To what extent are the various emotions or passions adaptive traits?

Do strong emotions preclude reason and rational thinking? What are the positive aspects of emotions? How important are raw emotions for creative expression?

What are the physiological manifestations of anger/fear and exhilaration/pleasure? Laughter and weeping, and ongoing drives like hunger and sex, are "tension and release" phenomena. What other aspects of the human experience are governed by tension and release?

Given that faith is absolute conviction in the absence of material evidence, can we say that it has a significant emotional component? What is religious ecstasy/inspiration?

What aspects of individual reason are seriously compromised in a large group setting? How do the collective emotions manifest themselves in tribalism and nationalism? Are extreme group behaviors a kind of frenzy or collective madness?

Living in the realm between beasts and angels, our animal drives and raw emotions loom large. Our passions are fundamental rather than added flavor or inconvenient diversions to be mastered by reason.

Higher than the beasts, we do not live only in the now. We anticipate our fortune and our suffering. We are aware of our emotions and what triggers them, but not entirely so. Sometimes, we seem unable to rein them in until after the fact. The roots of our passions are involuntary. They can break through to the surface quite unannounced.