Sure, thinking is necessary, and I can still make certain choices in my life without my ability to feel positive emotions. But, our thinking alone doesn't allow us to see goodness, beauty, tragedy, horror, and worth in things. Only our emotions do that. We need to have a positive perspective in life, which means we must see goodness, beauty, magnificence, and worth in things, and avoid a negative perspective, where we see things as bad, horrible, disgusting, tragic, etc.
So, our goal in life should be the positive emotions, since they're the only positive perspectives, which means they're what are important. So many people say that we should have a positive perspective in life, and avoid a negative perspective, since having a negative perspective is no way to live. Well then, we need positive emotions, and we should avoid negative emotions, since negative emotions are no way to live.
A life without emotions (apathy) is also no way to live. If you wish to know how how our emotions are the only positive and negative perspectives, then I'll explain. If you have a proud thought, then that thought will make you feel proud (a positive emotion). If you have the thought that something's beautiful, then that thought would make you feel that this thing is beautiful, and that feeling of beauty would be a positive emotion.
Feelings are how we experience things. For example, feeling hungry is how we experience hunger, feeling thirsty is how we experience thirst, feeling sleepy is how we experience sleepiness, feeling love (a positive emotion) is how we experience love, feeling pride and happiness (positive emotions) is how we experience pride and happiness, and feeling that life's beautiful is how we experience life as beautiful.
Perception and experience are the same thing. For example, if you're seeing (perceiving) the color red, then you're experiencing red, and vice versa. If you're feeling that life's beautiful, then you're experiencing life as beautiful, which is the same thing as saying you're seeing (perceiving) beauty in life. In addition, if you feel love, you're experiencing love, and that's the same thing as having a loving perspective. So, that's why we need positive emotions to see goodness, beauty, and worth in things, and to have a happy, loving perspective.
Again, a life without a positive perspective/outlook is no way to live, and that's why a life without positive emotions is no way to live. If you lose your positive emotions, then you lose your ability to perceive/experience things as good, beautiful, and worth living for, and you'd lose your ability to experience love and happiness, just as how you'd lose your ability to experience hunger, thirst, and sleepiness if you lost your ability to feel hungry, thirsty, and sleepy.
