endsthegame (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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fandomhigh2012-06-15 01:19 pm
endsthegame) wrote in fandomhigh2012-06-15 01:19 pm
Entry tags:
Practical Philosophy, Friday
"Happiness," Ender said, "Is both a complicated and a simple affair. I can't say I'm any kind of expert on it - I don't think most of us are. If you are, congratulations. Make sure you've got as few regrets as you can."
He poked at the grass with his foot. "It's such a hard thing to define, though many have tried," he continued. "Chemists and biologists would tell you it's a function of a chemical called dopamine, which controls your ability to experience pleasure and motivation. A Hallmark card - it's a type of card you can send to people in the mail with a pre-printed message - might tell you it's being with someone you love, or having a warm plate of cookies."
He sounded a little wry.
"But regardless of what it is - chemistry, cookies, comforts, companionship - a good portion of society, or at least the society I'm from, is devoted to figuring out how to attain it. There's a well-known adage that money can't buy happiness. A nearly equally well-known adage states that it 'sure helps'. It certainly strips you of worries and limits-- but is an absence of worry and an absence of boundaries genuinely what makes us happy?"
He smiled. "Maybe it stems from family, from meeting a partner, falling in love. Chemists would tell you that's technically a different piece of engineering, I think - a chemical called oxytocin, though I could be wrong. For many, a relationship can be a source of stability and fulfillment, though for others, it might feel like a trap, a requirement of society. Again, though, the question is: is stability and emotional fulfillment the essence of happiness? It certainly sounds more like it - but it might actually make happiness harder for those who try this avenue and yet never seem to reach either."
"So maybe it's just knowing your needs and fulfilling them," he noted. "Though could we characterize happiness as the absence of want? That might sound more like contentment - if there's genuinely a difference between the two."
He shrugged. "It's a complicated affair," he said, "and maybe it's a little too ethereal for what this class purports to do. But it's worth thinking about, I think, if simply to understand ourselves a little better."
Ender was not going to touch the issue of whether some people deserved happiness with a ten foot pole, though it wasn't far from his mind. Instead, he fell quiet, and waited for someone else to speak.
He poked at the grass with his foot. "It's such a hard thing to define, though many have tried," he continued. "Chemists and biologists would tell you it's a function of a chemical called dopamine, which controls your ability to experience pleasure and motivation. A Hallmark card - it's a type of card you can send to people in the mail with a pre-printed message - might tell you it's being with someone you love, or having a warm plate of cookies."
He sounded a little wry.
"But regardless of what it is - chemistry, cookies, comforts, companionship - a good portion of society, or at least the society I'm from, is devoted to figuring out how to attain it. There's a well-known adage that money can't buy happiness. A nearly equally well-known adage states that it 'sure helps'. It certainly strips you of worries and limits-- but is an absence of worry and an absence of boundaries genuinely what makes us happy?"
He smiled. "Maybe it stems from family, from meeting a partner, falling in love. Chemists would tell you that's technically a different piece of engineering, I think - a chemical called oxytocin, though I could be wrong. For many, a relationship can be a source of stability and fulfillment, though for others, it might feel like a trap, a requirement of society. Again, though, the question is: is stability and emotional fulfillment the essence of happiness? It certainly sounds more like it - but it might actually make happiness harder for those who try this avenue and yet never seem to reach either."
"So maybe it's just knowing your needs and fulfilling them," he noted. "Though could we characterize happiness as the absence of want? That might sound more like contentment - if there's genuinely a difference between the two."
He shrugged. "It's a complicated affair," he said, "and maybe it's a little too ethereal for what this class purports to do. But it's worth thinking about, I think, if simply to understand ourselves a little better."
Ender was not going to touch the issue of whether some people deserved happiness with a ten foot pole, though it wasn't far from his mind. Instead, he fell quiet, and waited for someone else to speak.
Before Class
Sign In!
Re: Sign In!
Re: Sign In!
Listen to the Lecture
Talk.
Or talk about something else. It's all possible.
Talk to the TA
Re: Talk to the TA
Content might have been a better word for ti than happy, but she wasn't sure she cared about that difference.
She listened carefully, wondering who int he class might feel the same way.
Talk to Ender
OOC
Re: OOC
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
...So I like Liara.