RetroAdventurer

You believe there is always a thought in-between. I would really do some observation to see emotion in action. I agree beauty and pain are not emotions; if you feel relief at not being killed, that will also be faster than thought.

Before feeling relieved that you weren’t killed, you have to realize you could have been killed and weren’t. That realization is a thought.

That argument is logical, that every emotion is based on some mental inference - but they're not always, many emotions are not logical at all.

Yes, every emotion is based on a mental inference. That doesn’t mean the inference is correct or logical or that the emotion is appropriate. For example, you may think a stimuli is dangerous and thus feel fear, but in reality the stimuli is actually harmless.

You're projecting that a thought is always there though, it really warrants testable observation rather than a hypothesis.

What could cause an emotion if not a thought? A physical response to a stimuli is not an emotion, it’s a sensation. Every thought is not conscious, so there may be subconscious thoughts causing some of your emotions.

Granted that mat be possible, we're now assuming a ghost in a machine and we could equally assume subconscious emotions. But we can easily just observe our emotions and notice the speed difference.

Nope. You’re making stuff up again. We’ve exhausted this topic. I’m done. Goodbye.