After all the philosophy I study, and all the thinking I do, I sometimes wonder if I wouldn’t just be happier being ignorant. Not that philosophy depresses me at all, i mean i love it, it’s exciting stuff, but it also makes you question a lot about life. Compare all this thinking to living a life with one woman who you completely love, enjoying friends and family, raising children, and working at a job that you enjoy so much that it doesn’t even feel like work. Does simply enjoying what you have in life not seem more appealing than continuously thinking about questions that may never possibly be satisfactorily answered?
well…that all hinges on a few things…
1.) having the one woman you love
- i just got dumped, so women are on my shit list right now L
2.) having a job you enjoy
- there are VERY few people who really enjoy their jobs…
basically what you’re saying is if everything is perfect, why question it? absolutely. but i don’t think anyone on this board is 100% happy with where they’re at. sometimes you have to ask those questions to move into a different realm of happiness. i think people look at happiness in and of itself as black and white, when there’s really shades of it…that’s just me though.
so to answer your question, i think some ignorance brings about some bliss, but complete ignorance should get you a kick in the face.
Here’s something that I wish that I didn’t know: in ancient Roman times “the finger” was a hand gesture used to inquire if one enjoyed homosexuality.
This was just asked like 3 or 4 weeks ago…
ilovephilosophy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=147005
At anyrate here’s how I responded to this question in the previous thread:
…just my humble thoughts, anyways. 
BTW:
I love my job. I work at a Porsche/Audi/Land-Rover dealership as a test-driver. I’ve even driven the $475,000 Porsche Carrera GT (612 horsepower, 0-60 mph in 3.4 seconds, top speed 205 mph). and I get paid a TON to do so. And, I’m only 17 years old. 
Yes, and no.
But with all that bliss, life seems a little dull now doesn’t it? TV feeds your brain with crap, as you sit on your fat ass eating crap only to wake up the next day and feel like taking a blissful crap.
Is bliss the epitome of always going on vacation, or is it working your tail off and having that vacation feel really restful? Is a relationship bliss when you never argue? - it’s just love, love, love… and smiles, smiles, smiles only to realize that you have never talked about anything heavier than — should you have the linguini or the shells that week? Scary, that blissful existence, I think.
Is it more interesting to question who you are, why you are here, why you love, what floats your boat or what destroys your peace of mind? I think so. What is blissful if it isn’t getting out of your comfort zone and trying something bizarre; doing what you thought was impossible, or what once felt like a dream.
Grow, change, question, hurt, be seriously down, work hard, feel the pain and for godsakes BE UNCOMFORTABLE…
Life never felt so blissful than when I pushed my self out the door and took a chance on misery. Oh Yeah!!!
Ignorance is, in my humble opinion, niether a state of bliss, nor is it a state of non-bliss. Ignorance, in and of itself, is a “void” in the area of emotion. The lack of knowledge limits your ability to feel emotions either way.
But, as I said before, this is purely my opinion.
EXACTLY!!! 
Oh Bessy! Where would ILP be without you. You have an incredible ability to say what everyone wants to say, but does not know how!
wow… 
Practical ignorance… sigh So precious. =)
We can even ignore ignorance.
… Mental note to self: Do not finger people, places or things anymore.
Yes, Bessy is good. Many good people at ILP. Good, good, good! =) =) =)
I dont necessarily believe ignorance to be bliss, but rather the recognition and realization of ignorance.
I think ‘ignorance is bliss’ is a very circumstantial statement. I wouldn’t choose to be ignorant even if it meant complete and utter misery because misery and bliss color the world. Without a full spectrum life would became mediocre. I could explain this mathematically:
If life was consistantly rated on a scale of 1 to 10 we could give life the basic representation of x:y=10:1. ‘x’ being representative of the better part of life and ‘y’ being representative of the worse part of life.
Now if in life the worst I’d ever experienced is a broken bone, most of you wouldn’t give that a life ruining value, so we’ll put it somewhere around [3].
If the best I’d ever experienced is a kiss from a girl that I was extremely infatuated with most of you wouldn’t value that as bliss, so we’ll value it near [8].
In my mind, even though in yours my life is a 8:3, my life is a 10:1 because [8] is the best I’ve ever experienced and [3] is the worst.
Throwing in a twist lets say that my entire family died the next day. Now to most this would seem like an extreme tragedy in comparison to their lives maybe even [1]. So then in their view my life is 8:1, but in mine its still 10:1.
