< often, just adhering to the general rule that “less is more,” can be helpful. Try it, you may like it, and find in the long run that you’ll accomplish much more.

There is a difference between my academic work and my posts on online forums. If I spent a lot of time editing and revising my posts on online forums... Then I would be giving away for free stuff that I might be able to get published (and properly acknowledged) for. I offer what I offer. I spend more time here than I probably should (workwise)... I am what I am, same way as you are what you are...

> when I respond, I tend to be clear, concise, rigorous, and consistent

You tend to call people names, write off what they have to say by sneering at a caricature of it, and otherwise poke fun without taking the time and effort to clarify before running it down. You also tend to sneer instead of providing reasons for your dismissiveness. You might consider that to be 'intellectually honest' but I have to say that I consider it to be dismissive and hostile most of the time. I think that you have greater problems with interpersonal communication, however. Also I appreciate that I can't see your manner / tone of voice. It might be that you are joking / being tongue in cheek. I have no idea. But I'm determined not to rise to what sometimes seems to be 'baiting' in the absense of any real issue.

Basically... Reinforce the behaviours you want to see more of, ignore the behaviours you want to cease. If Fred pokes fun then control yourselves and ignore him. When Fred has a good point reinforce him taking the time to actually engage in the real issues by responding to him. That is the strategy I've decided to take (I post it for the benefit of others). And on that note:

> Regarding somewhere in your last post where you consider, “Is experiencing fear more like feeling pain or seeing red?”—Difficult question...

> “Fear” rarely, if ever happens in a vacuum, and generally seems to be accompanied by the other primary emotions of anger and perhaps sadness, and possibly disgust.

That might be so, but surely it is possible that one can experience fear without experiencing other emotions. Though... Depends on how you carve up 'kinds' of emotion. Anxiety might be a kind of fear. Or fear might be a kind of anxiety. I think it is possible for creatures to feel fear without being able to feel anger, sadness, and disgust. Maybe snakes? Not sure on this...

> Also, the so-called secondary emotions of shame, guilt, despair, etc., generally seem to accompany fear

Though not in rats and other 'lower' mammals. Shame, guilt, despair etc tend to be thought of as more paradigmatically human emotions.

Regarding the feeling pain / perceiving question... The notion is that:

- 'Pain' tends to refer to the phenomenology / feeling.
- 'perception' on the other hand, tends to refer to properties of the object that is perceived.

E.g., 'I am in pain' is true when and only when I have the phenomenology of pain (and what nerve damage I may or may not have is irrelevant to the truth conditions of the utterance).
'I see a red square' is true when and only when there is a red square that causes me to detect it visually (if there is not a red square in front of me then the utterence is false).

The problem of focus is why perceptions seem to refer to the state of the world whereas pain seems to refer to the phenomenology. Are emotions more like pains (so emotion terms refer to phenomenology) or more like perceptions (so emotion terms refer to bodily changes / brain state changes)?