Feelings are thus not the opposite of rationality – they embody evolutionary rationality. We usually fail to realise that feelings are in fact calculations, because the rapid process of calculation occurs far below our threshold of awareness. We don’t feel the millions of neurons in the brain computing probabilities of survival and reproduction, so we erroneously believe that our fear of snakes, our choice of sexual mates or our opinions about the European Union are the result of some mysterious ‘free will’.
Emotions are evolutionary calculations
