Not fully thought out thought

Imagine, fierce rage threatening to tear your soul asunder from the human husk it resides in, overwhelming need to rend and destroy the next creature that dares step foot in your path, and you have a friend who is witnessing such rage and begins to spout sage advice on how mother earth and the moon do not exist w/o one or the other so man cannot exist w/o positive and negative energies, but you must find the balance w/in to calm the angry beast inside of you.

Do you think philosophy should be used to help in this situation, and more broadly which circumstance do you believe philosophy should be used to diffuse anger? On that note, do you think philosophy should be used at all to diffuse anger foremost or any intense emotion thereafter?

Opinions anyone

Philosophy is used to understand and think, not control. You should control.

This doesn't mean that philosophy can't be used to understand your ability or need to control.

As for diffusing emotion, why not let emotion diffuse itself?

Very Valid point, though must say the use of philosophy to understand in a moment when you've gotten angry and philosophy helped ya out, doesn't always work for others. Not saying you you.

And there are plenty of times when control doesn't work to express how you feel, or I know it is for me. I pride myself on control, but on risk of mauling, sometimes it's better to spew forth with words, than with physical loss of control.

Emotions can diffuse themselves very true, but if it's something that gnaws at you and tortures you in the mind, then sometimes emotions just roil up other emotions rather than diffuse itself. Such as anger, can lead to sadness, or vice versa.

That's all part of the self-diffusal process in my experience. If it's something that gnaws at you and tortures your mind it's all the more important to let them reign free to a degree ... find out what's causing them and deal with them. Supressing them with philosophy or whatever is usually creating a timebomb instead of balance.

*Nods* I'm not saying I'd use philosophy, just sometimes if you're ranting at a friend and they happen to use philosophy on you to try to make you feel better, then it might make you want to be more angry, or just may clash with the need to just vent, if that makes sense.

And I do realize if someone's only going to use philosophy on you, chances are you should probably not vent/rant to that person overly much if it clashes. Heh

It's very rare that I use philosophy or have had people philosophize to me when I'm angry. It has happened but most people respond normally like "it could be worse" or "omg you're right it is pissing off" or "don't worry it'll pass"

as for myself...when i'm angry i'm just angry period...it either goes away eventually, does not really go away completely, or i'm like "count to 10 ths doesn't matter"

it's not really spouting philosophy as such for me

Cheekins also work wonders.

LOL yep...love 'em chickens..murdering em is therapeutic

*Shakes head for the poor chickens*

Usually when someones angry I just let them rant it out and wait for a moment when they want me to diffuse it for them. It's nice to make others feel better ^_^

But yeah, I have maybe two friends that use philosophy on me when angry, cause they don't know how to handle the level of it I guess. Freaks em out when get mad