Humans are conceptual

[Athena]

Quote by: Boetie You are lumping everthing in one basket. The emotions derived from basic instincts are not the same as the emotions that are socially learned. Much of the social emotions results from learning speech. Speech is a social process. Your private thoughts is actually a social process. Emotions can follow thought. For example you are not feeling emotional. You have a thought about a girl, a funeral etc following that thought is emotions. Emotions and thought can be symbiotic. Meaning the two are so intertwined it's hard to distinquish the two. Thought is the past. The fact is everything about you is the past. Your culture, your speech, your thoughts derive from all that came before you. This past becomes the present and then projected into the future.

That was a very good explanation of conceptual beings.

So now about those emotions. When a child looses a tooth, the child can be very happy about that, because it means s/he is growing up. The child may expect money from the tooth fairy. The child can be confident a new tooth will take its place. However, when an adult looses a tooth, that is not a good thing and the emotions involved will be very different. As in every question presented, it is not the event that determines the emotion, but the meaning we as humans associate with the event.

We are not just of the past, but also the future and this really separates from the rest of the animals. When we know a baby is expected, we start planning for the baby. By thinking of the life we want to have, we can plan for it and take deliberate steps to achieve the future we want.