INSTINCTS, EMOTIONS AND FEELINGS: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY LINGUAL-AND-PSYCHOLOGICAL MEGA-CLASSIFICATION

Abstract

The paper presents a substantiation of a hypothetical mega-classification of instincts, emotions and feelings. The classification has been worked out by applying the content based semantic analysis of centuries-old interdisciplinary lingual-and-psychological knowledge on the basis of the author’s orthodox-and-alternative approach, the orthodox element being represented by the energy of human instincts, while the alternative elements signify the feelings experienced by the individual. The methodology for modeling an interdisciplinary mega-classification is based on the idea of organic synthesis of related conceptual views of philosophy, cognitive science, a systemic approach, synergetics and cybernetics. The logical procedure of structuring the conceptual elements of mega-classification comprises the following: (1) the hierarchy of elements along the vector of psycho-physiological energy movement according to the sequence of acts of origin and self-development of the individual’s speaking-and-thinking cognitive activities viewed as a single uninterrupted synergetic process; (2) the location of the multitude of elements in the morphological rows of each hierarchical level according to the vector (or criterion) of their energetic (or emotional-and-pragmatic) potential is in the direction from larger elements to smaller ones; (3) direct and reverse links between the elements of all the levels of classification being viewed as an open cybernetic system. The paper shows the multifunctional potential of mega-classification as a universal methodological tool for the interdisciplinary cognitive study that allows the researcher to use it as a reliable instrument for a number of scientific procedures. Such procedures include: conventionalization of the interdisciplinary notions and terms of cognitive sciences; effective formation of working classifications within the scope of each specific cognitive search, which, as is known, performs the role of methodological grounds in the development of any experimental research program and methodology; the substantiation of an integrated strategy and system of the unified tactics for conducting statistical cognitive mega-experiments. The scientific potential of mega-classification also lies in the creation of a computerized data basis of the results of studying instincts, emotions and feelings, being indexed according to their mega-classification as well as in the quantitative evaluation of statistical regularities of the individuals’ psycho-physiological energies circulation in typical communicative situations. The mega-classification can serve as a basis for finding out the norms of quantitative indicators, or energetic thresholds of psychophysiological energy characteristics of various types of the individual’s cognitive activities, considering that the excess of this energy leads to the fixation of the acquired instincts and stable complexes of the derived feelings in human’s memory. The multifunctional potential of the offered mega-classification can be realized in systemic planning and carrying out of the subsequent interdisciplinary cognitive scientific research of the objects of any area of the existing boundless object-sphere comprising psycho-, socio-, and physiological phenomena as well as in the optimization of further generation of corresponding hypothetical constructs, terminological definitions and mathematical images for a verbal and graphical interdisciplinary description of the phenomena studied by cognitive scientists.