This post expresses hypothesis not based on any scientific theories that I know of. It is a theory about how emotion emerges in an evolutionary manner.
I believe that emotion is a kind of subconscious thought combined with biochemical activity in body and mind. It is in my opinion an automated thought pattern that through its hardwired and subconscious nature is performed in extreme velocity in order to cope with frequently experienced situations. For example let's consider fear that is a relatively simple emotion. Fear is the result of a subconsious assessment of a situation that is potentially harmful for the person that experiences it or for a very close (in emotional terms ) person. In many persons the physical result of fear is an improvement in thought ability and in corporal response through a biochemical procedure. In a way the subconsious calculates the situation's risk and creates a reponse that allows the person to take action to solve the crisis. So the input coming from the outside world, the conscious thought and the unconscious thought are processed by the emotion pattern detection path and create the emotional state of the person. Under the influence of the specific emotional state the person tends to instinctively (subconsciously) or by conscious thought take action to the direction that solves the problem. According to the previous ideas we can consider first the instinctive part of emotion that does the assessment of a situation. This part takes its input from externall world but also other thought sources in the brain. It finds the emotional state modification that suits the input and changes the emotional state. Another part of this path induces the hormonic response that makes the emotion so intensely felt. I believe emotion is a completely subconscious brain activity that surfaces to the conscious mind. This is the reason that many times we cannot identify in a conscious level the source of an emotional state in which we are.
From the evolutionary viewpoint this theory suggests that by the development of emotion the responses of the animal or human become better suited to the situation and faster since there is no need for conscious assessment that is very slow. But I don't suggest that the development of emotion happened after the development of conscious thought. In fact because of its simplicity emotion can have emerged from the more machine like neural networks of primitive species. I can't speculate about that. Yet it is sure that both abilities evolve together for millions of years.
This evolution has created emotions and emotional states more complicated and not perfectly matching to viewpoint presented. Also the interaction of emotions creates even more complicated patterns. That can result in emotional responses that seem irrational yet even these can be explained in the frame of reference of the interaction with society. The first form of emotion had to do with self-preservation and the preservation of the subject's children. But with the emerge of society even in animal populations the goals changed and the emotions followed and adapted to the new thought patterns and the new needs.
Closing this post I want to state that I refer to both animals and humans here since emotion precedes the development of the humans and in animals may be more close to my hypothesis, but I believe that neurologically humans have the same emotional mechanisms but in a more developed state.
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