Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Feelings are nothing more than chemical reactions in your brain due to hormones & neuropeptides: serotonin is soothing, dopamine is a high, adrenalin is excitement, female lust and altruism comes from oxytocin; endorphins assuage pain; and BDNF (Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor) magnifies them all. There's also the ever-important testosterone which brings ambition, aggression, anger and a lot more. The euphoric feeling you get during a good workout is from the norepinephrine produced when burning fat. MCH (Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin) is a pheromone; women can smell it, and interestingly enough, it's why opposites attract. These chemicals are where feelings come from and are what motivate humans.

Feelings obviously contribute evolutionary, otherwise we wouldn't have them. Unfortunately, since feelings are biological and not logical, they must be held in suspicion, especially in a stable social setting where they end up becoming more important than rationality. When someone else's feelings affect your personal autonomy that becomes a problem because what someone else feels should not dictate your actions. For example, the intense desire to be in control is a feeling; as are envy, anger & lust, all of which must be kept subsumed to rationality, except of course, to save the species, which is why feelings are the way they are.