pe tend to duster together, But the rut ve shades and variations, and only the essence ©Affect | m ete holds. Evolution has Bradually built this apparatus, Most sof homeostasis that relate to social behavior depend on this ser d cabeortcal ea spe tapering of emotive responses occurs automatically and non- ius sethout the intervention of our will. We often end up ing that an emotion is happening nt asthe triggering situation ws ur breuse the processing of the situation causes feelings; sari iteauses conscious mental experiences of the emotional event ier the feling begins we may (or may not) realize why we are fel- ingacetain W2Y- “ere is very litle that escapes the scrutiny of these specific brain regans The sound of a flute, the orange tint ina sunset, the texture af ine wool, all produce positive emotive responses and the corre- agonding pleasant feelings. So does the picture ofa summerhouse that was yours when you were growing up or the voice of the friend you sis The sight or the aroma of a dish you especially enjoy triggers your appetite, even if you are not hungry, and a seductive photograph tages lust, Encountering a crying child, you are motivated to hug herand protect her. Crude as it may seem, the same deeply ingrained biological drives will be engaged by the nice dog with plaintive eyes, spaced like a baby’s. In brief, an endless number of stimuli will pro- duce joy or sadness or apprehension, while certain stories or scenes vill evoke compassion or awe; we emote when we listen to the warm and rich sound of a cello, independent of the melody being played, and 0 high-pitched, rough sound, the felt outcome being agree- able in the former and disagreeable in the latter. Likewise, we emote Positively or negatively when we see colors of certain hues, when we see certain shapes, volumes, and textures, and when we taste certain substances or smell certain odors. Some sensory images evoke weak ‘eacions others strong ones, in keeping with the specific stimulus and its participation in the history of a particular individual. In normal ‘tuations, numerous mental contents evoke some emotive response, Stong or weak, and thus provoke some feeling, strong or weak. Theve responses 1 cOUntLSS image ey my 1 of moti eof the most central and incessany ant ag pulse eal from memory rather ng . esti it still produces emotions, , abunden nthe emotiv esception, vrage isthe Key, and the mechanism gages emotive programs that yield a . igs. There is a prompting stimulus, = iy now theimagesare recalled fom a ) Wher aly present it x ‘he presence of ~ The recalled material spe coesporig Fen pof images onh ted in hi ced to produce an el rms the background s rat, and the resul is a pr ive perception. Whatever the source motive response. The emotive. 0 : tate of the organism, its ee ovoked emotional feeling : jimagesare Us then transfo homeostatic s Fmotional Stereotypes conform to certain dominant pattens sreotyped. The primary vised, olecule that are secret The overall ot an ext Emotive responses generally hut they are in no way rigid and ste es, or the exact amounts of a certain m a response, vary from instance to instance. in its general arrangement, but is 1 sponse arise necessarily out of chang during term is recognizable, copy. Nor does the emotive re poral egon of the brain, although certain brain regions fe ™* likely tobe engaged by a certain perceptual configuration than oth ers Inher words the idea ofa “brain module” that would os the eee ee that lead to the feeling of delight, while anothet oe produce disgusts no more corret than the i hie a oe panel with buttons for every emotion poo flight or the disgust would be a replica of each santo is als incoet. On the tke Ba 4 ly nege Affect | m3 {dhe delight and the machinery that underlies it appearance pa ety comparable from instance to instance that the phe- n a easily recognizable in everyday experience and are trace- a not rigidly, to certain brain systems planted there by the she tarl selection withthe help of our genes and with more we _jiters from the environments of the womb and infanthood. « hi pay® és panne of environmental factors can modify che emotive deploy- sve develop. I furs out thatthe machinery of our affects veg oa cettn extent, and that a good part of what we call v- ers erough the edvcation ofthat machinery in onde veenvironment of home, school, and culture. In a curious way, what at emotivity is fixed, however, would be an exaggeration, seas triperament—the more or less harmonious manner with sh we react to the shocks and jolts of lif, in the day to day—is ihe result of that long process of education as it interacts with the sues of emotional reactivity that one is given as a result of all the salogial factors at play during our development: gene endowment, sred developmental factors pre- and postnatal, luck of the draw. One thing is certain, however. The machinery of affect is responsible for everating emotive responses and, as a result, for influencing behav- insthat,one could have innocently thought, would be under the sole canal ofthe most knowledgeable and discerning components of our