| Imagine a world in which there was
suddenly no emotion--a world in which human beings could feel no love or
happiness, no terror or hate. Try to imagine the consequences of such a
transformation. People might not be able to stay alive: knowing neither joy nor
pleasure, anxiety nor fear, they would be as likely to repeat acts that hurt
them as acts that were beneficial. They could not learn: they could not benefit
from experience because this emotional world would lack rewards and punishments.
Society would soon disappear: people would be as likely to harm one another as
to provide help and support. Human relationships would not exist: in a World
without' friends or enemies, there could be no marriage, affection among
companions, or bonds among members of groups. Society's economic underpinnings
(支柱) would be destroyed: since earning $10 million would be no more pleasant
than earning ＄10, there would be no incentive to work. In fact, there would be
no incentives of any kind. For as we will see, incentives imply a capacity to
enjoy them. In such a world, the chances that the human species would survive are next to zero, because emotions are the basic instrument of our survival and adaptation. Emotions structure the world for us in implant ( 嵌入, 插入)ways. As individuals, we categorize objects on the basis of our emotions. True, we consider the length, shape, size, or texture, but an object's physical aspects are less important than what it has done or can do to us--hurt us, surprise us, anger us or make us joyful. We also use categorizations colored by emotions in our families, communities, and overall society. Out of our emotional experiences with objects and events comes a social feeling of agreement that certain things and actions are "good" and others are "bad", and we apply these categories to every aspect of our social life--from what foods we eat and what clothes we wear to how we keep promises and which people our group will accept. In fact, society exploits our emotional reactions and attitudes, such as loyalty, morality, pride, shame, guilt, fear and greed, in order to maintain itself. It gives high rewards to individuals who perform important tasks such as surgery, makes heroes out of individuals for unusual or dangerous achievements such as flying fighter planes in a war, and uses the legal and penal (刑法的) system to make people afraid to engage in antisocial acts. |