Can emotions exist independently of thoughts and/or interpretations of reality?  

A couple brief approximate definitions so you know what I'm trying to talk about.  

Feelings = as a rule of thumb these can be expressed with 1 word only, for examples happy, sad, angry, lonely etc etc etc

Thoughts = thoughts in this case are more verbal, sentences strung together to describe and label reality, such as "this hamburger tastes salty" or "that law is unfair".  

Why am I curious whether emotions can exist independently of thoughts?  I know from experience that thoughts fuel emotions, for example if you think "the nazis suck for what they did to people" the more you think about it the more angry and/or sad you may get.  

But in your experience, can you think of any time that you experienced a feeling completely removed from a thought that interpreted reality in the first place?  Are thoughts like eggs and feelings like chickens, you cannot have an emotion without first having a thought to produce it?  

In case you are totally lost, let me try to illustrate with an example.  Take for instance the situation of a son witnessing his parent die.  Would this be 1) an inherently sad event, because the parent is lost, 2) and bittersweet or maybe even a happy event, because the parent is going to a better place (assume for the sake of discussion they believe in heaven or something) or 3) absent thoughts to interpret the event one way or another it would provoke no emotion whatsoever?  

If you do reply to this question I am VERY curious if you could try to explain, what is an emotion absent a thought?  Is anger simply getting hot and shakey, is getting sad simply a depressed physiological response accompanied by tears and sobbing, what are feelings if not simply a physical response to thoughts?  Have you ever experienced a feeling completely separate from a thought or interpretation?

Well from how I understand you, I presume you mean that without thought, there is no emotion? As would be the case in my life. Thoughts are what trigger emotions. As for the question at hand, No. Emotions cannot simply exist without the dependence of thoughts since if we did not think of a situation then why would we be emotional about something that has no logic behind it? This subject by itself is rather hard to actually explain. Since the way in which our brains work is slightly more complex than what we can describe through the use of words so I doubt anyone could really word it better. This is like describing how we see things like is your red, my red? Emotions are basically the same as colors, they describe but to describe a color is practically pointless as it would be with emotions without talking about thoughts first. Emotions are really there to show a physical representation of your thoughts or an interpretation of your thought or thoughts.

I did honestly put answering this thread off due to the diversity of the topic. But I have a question, do memories count for thoughts? Memories themselves can trigger small or even powerful emotions of hardships or even in the most basic form general nostalgia. What exactly controls how emotions work is somewhat confusing with memories and thoughts being somewhat related but often completely different. I mean, though the use of an example : ( Theoretical example not literal )
I am a old man, I see an old photo and memories come rushing back, saddening me, but at the same time bring nostalgia to me. Was this caused by the thought or the memory? Hard to decide upon from my mind. So I would retract my statement of : " Thoughts are what trigger emotions. " by replacing it with, " Memories and thoughts have the ability to trigger emotions to interpret how you feel. "

bsnowotter : Was that a good enough answer?

iN008 :

Thank you for replying!  

Yes that counts as a "good enough" answer, though due to the subjective nature of people's experience, the complexity of what may cause or affect emotions in addition to thoughts and memories including nutrition, intoxication, mental illness, and also the (by necessity) speculative nature of talking about what's going on in people's brains (like you mentioned), I don't know if we'll ever have a totally complete, authoritative and inarguable big picture, the best I was hoping for was people's grounded opinions, their experiences and best guesses...  I would certainly welcome sharing if anyone came across your opinion who had any reactions or questions!

I have been paying lots of attention to how I've been feeling lately (sort of as an experiment lol !), it is a little boggling to consider that every time we aren't completely calm we are physically reacting to something, either real and in our environment or bodies, something we are thinking about or remembering, and to wonder how often these thoughts are unrealistic, exaggerated, imagined, and sometimes resulting in harmful choices.  It's a lot to consider.

In light of all the unwise and harmful things some people do (like mass shootings and other violent acts) it seems as though some people could be more in tune with themselves and more aware of when their head is not in a good place.

That is a good question.

For example, a person who is very mentally impaired might not understand that his parents have died, doesn't know what that means, and thus would not be sad. But the cause of him not feeling sadness because his THOUGHTS were not thoughts to make someone sad, or is it because he did not KNOW what death really is. If the later, than it doesn't mean anything to the subject at hand.


I would say, generally no. Thoughts and emotions are linked even more intimately than we would like to imagine. For example, let's go backwards. Someone might think they have thought of a very very logical emotion-free decision on a matter; in reality, it was not emotion-free, somewhere withing herself, emotion played a part in her thought process.

I may not have completely understood you opening post, but that is what I have.