happiness

[robertlc53]

in your opinion, what is happiness?

[billyjack]

balls. that's a toughy. its depends-- one minute this or that might brighten up my day; the next minute this or that annoys me. i guess it comes from within or something like that.

one method for finding happiness that i've liked for a while is this, from the gay science (nietzche)

preist says, "how does one find happiness?"
vagabond replies, "admire yourself and live on the streets."
preist refutes, "no! admiring yourself is quite sufficient."
vagabond says, "but how can one admire oneself always without eventually feeling contempt."

the point is we need contrast. we can't be happy all the time. be happy to be unhappy-it gives meaning to happiness.

[AimusSage]

It's a chemical state in the brain.

What you should be asking is how you can achieve this state.

[Lust Hogg]

To suggest that happiness can be reduced simply to a brain state in no way resembles a thorough explanation of what happiness is. Yeah the transferal of serotonin or dopamine form neuron to neuron constitutes happiness in a scientific paradigm, but if a scientist was analyzing my brain and such state was observed, could he infer from the physiological conditions of my brain what internal or external phenomenon had triggered this reaction. Or , why certain external conditions occasion this chemical release rather than others? I doubt it.

[AimusSage]

To suggest that happiness can be reduced simply to a brain state in no way resembles a thorough explanation of what happiness is. Yeah the transferal of serotonin or dopamine form neuron to neuron constitutes happiness in a scientific paradigm, but if a scientist was analyzing my brain and such state was observed, could he infer from the physiological conditions of my brain what internal or external phenomenon had triggered this reaction. Or , why certain external conditions occasion this chemical release rather than others? I doubt it.

Wow, thank you for saying exactly the same as I did.

[Lust Hogg]

Maybe you failed to understand, but i don't think a blank, unsusbtantiated, assertion like" it is a brain state" is a comprehensive enough explanation, that's all. yah, i took what you said and suggested that it was inadequate.

[AimusSage]

I guess you missed the second sentence I wrote in that post. :)

[billyjack]

I guess you missed the second sentence I wrote in that post. :)

in response to that second sentence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fFHtj2ut4Y

be proud of who you are! a nice, simple method for happiness

[Lust Hogg]

yeah, i was just trying to suggest that brain states, offer no explanation. but i definitely agree with that second sentence. i just have a problem with reductive physicalists who naively assume that a physiological analysis can explain every phenomenon of human beings mental life. And yeah i focused more so on the first sentence haha.

[robertlc53]

billyjack i understand you touching on the subject of balance. a critical factor of happiness. too much pleasure corrupts. too much work shackles the faculties for imagination and sympathy. i would not want to be a vagabond though. i cant handle that much humility bahahaaha.

aimus sage i agree with what you say. it is in its simplest form a chemical reaction. everything is a consequence of something else. which is why i believe something had to be the immovable mover. ie god.

lust hogg your name intrigues me firstly. from the moment i saw it i thought to myself: "hm does this person horde and relish as much sex as possible" haha. that is my interpretation i understand anything can be lusted after but i thought of sex. also, you argue that a scientist could not possibly know the origin of such a chemical reaction in one's brain. could you elaborate because in my humble opinion i believe that if a scientist were observing a person and monitoring the effects of chemicals in one's brain, would the environment not be a controlled one, suggesting that all the potential stimuli are under control?

[blazeofglory]

Happiness is a reaction to a stimulus and nothing else. We become happy when things go the way we want, and we become sad when things do not go our way.

And of course things do not go the way we want in nature. In nature there is a perpetual combat and we human beings are battling with life.

There are more threats to us. Primitively man had threats all the time. He had to run away from aggressions of wild animals, from natural calamities. And when he was safe with his family members in the cave fully secured he became happy and it was a rare moment.

Today also we become happy if we have a good job or a good source of income, caring parents or spouses, good social environments. When all these things go in perfect order we become happy or else we are sad.
More often than not all these factors, environments do not go favouring us, and they tend to go in opposite dirrection.

The world is full of pandemoniums and to get harmony or order out of it is a rare phenomenon.