Getting the basics laid out lets now say that everyday of my life was complete and utter bliss [10] from the precise second I was born. Then the ratio of my life would be 10:10. Also lets make the point that what if my life was an absolute wreck from the precise second I was born. The ratio would become 1:1.
Well, both 10:10 and 1:1 are simply 1. Thusly the definition of misery and bliss would be lost to me and life would grow acceptable no matter to which degree I lived it because I wouldn’t know anything different.
I think when people state ‘ignorance is bliss’ that they are saying it is better not to know of your disfunction rather than you shouldn’t seek knowledge. For my final example:
If a boy was mentally handicapped (from this point on I’ll simply use the term “retarded” for sake of typing) and someone told him he was retarded and showed him how much more intelligence there was and what capacity humans actually had he would become miserable, because he would know he was extremely limited and never would have the same opportunities as everyone else. Now, if the boy lived his entire life thinking that everybody was of the same intelligence as him he would be happy because he wouldn’t know of the lost opportunities or the limit on his capacity. For him ignorance would be bliss.
I find it interesting that you bring up mentally-handicapped people. It is evident that people who are mentally-handicapped do not suffer from many of things that we do.
Consider the terroists attackts on 9/11, for example. If one was mentally-handicapped to the point to where such a tragedy is not comprehenable, then no negative emotionaly effects will come to that person, correct?
So, in some sense, I feel it could be justly stated that mentally-handicapped people have a sort of “emotional-immunity”. That can’t be hurt by that which they have no ability to understand.
However, this does not necessarily mean that we are left with nothing but bliss.
…just my humble ramblings, anyways.
A very good point, but thats exactly what I was trying to say. That which we do not comprehend (by choice or by circumstance) can not harbor us negative emotions. Thats what I think the basis of ‘ignorance is bliss’ is. Also another example:
If a patient is going into shock and dying and he will undoubtably die, but the doctors assure him completely that he is perfectly alright and give him anesthetics so he doesn’t feel anything. Will he be afraid that he is dying? Ignorance is bliss.
sometimes.
I see it in terms of the examined or the unexamined life. I reckon pretty much every animal leads a unexamined life (that is, they don’t ponder their own existence or the meaning thereof) and that one animal - us - lives a life that alternates between being examined and unexamined. Complete morons probably only spend a few fleeting moments of their whole lives examining their existences, whereas philosophers and other deep-thinkers could spend of-the-order-of-half their time examining it.
If you live an examined life (ie, it’s occasionally examined) then continuous ignorance isn’t an option. Temporary ignorance is perfectly possible - just get stoned or pissed! But if you’re unhappy with the world and/or your own life, then you’re lumbered with the insurmountable challenge of “easing the pain of consciousness” as I believe John Gray put it.
So my answer is: yes, ignorance can take away worries and give a kind of bliss, but the problem is we can’t make ourselves ignorant all of the time. 
Incidentally, I’m not a expert on Nietschze, but isn’t it fair to say that a characteristic of a true Ãœbermensch is a state of mind in which he’s fully content with himself and the world around him (so he’d have no reason to accept any “ignorance pills”)?
Aristotle said:
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Therefore even if ignorance was bliss (which I don’t believe it to be) that doesn’t mean it would be worth it to live ignorantly.
I know some very smart and some very ignorant people. Both of which can be very happy (blissful) and very miserable. I do not believe that any person’s ignorance is relative to their bliss. Even in the most simple context, pain is still painful, ignorant or not.
Ignorance is Bliss, I think, is just a way for poeple to say, “The only reason I’m sad and your happy is becuase you’re ignorant and i’m not.” 
Is ignorance bliss?
Yes.
I’m living proof.
dont u think that maybe it is worthwhile finding happiness in this life? there are many reasons why we should believe that there is no life after death…so why don’t we accept the current life that we live? I’ve spoken about loving one person in your life and I really do feel that way…I am at that point in my life where I am seriously in love with a long term g/f and there is nothing more I would love then to marry her…so why should I worship a God instead of her? I think that we should live life as it is given to us because we will never experience anything else…to learn to enjoy and appreciate everything that occurs in your life provides the greatest happiness imaginable…so why don’t we think this way?
I’m pretty sure that was Plato…
I’m sorry, neither of us are correct. It was actually Socrates that proclaimed the famous axiom:
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
I was feeling rather feverish and my mind had a meltdown.