The spirit of the Fun Criterion

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Edwin de Wit’s avatar
Edwin de WitOP revised about 21 hours ago·#1802·· Collapse

I think it does imply a conflict. Every emotional sensation—including urges—arises to provide feedback to our consciousness about how a particular problem (in the Popperian sense: two or more incompatible theories in conflict) is or isn’t progressing.

For example, consider hunger. One theory (Drive A) is that we don’t want to be hungry, while another signals that we are hungry (from ephemeral sense data (which could itself be viewed as a Drive, though that’s not important here)). The conflict between these theories produces the urge — in this case, the sensation of hunger.

I explain these conflicts in more detail, with further examples of Drives, Intuitions, and Statements, in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEcR_0GbzRE

Addition 01-09-2025:
In the case of hunger, the sensation was signaling an unaddressed problem, but as you correctly pointed out, not all emotions signal unaddressed problems. Emotions are a feedback mechanism that can reflect different stages of problem solving. For instance, joy may signal a resolved problem, and impatience might signal frustration with an ongoing one. Likewise, anxiety can serve as an early warning of potential obstacles ahead, while relief marks the successful removal of a previously pressing issue.

3rd of 3 versions ·Criticism
Dennis Hackethal’s avatar
Dennis Hackethal, about 24 hours ago·#1798·· Collapse

By the way, you don’t need to put disclaimers like “Addition 01-09-2025”. The versioning system records and displays all that information automatically :)

Edwin de Wit’s avatar
Edwin de WitOP, about 21 hours ago·#1804·· Collapse

Gotcha! Did my most recent edit now address the criticism that Joy isn't signaling an unaddressed conflict?