We are not thinking machines that feel; rather, we are feeling machines that think.
I continue to be fascinated by the fact that feelings are not just the shady side of reason but that they help us to reach decisions as well.
Consciousness, much like our feelings, is based on a representation of the body and how it changes when reacting to certain stimuli. Self-image would be unthinkable without this representation.
Feeling of an emotion is a process that is distinct from having the emotion in the first place. So it helps to understand what is an emotion, what is a feeling, we need to understand what is an emotion.
Imagine, for example, birds. When they look out at the world, they have a sense that they are alive. If they are in pain, they can do something about it. If they have hunger or thirst, they can satisfy that. It's this basic feeling that there is life ticking away inside of you.
What happens [in a coma] is that you lose the grounding of the self, you no longer have access to any feeling of your own existence.
