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Happiness

Happiness

CypressMoon
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1 of 1 people found this post helpful Posted 04/18/08 - 02:24 PM: Subject: Happiness	#1
Well, after a rather long break of doing philosophy here at PF, I have aquired much residue from the experience of a "lived-life" (i.e. animating myself in the world as opposed to thinking about metaphysics.). The causes for this thread on Happiness, are really rather supurfluous, as I would like to focus on what Happiness is; but, if you feel it necessary to delve into causes, then by any and all means, do so. Now, my tactics are to extrapolate, intensify, and eternalize a holistic "experience" that would give me Happiness. Now, of course there are all sorts of inductive problems with this, and it is unfeasable, and false according to my beliefs. But, none the less, I would indeed like to experience an eternally lasting, and infinitely pleasurable orgasm, accompanied with eternally lasting, and infinitely pleasurable Love. So, we have infinite euphoria, and infinite pleasure, occuring at the same time. Sounds delightful to me! But, it is absurd... So, I don't want to get into any therapuetic techniques, that serve as an alternative to happiness, such as meditation, or any type of escapeism for that matter. I want to be immersed in a social structure, and achieve a happiness. I don't want us to deny the confine's of culture. But, of course, if you believe in the transcendence of culture, then we'll talk. So, I leave the discussion fairly open with this question: How does one achieve a happiness in life?
_____________________ "We stand before the world, not in it." - Rilke "MAD, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence; not conforming to standards of thought, speech and action derived by the conformants from study of themselves; at odds with the majority; in short, unusual." - Ambrose Bierce (The Devil's Dictionary) If you have a small child, gently pull the mask over them first, and pull at the ends to tighten the straps.

CypressMoon
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1 of 1 people found this post helpful Posted 04/18/08 - 04:21 PM:	#2
I'm sure that our notions of what will make us happy are "deep-rooted", in that these notions are products of an enculturated embedment in our pathology, that stem from the moment we are "cast away" into this world, to borrow from Heidegger. The notion of happiness is a historically and, I'm afraid culturally continget notion, that is constructed through the (sometimes) unconscious (?) limitations of the case at hand / the mind-world conflict / or the human condition, and the enculturation of our psyche. It is most certainly "deep-rooted" given the relatively vast physical limitation differences between each person that is "cast-away". How do I begin thinking about what will make me happy? To delve into my deep-rooted dispositions, I have consciously tried to reject conventional culture as of late, and have not transcended any particular culture, but have created a micro-culture, in which I am the only member. My beliefs are beginning to explode out of some quasi-form of logistical thinking, wherein I have discovered that the rejection of a particular property of culture (e.g. the walt-disney incarnated fairy tales that propagate the american dream and passivity / the stasis of the self etc.) is certainly possible through the "raggedy edge of reason" (180Proof). This rejection forces one into a hermetic lifestyle - a life of isolation and contemplation. I'm beginning to think, that this isolation is a neccessary component of the path towards happiness. It is my working hypothesis, that ambiguous, metaphysical knowledge (even physics is metaphysical, in this sense), when applied to a more complex real, will shed light on the uplifting truth of the particular case at hand...
_____________________ "We stand before the world, not in it." - Rilke "MAD, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence; not conforming to standards of thought, speech and action derived by the conformants from study of themselves; at odds with the majority; in short, unusual." - Ambrose Bierce (The Devil's Dictionary) If you have a small child, gently pull the mask over them first, and pull at the ends to tighten the straps.

Floyd
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Posted 04/18/08 - 08:00 PM:	#3
To simplify, can't we just say that happiness is getting what one wants or having what one wants? I would argue that a person may never have complete happiness because one needs desire to exercise willpower. One cannot or at least will not make choices if they do not have desires upon which to base those choices. In other words, a person can never have everything they want; a person always wants more. Perhaps the only way one can eliminate desire completely is to cease to exist all-together. That puts an interesting light on the correlation between suicide and depression.
_____________________ Short and to the point. \| Online Philosophy Club \| Book & Reading Forums \| My Philosophy Articles "Only the descent into the hell of self-knowledge can pave the way to godliness." ~Immanuel Kant

