Mood Heat
Another night out, another philosophical debate.
After consuming the 18th peanut, and judging by the blank stares of boredom on the faces gathered round the table, it seemed like a good time to share a philosophical dilemma that has been gnawing on my mind for a while. Needless to say, opinion was divided and sometimes even hostile.
So I'm posting it to you, and feel free to comment:
I should stay home more often...
After consuming the 18th peanut, and judging by the blank stares of boredom on the faces gathered round the table, it seemed like a good time to share a philosophical dilemma that has been gnawing on my mind for a while. Needless to say, opinion was divided and sometimes even hostile.
So I'm posting it to you, and feel free to comment:
Allegory: Warming and cooling are the subjective experiences of change in heat. Unlike 'heat', there is no entity termed 'coldness'. If heat decreases we feel colder, if it increases we feel warmer. There is only one variable though, and that is heat.
Question: In the subjective experience of happiness and sadness, what is the changing variable? What is the 'heat' here? Is happiness brought on by a decrease of sadness, or is sadness due to a decrease of happiness? In extension, is it the natural state of the human being to be happy or sad?
I should stay home more often...
posted by Ramzi at Tuesday, May 10, 2005
3 Comments:
I think sadness is the variable... We need to think that happiness is the constant or else we wouldn't have much purpose in our lives now, would we?
Let me just share with you this happiness definition i have hanging both at home and at the office...just a motto to try and live by :)
"What, then, is happiness? The answer is not complex. Happiness is simply a state of inner freedom. Freedom from what? with a bit of self-insight, every nidividual can answer that question for himself. It is freedom from the secret angers and anxieties we tell no one about. It is freedom from fear of being unappreciated and ignored, from muddled thinking that drives us to compulsive actions, and later, to regrets. It is freedom from painful cravings that deceive us into thinking that our attainment of this person or of that circumstance will make everything right. Happiness is liberty from everything that makes us unhappy."
Yeah, the motto you quote seems to suggest that sadness is the variable and I agree.
I don't think that it makes our lives without purpose though. It just changes our approach to make our life really more content: don't just add things that make you happy, instead remove things that make you sad... if you can.
Hmmm.. you have a point
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