198 Self and the Phenomenon of Life
b2726 Self and the Phenomenon of Life: A Biologist Examines Life from Molecules to Humanity “9x6”but primitive urge can also undermine rational decision. David Hume
emphasized that reason alone cannot motivate human behavior, but
rather humans are the “slave of passions.”^38 Wundt in 1907 asserted the
primacy of affective reactions over rational thinking, stating that ratio-
nal thinking often follows an action in order to justify it, sometimes even
to falsely justify it.^39 In an article carrying the revealing title Preferences
Need no Inferences, Zayonc in 1980 expounded on the fact that people
frequently make important life choices without knowing why they do
it. He stated: “People do not get married or divorced, commit murder
or suicide, or lay down their lives for freedom upon a detailed cognitive
analysis of the pros and cons of their actions”^40 Even in the judicial sys-
tem, decisions can be tainted by non-rational factors. The US Supreme
Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once remarked that “the life of
the law has not been logic; it has been experience.” It was argued that
the rational application of legal reasons does not sufficiently explain
judicial decisions, and that psychological and other factors influence
rulings as well. A recent paper published in the Proceedings of the US
National Academy of Sciences reported that judges are more lenient to
the offenders when they hear the case immediately after taking a meal
than when they are hungry and tired.^41
9.10 Emotional Interpretation of Pain and Pleasure
Pain is unique among sensory modalities in that it has strong existential
overtone.
As the saying goes, “if it hurts, it’s me.” A limb loses its intimacy if it
no longer feels pain (as in stroke), and people in excruciating pain often
prefer to die rather than live. Ordinarily, pain delineates our body image,
and helps distinguish physical self from non-self. There are two types
of pain, the discriminative and the affective. It is the second type that
is inseparable from emotion. The same stimulus feels more painful if it
occurs in a highly disagreeable background than one that is not. So is one
that is more life-threatening. The emotional interpretation of pain takes