Again I am new here and I suspect much
older then most here.
I have read detrop and his current problems with
interest and I avoid offering advice, but I think
his issues/problem do have a philosophical aspect.
What is the real value of philosophy?
It is to help us understand AND to cope with
the world at large. I survive (barely)
my own “Sturm und Drang” years.
Philosophy shows/teaches us that the world
is really less about the world and more about our
response to it. For example, the whole post I brought
up about, is the universe orderly or chaotic?
And that is a fairly important point, yet the
it matters more, what one THINKS about it, then
actually whither the universe is orderly or chaotic.
Everything begins and ends with our perception
of what is happening instead of what is actually happening.
Philosophy teaches us what is really important because
it teaches us to understand our perceptions.
I have a 20 year old daughter and I see her responding
in wildly different ways to what seems to be minor at best
events. Yet, really important events she does not even
really respond to them. But that is the point.
what events are really important?
What is really worth responding too and what
is really worth not paying any attention to.
A short term relationship is worth hurting someone over?
Ah, no.
I see an event that is not worth getting all worked up about
and others might see an event worth starting world war 3.
It is all about perceptions and philosophy teaches us to
understand those perceptions and from there we can
understand what is truly important in our lives.
The Greeks had a word for it, eudaimonia. Blessedness, or happiness is the usual translation. It comes from “eu” which is good or well, and “daimonia” which is spirit or soul, but also can be fate. The search is for eudaimonia. Your daughter is searching for it in her “short term” relationship or the need to hurt someone, and we are searching for it in our “short term” lives. This is the purpose of philosophy. There is no reason to lift a finger of an argument if you are not in search of this.
I actually don’t believe people search for
happiness. The truth is people just simply accept
this idea without actually doing some thinking what
is the “POINT”. Life, liberty and and the pursuit of
happiness has been a tangent that has lead people astray,
into the wrong direction. Happiness is what exactly?
Different for each person. Right?
And meaning what for each person?
I believe that the real pursuit is for the truth, of
which happiness is a subset.
I have seen many people when happiness was standing
right there and only needed to be accepted and those people
sabotage themselves by walking by, or making a different choice
or outright dumped the path to happiness.
I too have done this. I had two choices, two
women and I could have taken the easy path to happiness,
but noooooooooo. I picked badly and paid the price.
This is many years ago and in a galaxy far, far, away.
The search is for some truth to believe in and
that is what confuses people.
They often don’t know what to search for,
don’t know what to “believe in” and this is the value
of philosophy. Instead of just accepting some given answer,
“search for happiness” they can understand their choices.
The search for happiness implies some easy to find
conclusion, whereas the search for a truth/truths
often has no such easy answers, indeed may never
find an answer. For detrop, it may not be someone,
but it may be some idea worth living for, worth dying for.
Happiness is only one part of the search for the truth.
You mention that you have seen many people abandon happiness in search of truth. Well I have seen many people abandon truth in search of happiness. “Ignorance is Bliss” And you say happiness is a subset of truth, I think its the other way around, truth is a subset of happiness. I whole heartedly believe we are nothing but machines designed to seek out the circumstances neccessary for the release of the chemicals involved in pleasure. You say you yourself made a choice to abandon happiness, by not going with a girl. May I ask why you chose not to go with the girl or whatever choice you made, and what did persuit of truth have to do with it?
If some one says that they did this or that in persuit of the truth, I can merely ask, why do you persue truth? Or any reason given begs the question of why that reason is acceptable. Only one reason stands alone. If some one asks me why I did this or that, I can say, because it brings me pleasure. So they ask, why persue pleasure? I think it is fairly obvious to everyone why to persue pleasure. Simply because it feels… well… Good… How else do you describe pleasure other than Good. But it is not Good that defines pleasure, it is pleasure that defines good, and pain that defines bad. Really, define to me what is Good and what is Bad if not pleasurable and painfull. I am sure you know exactly what pleasure is, you have felt it, and pain. And all we use to define them is that pleasure is good, and is something to persue, and pain is bad, and is something to avoid. There is no answer to why persue pleasure, other than because it is pleasurable. And do you know why we have this problem of qualifying pleasure and pain. Because pleasure and pain are the quallifiers for all of life. We are trying to quallify our quallifier, and this cannot be done. Just like we cannot experience our self. We cannot see hear or touch this sense of self we have, simply because its this sense of self that does all the seeing hearing and touching. We can never trully see our eyes. We can see a reflection, but never can we actually see OUR eyes, because an observer cannot trully observe itself, and a quallifier cannot quallify itself. Pain and pleasure stand alone, if asked why one does something and Pleasure is the reason, no further questions are required, because Pleasure is pleasurable, it is the only stand alone reason, because it IS the only reason.