Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!hao!gatech!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!cornell!batcomputer!pyramid!thirdi!sarge
From: sarge@thirdi.UUCP (Sarge Gerbode)
Newsgroups: sci.psychology
Subject: Re: Emotion
Message-ID: <354@thirdi.UUCP>
Date: 19 Mar 88 21:23:49 GMT
References: <44@gollum.Columbia.NCR.COM> <2100@phred.UUCP> <2103@phred.UUCP>
Reply-To: sarge@thirdi.UUCP (Sarge Gerbode)
Organization: Institute for Research in Metapsychology
Lines: 22
Summary: Emotion and intention are experienced; a tropism is a behavior.

In article <2103@phred.UUCP> daveh@phred.UUCP (Dave Hampton) writes:

>  I prefer "taxis" to "tropism" in this context, but, in either case,
>I think that there is a qualitiative difference between emotions
>and tropism.  Tropic behavior is a blind response to environmental
>conditions:  a reflex in which the character of the response is
>completely determined by the character of the stimulus.  
>Emotional expression is not driven simply by environnmental
>conditions, but by how these circumstances relate to cognitive desires.
>Both perceptual- and self-awareness are needed to produce an
>emotional response: only the perceptual to obtain a tropic one.

To me, the most major difference is that tropism is a behavior, whereas
emotion and intentions are experienced.  The one term is looking from the
outside and the others are looking from the inside.
-- 
"Absolute knowledge means never having to change your mind."

Sarge Gerbode
Institute for Research in Metapsychology
950 Guinda St.
Palo Alto, CA 94301
UUCP:  pyramid!thirdi!sarge