Ethical judgment is not born from policies but begins as pre-verbal, physical sensations like a tightness or shift in the body. This 'gut feeling' is the raw data of ethical awareness. Ignoring these bodily cues means missing the foundational step of ethical formation, which occurs faster than rational thought.
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When a decision feels wrong despite looking perfect on paper, that 'tiny inkling in your gut' isn't just a fleeting feeling. For believers, it can be interpreted as the Holy Spirit providing crucial guidance. Learning to trust this internal nudge over external validation leads to better long-term outcomes.
Contrary to popular belief, intuition isn't just a "gut feeling" or brain pattern. Research, particularly from trauma studies like "The Body Keeps the Score," shows that wisdom and life patterns are physically embedded in the body's fascia and musculature.
The widespread and instinctual revulsion toward incest provides a strong case for emotivism. When pressed for a logical reason why it's wrong (beyond pragmatic concerns like birth defects), most people fall back on emotional expressions like 'it's just gross.' This suggests the moral judgment is rooted in a fundamental emotion, not a rational principle.
The 'butterflies' in your stomach are not just a metaphor; they are signals from an ancient G-force accelerometer in the gut. This system activates during moments of physical instability, like a fall, and emotional vulnerability, like falling in love, serving as a primal alarm for both.
Emotions are not superfluous but are a critical, hardcoded value function shaped by evolution. The example of a patient losing emotional capacity and becoming unable to make decisions highlights this. This suggests our 'gut feelings' are a robust system for guiding actions, a mechanism current AI lacks.
Emotions act as a robust, evolutionarily-programmed value function guiding human decision-making. The absence of this function, as seen in brain damage cases, leads to a breakdown in practical agency. This suggests a similar mechanism may be crucial for creating effective and stable AI agents.
The process of following your intuition is more important than the outcome. It eliminates the anxiety from going against your gut, making even 'wrong' decisions feel right and leading to less regret.
High-achievers default to a mind-first approach (logic, safety). True intuitive creation requires reversing this hierarchy: prioritize spirit (energy), then check in with the body (somatic response), and finally use the mind for execution and safety.
True ethical competence is not about always being right. It is the developed sensitivity to notice when your actions misalign with your values—when speed replaces care, for example. Skill lies in continuous, minor course corrections, not in demonstrating unwavering consistency or achieving perfect decisions from the outset.
We often assume our thoughts cause our feelings. However, the body frequently experiences a physical state first (e.g., anxiety from adrenaline), and the conscious mind then creates a plausible narrative to explain that feeling. This means the "reason" you feel anxious or unmotivated may be a story, not the root physical cause.
