Can there be ‘correct’ or ‘appropriate’ emotional responses? Is it ‘correct’ to be horrified by accounts of torture?

In life, there is no such thing as ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’; everything can be correct and incorrect at the same time. Everyone is different, that is said a lot, however it can be proven that everyone is different (internally and externally); therefore there is no way to say that we feel the same way as someone else- many people tend to do this when they express that they “know how you feel”; this is very ‘incorrect’, as there is no way that they could possibly know exactly how you feel, unless they have a program that gives them access to your brain’s activity.

Moreover, one person’s feelings may differ form another, this is because there s no way of ‘explaining’ how we feel to someone else, there are only a limited amount of words to use when describing how we are feeling.

This image is a picture of Plutchik's wheel of emotions. As viewed, we can tell that many emotions are linked to other emotions, therefore the way we describe how we feel may differ to the way someone else understands it. For example, if we tell someone that we are ‘amazed’ about something, they may change that into thinking that we mean that we are ‘surprised’ by a certain situation- this reinforces the idea of language not being able to explain/describe how we feel.

Some words only exist in certain cultures...

This suggests that language is in fact something that is only made up by humans and used for communication. Moreover, this may lead us to think that perhaps people who come from different cultures think in a different way/language, as they may actually have a word to describe what they are feeling and we may not.

What is language?

Language can be defined as a complex system made up of different patterns (made up of multiple symbols and sounds) that are put together and used for communication, however the structure of these patterns vary around the world, depending on your culture and your community.

If we're being honest, there is not solely one way of using a word; many words in the dictionary are homonyms, homophones or heteronyms - meaning that one word can be used differently in different contexts.
An example of this is the word lie- the word lie holds 2 different meanings.
lie: untruth 
lie: lay down 

This shows that people may mistaken our use of a word for a different meaning, for example if someone states that they "did lie"- implying that they did lay down, people may mistaken it for them lying (not telling the truth)- therefore, this is why language is defined as a COMPLEX system!

This confusion is displayed in diverse cultures, as I previously stated that language can vary in different cultures- this leads us to think that perhaps our culture does shape our identity and our use of language. An example of this is extracted from an advertisement for donkey rides in Bali- "Would you like to ride on your own ass?"- before understanding the actual meaning, many people (from other cultures) may attribute it to be something completely different.

Language is actually something that is completely made up, it was something that has been manufactured by humans, throughout time, in result of different events in history; for example the English Language has evolved overtime, in result of different battles and invasions (e.g. the Norman Invasion and the Death of Shakespeare...) 

How reliable are sense and perception?

So as I mentioned before, perception/sense perception is a way of knowledge- meaning that sensing and perceiving things can help us know and understand the things around us.
However there are some downsides to this, as we know that not everything we see is actually there. In addition, we are able to 'see' things without our eyes; we can use our other senses. To prove my point below is a video of a boy who is living his life normally; without any eyes, but he can still 'see'

This is proof that we do not need ALL of our senses to see, smell, hear, feel or taste, we only need some and overtime we will get used to using them efficiently. 

Moreover, our senses can store their own memories, for example a certain smell or taste can remind us of a past event in our life, this means that our senses are not just 'objects we use', they are apart of us and they help us get through our lives, without them we would not be able to do anything at all.

But how RELIABLE are sense and perception?
We can't come to a conclusion when we are stating the reliability of them, as they are quite subjective- everyone sees things differently.

Do we really only have 5 senses?

We don't need eyes to be able to see and we do not need to touch something to be able to feel it, we do not need to smell something to be able to taste it, why? Because we have multiple sense, not just 5, in fact we have a total of 10 senses. The other 5 senses are probably unfamiliar to you, this is because they are connected to our inner body, not external; these senses are: nociception, chronoception, proprioception, equilibrioception and thermoception. 
I'll briefly break down each one for you.

Nociception: is the sensory nervous system's response to certain harmful or potentially harmful stimuli.

Chronoception: sense of time 

Proprioception: the sense of body movement and position 

Equilibrioception: balance; prevention of falling over when standing 

Thermoception: the sense of temperature 

Yes these sense may sound strange, but without them we wouldn't be able to function properly, they are vital in our lives. Could you imagine living without a sense of time? You wouldn't sleep at the right time and you wouldn't be able to attend that life-changing interview on time 

Do YOU know or do WE know?

There is much confusion when it comes to deciding how we know something and whether it's something that we gained knowledge of on our know or if we gained knowledge of it with the help of the people around us. So, let me tell you this- there are 2 types of knowledge: personal knowledge and shared knowledge- you could probably already guess what both mean, but I'll explain to you the difference between both (in more detail).

Personal knowledge 
it's something that YOU know, for example you are the only person who would know what YOU like and don't like, e.g. "I know that I like to listen to music"- that is something that only YOU are sure of, other people may think that you like music, however they may not be sure, only you can be sure of that.

Shared knowledge
it's something that you and a group of people know of- which can develop overtime e.g. faith/religion, as well as history- shared knowledge is something that we share with other people with similar characteristics/interests

So what links these 2 types of knowledge?

• both result in us learning from new experience
• shared knowledge can help influence personal knowledge 
• sharing knowledge can help an individual realise things they may not have realised before- about themselves

KNOWledge? But, how do we KNOW?

Ever wondered how you know things? Yes, knowledge is very important, actually it's one of the most important things in a person's life. Why? Because without knowledge, we would all be clueless people, in a world we know nothing about.

In total, there are 8 ways of knowing things. I will list all of them below for all of you to see and i will briefly explain each factor and how it applies to gaining knowledge.

Emotion: (subjectivity, empathy, romanticism..)
- this differs from one person to another, as we all have different feelings

Memory: (eye-witness testimony, illusion, recall..)
-past experiences can affect how we remember things or how we gain knowledge

Imagination: (creativity, fiction, interpretation..)
- this can help us solve problems, as it's very personal to us

Perception/sense perception: (realism, sensation..)
-this relates to what we see, hear, smell.., however we can never be sure how accurate are senses are

Intuition: (unconscious, instinct..)
-this factor can be the most confusing, because it makes us wonder how we 'just know' something without any actual solid evidence

Reason: (deduction, rationalism..)
-this factor can be argued to be the most reliable out of the 8, this is because there is actual evidence to support why/how we know something

Faith: (trust, experience, judgement..)
-this factor somehow relates to religion and it can be listed as the 'most arguable' factor

Language: (stereotype, translation, communication..)
-this is a form of communication, however communication isn't only about words

Despite being able to use one of these factors to explain why we know something, we can never actually be certain if it's 100% true. I will give you an example, I found out about a week ago that in fact we have all been living in a lie (literally living in it). I'll explain, you know the world map we have grown up learning about in geography; well turns out that this map is an incorrect version. The map that is commonly used, is called the Mercator map, while the more accurate one is called Gall Peter's map.

Mercator Map

Gall Peter's Map

This map is thought to be more accurate, as, in reality Europe is much smaller than it is in the Mercator map, this is because a European created the map, therefore he wanted Europe to stand out in the world. 

On that note, this can relate to faith and emotion, as he could have been very passionate about Europe and wanted to show that by making sure it can be clearly seen in the world.

I hope this post helped you realise that there is a lot more out there that we are unaware about and that is why we should continue to expand our knowledge.