Feeling or Thinking: Which Has Shaped Your Life?

[Loren Booda]

Which has contributed more to your life?

 

[Huckleberry]

Hard to say since I use one to do the other interchangably.

 

[hypatia]

Thinking for me. Feelings can often hinder me from what I know needs to be done.

 

[Moonbear]

A little bit of both.

 

[Loren Booda]

Feelings for me - but they seem for most an undiscovered, unappreciated, underutilized and underrated resource.

 

[Gale]

do you mean like, feelings as in emotions? vs thinking meaning logic? and do we mean positively contributed? or which just affects us most?

 

[infinitetime]

I go with what I sense, or in other words, feel.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

My emotions tend to not do so well for me. I generally wind up needing to use my logic to pull me out of the situation that my emotions have gotten me into. Haven't given up on my emotions yet, though I have been close.

 

[SOS2008]

do you mean like, feelings as in emotions? vs thinking meaning logic? and do we mean positively contributed? or which just affects us most?

Well said. Feeling may have had more impact, but not necessarily in a positive way. There have been times where I would have been better if I followed my instincts, but usually logical reasoning results in better choices (what hypatia posted).

 

[PerennialII]

Feeling interpreted as "belief" == intuition, gut, understanding (the "mystic" view that there are things unapproachable by logic) against thinking == logic.

 

[Zantra]

INTJ all the way baby!

guess which one I am..

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I find that instinct, or whatever you wish to call it, plays an integral role in any major decision. I primarily follow logic to a point, but almost anything important involves judgement calls, or best guesses, with no black and white logical decision to be made.

On the flip side of things, some [but not all] of the most profound moments in my life came through science and learning; which in turn produced many feelings - exhilaration, a sense of awestruck, overwhelmed, even cathartic experiences...and some feelings that were unique to learning. I have often thought of something Frank Drake of the famed Drake Equation once said. There have been two times in his life that he thought that he was, or may have been looking at a signal from an alien race - somewhere out there. "It is a very special feeling", he said, "and not like any other. I hope I can feel that again some day". Also consider Michio Kaku, who cried when he first saw the equations from GR. So apparently not only for me, but even for accomplished physicists, feelings and thinking, even logic, are hopelessly intertwined.

 

[cronxeh]

feeling caused the thinking

 

[Nylex]

Both make me feel like crap.

 

[Smurf]

Both make me feel like crap.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Hard to say since I use one to do the other interchangably.

More or less the same for me. I can't separate them. Thinking, for me, is primarily the act of sorting out feelings (emotions).

 

[Danger]

In the sense of 'intuition', my first reaction is usually correct even if subsequent conscious consideration conflicts with it. I have come to realize after very carefully analyzing such situations that it is simply a matter of my subconscious mind working faster and more accurately. As a for instance, when I approach a pool table, there's usually one shot that just screams to be taken. I always try to map out the table anyhow, and consider every foreseeable possiblility. Quite often, logic says "that's a stupid shot; take that one instead". If I follow the logic, something tends to screw it up. Taking the initial one works, because it's something that I know is in accordance with the way that I play. Retrospectively, it was logical after all.

Emotions have gotten me into all kinds of trouble, so I always try to temper them with logic. In that regard, I'm pretty much in accordance with Loseyourname's thoughts.

 

[Loren Booda]

If I define the dichotomy for you, I am imposing my thinking; if I trust you appreciate its general sense, I assume you are using your feelings.

 

[wolram]

Feelings got me in real trouble in my youth, now i think about the consequences
of not thinking something through.

 

[Kerrie]

do you mean like, feelings as in emotions? vs thinking meaning logic? and do we mean positively contributed? or which just affects us most?

I have read an interesting book that clears up this confusion:

thought + emotions = feelings

this equation I can agree with, so I can't really make a determination in this poll.

 

[kalladin]

Feelings are for pansies!

But seriously, I try to be devoid of emotion in life.. and at night, sometimes I cry...

 

[hypnagogue]

The question is pretty ambiguous. A lot of people seem to be interpretting it as something like, "which has historically been the superior means to an end in your life-- thinking or feeling?" However, when I think of 'contributions' to my life, I think of ends and not means. In that case, the answer is very clearly 'feelings.' I do derive a lot of pleasure from thinking, but that's just the thing-- the pleasure I derive from thinking is itself just a positive kind of feeling. Basically, feelings are categorically the ultimate ends for which we live, and thinking is just one tool we use to approach those ends. So, the answer for me is obviously feelings.

 

[loseyourname]

I'm not too sure about this myself. I've noted in other thread that I'm not even entirely sure that feelings are an end-goal for me all of the time, considering the many instances in my life that I can look back upon in which I did something knowing that it would bring about a negative feeling. For the most part, I'm a fairly repressed person emotionally. I don't express much other than primitive anger and joy, so I try not to use emotion as a means to anything as I'm just not any good with it. In contrast to hypnagogue's self-assessment, the possibility occurs to me that I think simply for the sake of thinking and not for any positive feeling associated with it. This occurs to me because, again, I continue to think whether or not I derive positive feelings from the act of thinking. Then again, I'm a robot compared to most people. What's true for me isn't going to be true for you.

 

[Danger]

As a side note to my previous answer, as far as I'm concerned all feelings are a consequence of the though process as in electrochemical activity in the brain. Just to be clear, I was referring to conscious deliberation before, although even that is severely affected by chemical balances.