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You can choose to believe that there is meaning in life or that your relationship with it necessarily generalizes to all other human beings. It's just sort've a

You can choose to believe that there is meaning in life or that your relationship with it necessarily generalizes to all other human beings. It's just sort've annoying.

javert 11y ago
You can't "choose to believe" that there is meaning in life for the same reason that I can't "choose to believe" that God exists, or that the moon is made of cheese, or that Saturn has 28 moons, or that the world is 8.7 billion years old (I just made that number up). If you "choose to believe" something, it's just a fantasy. If you "choose to believe" something, you don't really believe it. To really believe something, you have to have enough evidence to be certain about it. Fortunately, pleasure is inherently valuable (this is given by biology), and moreover, our brains supply us with pleasure (in the form of brain chemistry). So now we have a basic value that we can erect other values around. Of course only if they are valid. I can value preserving my life (for instance), art, my loved ones, and so on, but I can't value something arbitrarily. (The exact psychological mechanism of genuinely enjoying and thus valuing art and loved ones, and such things, is not straighforward, but it's there. Seeing how preserving one's own life is a value is more straightforward. I am a total egoist, by the way, because you can't out of that with the framework I am describing.)
- verbin217 11y ago
  I'm choosing to believe that our notions of "belief" differ.
  - javert 11y ago
    Well, that's the equivalent of putting your fingers in your ears and saying "lallalalaa I can't hear you!" edit: In other words: you should not just choose to "believe" one thing or another. You should look at reality and decide what the evidence favors. Otherwise, you don't really know, and you know that you don't really know, and you are flying blind in life, and thereby engendering in yourself a sense of helplesness and anxiety (no coincidence that one of Sartre's works was called Nausea...).
    - verbin217 11y ago
      I believe your notion of "belief" is false. Empirically in fact. As evidenced here. I would suggest that you ask yourself if your current idea of "belief" is actually serving you. If you did that you might see why you're failing to persuade me to adapt that belief.

You can choose to believe that there is meaning in life or that your relationship with it necessarily generalizes to all other human beings. It's just sort've annoying.

javert 11y ago

You can't "choose to believe" that there is meaning in life for the same reason that I can't "choose to believe" that God exists, or that the moon is made of cheese, or that Saturn has 28 moons, or that the world is 8.7 billion years old (I just made that number up). If you "choose to believe" something, it's just a fantasy. If you "choose to believe" something, you don't really believe it. To really believe something, you have to have enough evidence to be certain about it. Fortunately, pleasure is inherently valuable (this is given by biology), and moreover, our brains supply us with pleasure (in the form of brain chemistry). So now we have a basic value that we can erect other values around. Of course only if they are valid. I can value preserving my life (for instance), art, my loved ones, and so on, but I can't value something arbitrarily. (The exact psychological mechanism of genuinely enjoying and thus valuing art and loved ones, and such things, is not straighforward, but it's there. Seeing how preserving one's own life is a value is more straightforward. I am a total egoist, by the way, because you can't out of that with the framework I am describing.)

verbin217 11y ago
I'm choosing to believe that our notions of "belief" differ.
- javert 11y ago
  Well, that's the equivalent of putting your fingers in your ears and saying "lallalalaa I can't hear you!" edit: In other words: you should not just choose to "believe" one thing or another. You should look at reality and decide what the evidence favors. Otherwise, you don't really know, and you know that you don't really know, and you are flying blind in life, and thereby engendering in yourself a sense of helplesness and anxiety (no coincidence that one of Sartre's works was called Nausea...).
  - verbin217 11y ago
    I believe your notion of "belief" is false. Empirically in fact. As evidenced here. I would suggest that you ask yourself if your current idea of "belief" is actually serving you. If you did that you might see why you're failing to persuade me to adapt that belief.