rind Drives, motivations, and emotions often have something to add ‘vor subtract from decisions one would have expected to be purely ‘onal The Inherent Sociality of Drives, Motivations, and Conventional Emotions "e-pparatus of drives, motivations and emotions i concerned with e welfare of the subject in whose organism the responses inhere. ht most des A "st drives, motivations, and emotions are also inherently social, >P HINGS 4 | THE STRANGE onpeR OF TI alan lrg thet field OF action exeng, $ al, Desire and lust, caring and nurturing i wel al. ‘ el context. The same applies to yr bMen at scale the individu social operate in a : and sadness, fear and panic, anger? oF OF compass, joy @ j ae envy and jealousy and contempt. The Power t, and awe, | support of the intellect of Homo sania Is Ms love, sting ‘ Py On, adm, was an essential < eures is li ‘ critical in the emergence of cul kely t0 have 9a, the machinery of drives, motivations, and emotions, Where ig ed, from simpler neural processes of simpler creatures, Eyen feet intime it evolved from an army of chemical molecules son veh vere present in unicellular organisms. The point t9 be ma is tharsoity collection of behavioral strategies indspenay creation of cleral responses, is part of the tool kit of home. Sociality enters the human cultural mind by the hand of aff ee The behavioral and neural aspects of drives and motivations have bee, especially well studied by Joak Panksepp and Kent Berridge in me mals, Anticipation and desire, which Panksepp subsumes under the label of “seeking” and Berridge prefers to call “wanting,” are prom, nent examples. So is lust, both in its plain sex-related variety and romantic love. The care and nurturing of progeny is another power drive complemented, on the side of those who are nurtured and cared for, by bonds of attachment and love, the sorts of bonds whose inter ruptions lead to panic and grief. Play is prominent in mammals end birds and is central to human life. Play anchors the creative imagint- tion of children, adolescents, and adults and is a critical ingredient of the inventions that hallmark cultures.” In conclusion, most images that enter our minds are entitled to" ‘motive response, strong or weak. The origin of the image does ™) Affect | ms process can constitute a trigger, from taste and ay soso 4 it does not really matter whether the image ate vision a : ion Oninted in perception or recalled from the stores of mest * ir does 71 features of objets—colors, shapes, the timbres of we cons, abstractions or judgments on any of the above. spf consequence of processing many images that flow in ae isan emotive response followed by its respective feeling ged, emotional feelings are not quite about listening to the ‘he es 4 music of life. Emotional feelings are about hearing occa- 4 yeongs and sometimes full-regalia opera arias. The pieces are still maby the same ensembles, in the same hall—the body—and ve same background: life. But given the triggers, the mind rr gly tuned to the world of our ongoing thoughts—rather date word of the body—as we react to those thoughts and feel jon. From instance to instance, the musical execution var- not matter if the image pertains to animate or inani- ool ena sshense the execution of emotive responses and the experience of Jerspectve feeling also vary at least as much asthe execution of sous musical piece at the hands of different performers. But the soe being played is still unmistakably the same, Human emotions rarsngizabe pieces ofa standard repertoire. substantial portion of human glory and human tragedy depends anfectin pte of its modest, nonhuman genealogy. Liyred Feelings "Teemotive responses to images even apply to the images called feel- is themselves, The state of being in pain, of feeling pain, for exam- "can bxome enriched by a new layer of processing—a secondary os ‘it were—prompted by varied thoughts with which we react sic situation, The depth of this layered feeling state is prob- —THINGS q ably a hallmark of human minds ti the sore of Pt dl what we call suffering. i, 1g | THE STRANGE ORDER 0} undergir = ‘Animals with complex brains similar to ours, as jg the higher mammals, may well have layered feeling states x ditionally extreme human exceptionalism has denied fal, mas ut the scene of eling hts gradually shown the pp 2 is not to say that human feelings are not more complex ie 2 1 and elaborate than those of animals, How could they not bey p' see the stnction in humans has to do with the web of aso that feling states establish with all sorts of ideas and expec th Se iy Ta. e Well 85 to an, is Buta citon lly wit che interpretations we can make of our present moment and gf Our anticipated future. Curiously layered feelings support the intellectualzation of fg, ings to which I eferrd earlier The wealth of objects, events andes conjuzed up by ongoing feelings enriches the process of creating oy intellectual description of the prompting situation. Great poetry depends on layered feelings. The definitive explora. tion of layered feelings was the life's work of a novelist and philose pher by the name of Marcel Proust.