CypressMoon
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Posted 04/19/08 - 03:04 AM:	#4
Floyd wrote: To simplify, can't we just say that happiness is getting what one wants or having what one wants? How do you know that getting what you want is going to make you happy. I've wanted many things, and non-things, and have recieved them, but I don't consider myself happy. This is really a problem of properly ontologizing to me. It is a faulty map in relation to the landscape. Floyd wrote: I would argue that a person may never have complete happiness because one needs desire to exercise willpower. I don't understand what you mean by "desire" in this sentence. What is desire? And further, what is willpower? Floyd wrote: a person always wants more. I think I would disagree with this sentence. I'm sure that there is someone out there, somewhere, that doesn't want any more. This is really crucial to your argument. I'm open to your ideas, Floyd, but it must be compelling for me to adopt it. Floyd wrote: Perhaps the only way one can eliminate desire completely is to cease to exist all-together. That puts an interesting light on the correlation between suicide and depression. Is desire the relationship between epistemically framed expectations and a dialectical ontology? I certainly think we're getting somewhere with this. Thanks for your insights.
_____________________ "We stand before the world, not in it." - Rilke "MAD, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence; not conforming to standards of thought, speech and action derived by the conformants from study of themselves; at odds with the majority; in short, unusual." - Ambrose Bierce (The Devil's Dictionary) If you have a small child, gently pull the mask over them first, and pull at the ends to tighten the straps.

keda
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Posted 04/19/08 - 07:32 AM:	#5
Be a good servant of life, and life will reward you. The reason why you find yourself unhappy, even after great efforts trying to achieve happiness, and even with all the riches of the world available to you, is because you live an unbalanced life.
_____________________ Free Europe Now The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. -Benjamin Franklin If my sons did not want wars, there would be none - Gutle Rothschild It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people who count the votes - Josef Stalin Sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace - Bob Dylan A prolonged peace favours the predominance of a mere commercial spirit, and with it a debasing self-interest, cowardice, and effeminacy, and tends to degrade the character of the nation. - Immanuel Kant

unenlightened
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Posted 04/19/08 - 07:43 AM:	#6
Perhaps it is so that desire is always wanting more. A person may not always have desire... Getting what one wants seems to end desire, or at least provoke a change of desire, but we may just recently have learned to call that happiness. I think I tend to find that happiness for me is when I am not thinking about desires at all, but am engaged, 'occupied' with the world. Desire,by contrast is an emptiness, a lack of something - dissatisfaction.
_____________________ The observer is the observed. J Krishnamurti "Philosophy, to the Philistine, is an evolutionary process, watched over by some sort of brisk dynamic Providence, and culminating in the supreme insight of modern thought." John Cowper Powys

kris
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Posted 04/19/08 - 04:10 PM:	#7
CypressMoon wrote: But, none the less, I would indeed like to experience an eternally lasting, and infinitely pleasurable orgasm, accompanied with eternally lasting, and infinitely pleasurable Love. So, we have infinite euphoria, and infinite pleasure, occuring at the same time. Sounds delightful to me! I think one needs to look at the ingredients that go into the makings of orgasm and love. To produce orgasm, we can safely postulate, based on experience, that at a minimum, matter and energy are involved. While love may be ehanced by effects of matter and energy, they are not absolutely essential for love. The involvement of matter and energy is at best incidental to love. In order for an orgasm to be eternally lasting, one would thus need an eternal "refueling" with matter and energy. I am not sure we can do that, since matter tends to disintegrate with time and energy tends to dissipate with time. Love, on the other hand, being independant of matter and energy, could possibly be experienced eternally. This is what makes eternal orgasm sound absurd. I'm sure that our notions of what will make us happy are "deep-rooted", in that these notions are products of an enculturated embedment in our pathology, that stem from the moment we are "cast away" into this world, to borrow from Heidegger. If our pathalogy is culture derived, then it suggests that transcendence of culture might be necessary to grow happiness beyond the limits that culture imposes. Of course, I don't think we are "cast away" into this world. If indeed we are "cast away" that would seem like an unsurmountable limitation in itself. For any micro culture to work, it would need to be self-sustaining. In any case, I don't think isolation from social structure is necessary. Rather insulation from certain societal influences is probably all that is necessary.
_____________________ kris http://kris10846902.tripod.com/

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