Rant About Human Emotions

We could apply the logic that George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel applied to Immanuel Kant's definitions for thesis, antithesis, and synthesis to describe and understand the constant tension that exists between the different human emotions that we may experience at any moment of our lives. However, in order to apply this logic to a particular human emotion, we would need to know which is the exact opposite human emotion that could be the cause of constant tension. For example, if we apply Hegel's logic to the human emotion of fear, first we need to define what we mean by fear. Then we would need to find the human emotion that can be defined as the complete opposite. In the interest of time, I propose that the human emotion opposite to fear is trust.

Following Hegel's logic, if fear and trust are the exact opposite of the same phenomenon, we could say that fear is the thesis and trust the antithesis, or vice versa. Once we have clearly defined and  identified the thesis and antithesis, the challenge becomes to be able to determine what the synthesis is. I believe that identifying the synthesis is much easier said than done, especially when we consider human emotions.

In order to facilitate the identification of several basic emotions in terms of thesis and antithesis, I have developed the following color of human emotions chart.