Response to Natasha Robinsons blog entry (10/14/2009)

Q1:Who is to say what emotions are normal or common for all people?
Q2: Is it not true that some people are unable to feel emotions we may feel because experiences in life are so vastly different?

Throughout this week, we have discussed Clive Bell's perspective on art in regards to aesthetic emotion and significant form. More or less these two terms (A.E. and S.F) can be extremely confusing and in general, can intertwine with one another. But getting back to your questions, each them can have multiple opinions and perspectives that can range drastically. However in regards to the first question, nobody should be able to say or judge which emotions are normal or common for all people. For example Clive Bell pretty much is a normal person with the exception being that he is a philosopher, not a mental health professional (psychologist, psychiatrist, behavioral analyst, etc.), therefore he cannot properly judge that a certain individual should or should not experience certain emotions. While on the other hand, an individual can experience certain emotions differently than another individual due to life experiences. Lets say that person "a" was raised by an average family, in which he/she was loved unconditionally and given everything in life that he/she should have. However person "b" was raised by a family in which domestic violence was prevalent on a weekly basis, their family life was hectic and chaotic. Therefore person "b" will have a tough time experiencing the positive emotions (joy,happiness,compassion etc.) that person "a" experienced, due to their life experiences and vice versa. But with many of your ideas I can completely agree to what you are experiencing because Bellian Aesthetics are extremely confusing and personally his ideas do not make any sense whatsoever, therefore being more confusing than advanced particle physics. An emotion is not a foreign language that we as humans cannot understand sometimes nor is it an undecipherable code that even the most accomplished white collar thief cannot break. As I discussed previously an emotion is built into our body from birth, and life experiences ranging from normal to traumatic activate those certain emotions (in a negative or positive way). So in general we (humans) are extremely capable of interpreting and feeling emotions whether they occur on a biological basis or on experience, they are prevalent in daily life.