It has been a point of debate on this and other forums many times. The scientific community require scientific proof, for any given phenomenon.
The more esoteric will say, some things "just are" you cant always prove it.
It occurred to me, is there anything that we can think of (and i don't mean UFOs or Ghosts) that we take for granted, that none would debate exists, that cannot be quantified, measured and proven by science. I think maybe we should stick to everyday things and keep away from life after death and angels and God and so on. Something closer to home.
I guess we should define what scientific proof consists of. Not everyone is familiar with what scientific proof is defined as. I am not game to try and answer that one as I know there are others here better qualified to do that. SO perhaps someone else can do that for us.

But as far as my question goes. How about an emotion. If I say I dislike someone, or if I say I am jealous of someones property. Can it be proven by science. I have no doubt that I dislike that person, or that I am jealous that they have a nice car. If I say, i don't like Tom Cruise, no one here would doubt me. You would all take me on my word. But can science prove it?

That is a tough one, Dundee.
Are not emotions the interactions of chemicals in our brains?

Yes they are. But what I am getting at is this. Have they been quantified, can some scientist somewhere, take some measurement of me, and say, hey I think you are feeling jealous. We all accept the existence of jealousy. But according to many arguments posed here. If it has not been quantified, measured and reproduced using scientific method. We should no be believing in it. Note I am saying "Have they been quantified" Not could we quantify it. Because if all the scientist believe in the existence of jealousy, and to date it has not been proven to exist, then that defy's the scientific process.
Anyway, jealousy was just one. Can anyone think of something else?

You cannot accurately quantify jealousy. It may be that some scientists claim to be able to detect the existence of jealousy through monitoring someone's brain, maybe even by the strength of activity in a particular part of the brain to have some indication of its intensity, but the accuracy of such a determination I cannot vouch for.

So Andrew, does this mean you don't believe jealous exists because it has yet to be proven to exist by science. You have just stated that it may be possible to measure it, but you cant vouch for its accuracy.
Does that mean that all these years you have been believing in the existence of something on the basis of...well it just is...or does that mean that you don't believe in jealousy because you have yet to see it quantified, so it is just a theory...like ghosts, or faith?
Now I don't want you to rush out and find me a paper on emotions and how to measure them. I am talking about in the past, up until now. It seems apparent by your post, that at least at the time you posted it, you had yet to discover any scientific measurement.
Many times skeptics/scientist here have brushed away a beleif in something because it cant be proven by science
What about love, or dislike?

There are two problems with quantifying emotions and thoughts. The first is the downright complexity of the human brain, we understand how each part works and what it does, and we understand how the low level details work, but there are simply so many neurons involved in emotions and thought that we would be unable to handle the data. Second is the observer principle. Right now we can measure the energy given off by neurons when an electric charge goes through them, but we can only do it on small localized areas at a time, to accurately 'read' emotions they would need to measure such a large part that the apparatus would surely kill you.

As far as proving the mechanisms behind the emotions and thoughts, we have done enough data analysis to determine what areas are associated with what, and through further research we know the interactions between neurons. So while we cannot quantify the thought itself, we know through inference how the thought is created and propagated.

Does psychology not count as a science? Because that is precisely what psychologists do.

Also remember that science is a process, we will never have actually quantified everything.

I didn't say I didn't understand the difficulty involved. What I am trying to get at here is. Is there anything that science cannot prove to exist using the scientific process. That scientist are willing to accept as existing. If you hook up the best of machines science and medicine can buy, and look at the readings. Can you prove or disprove my asserting that I am either feeling jealousy, or not feeling jealousy. You said "So while we cannot quantify the thought itself, we know through inference how the thought is created and propagated."

A definition of Inference...
Inference is the act or process of deriving a conclusion based solely on what one already knows.

Is that accurate, and more importantly, is that enough to fulfil the requirements of scientific proof? We know in a ballpark way how our brain works. Is is enough to infer that I am jealous by some chemical activity??
Can you measure that activity and accurately assert I am feeling jealous?

The point I am making is, so many times in the past skeptics have used the lack of scientific proof argument to discount another's belief in UFOs.

If you can't prove to me scientifically, using the same argument that many have to discount UFOs, that jealousy exists. Then where does that leave a scientist, who is jealous of his wifes infidelity. Surely that is a conundrum of the highest order.

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Or does a scientist just believe in the emotion jealousy, because of education and the fact that he has been taught it is an emotion.
Or does a scientist just believe because, well he has experienced it, it just is.
Because there are many who could say the same about God, faith and UFO's. They know what they know. They have experienced it. It just is!

Yes, all emotions can be measured. They can use a common radio antenna for this. Also, almost all emotion (including all types of love) can be duplicated by machine. ("Love" in it's strongest form is just two frequencies rapidly alternating faster than 25 cycles per second)

To see how you feel on a subject, you can impose thoughts on another, then use the above "emotion detector" to see how the person feels about it.

I am trying not to get unreal. I think you could imagine that if Tesla said emotions could be controled you may or may not have some faith in him (he is not the only one). And as for "impose ones thoughs on another", lol, that is easy! "Joe!, Joe!, are you lisening to me?" Wifes do it all the time! (I am of course not talking about mine)

You can measure the casuality of jealousy, using psychoanalytic profiles. If a man cheats on his wife (the cause) then she becomes angry (the effect). We can say that violent actions due to this anger are directly correlative to the cheating, this all manifests itself as 'anger'.

Yes, you can measure the causality of many things. But can you hook me up to a machine somewhere. And if i am trying to hide any outward signs of my emotional state, you know nothing of my background or activities. Look at the readings of the machine and accurately predict if I am jealous or not?
Can the emotion itself be measured?