How do the electro-chemical processes in our brain make us have subjective feeli

Question: How do the electro-chemical processes in our brain make us have subjective feelings like pain or joy!?
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

They don't "make us have feelings!." They ARE our feelings, from our "point of view!."

This is, in my estimation at least, the classic error of assuming that subjective "being" or "existence" is the same thing as objective existence!. Subjective experience "is" not a different kind of thing that exists somehow connected to material reality!. It's not "real" in the usual sense!. People have a hard time being okay with that, I know, but that's the way it is!.!.!. being a being isn't having or being any thing!. If you test out rejecting materialism as a way to explain conscious experience, it really sets you free, try it!. You don't need gods or souls, either (although they make a handy way of talking about the non-thing that is direct experience)!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Good question!. You'd have to ask a doctor!. Why do we feel emotions like pain and joy in our chests instead of in our heads!?

But the cause of pain and joy and love are not the electro-chemical processes!. The cause are value judgments, which in turn determine which process and which emotion we will feel!. You and I don't love the same types of people, I'm sure!. Why don't we!? Value judgments!.

"Just as the pleasure-pain mechanism of man’s body is an automatic indicator of his body’s welfare or injury, a barometer of its basic alternative, life or death—so the emotional mechanism of man’s consciousness is geared to perform the same function, as a barometer that registers the same alternative by means of two basic emotions: joy or suffering!. Emotions are the automatic results of man’s value judgments integrated by his subconscious!.!.!.

"Man is born with an emotional mechanism, just as he is born with a cognitive mechanism; but, at birth, both are “tabula rasa!.” It is man’s cognitive faculty, his mind, that determines the content of both!. Man’s emotional mechanism is like an electronic computer, which his mind has to program—and the programming consists of the values his mind chooses!.

"But since the work of man’s mind is not automatic, his values, like all his premises, are the product either of his thinking or of his evasions: man chooses his values by a conscious process of thought—or accepts them by default, by subconscious associations, on faith, on someone’s authority, by some form of social osmosis or blind imitation!. Emotions are produced by man’s premises, held consciously or subconsciously, explicitly or implicitly!.

"An emotion is an automatic response, an automatic effect of man’s value premises!. An effect, not a cause!. There is no necessary clash, no dichotomy between man’s reason and his emotions—provided he observes their proper relationship!. A rational man knows—or makes it a point to discover—the source of his emotions, the basic premises from which they come; if his premises are wrong, he corrects them!.

"An emotion as such tells you nothing about reality, beyond the fact that something makes you feel something!.

"Man has no choice about his capacity to feel that something is good for him or evil, but what he will consider good or evil, what will give him joy or pain, what he will love or hate, desire or fear, depends on his standard of value!. If he chooses irrational values, he switches his emotional mechanism from the role of his guardian to the role of his destroyer!.

"The quality of a computer’s output is determined by the quality of its input!. If your subconscious is programmed by chance, its output will have a corresponding character!. You have probably heard the computer operators’ eloquent term “gigo”—which means: “Garbage in, garbage out!.” The same formula applies to the relationship between a man’s thinking and his emotions!.

"Emotions are not tools of cognition !. !. !. one must differentiate between one’s thoughts and one’s emotions with full clarity and precision!.

"The concept “emotion” is formed by retaining the distinguishing characteristics of the psychological action (an automatic response proceeding from an evaluation of an existent) and by omitting the particular contents (the existents) as well as the degree of emotional intensity!."
Ayn Rand
http://www!.aynrandlexicon!.com/lexicon/em!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com