4 ms·

It is. We just don't have the right science yet.

• ZenoArrow 11y ago
  It's really not. Science, or rather the scientific method, applies only to that which can be quantified, as otherwise you'll have no way to accurately verify the success of a scientific experiment. You can try to quantify happiness, but only superficially, it doesn't accurately describe what happiness is. For example, if I said I was 72% happy today, what does mean objectively (i.e. outside from my personal context)?
  • WalterSear 11y ago
    Insofar as we can never really know the internal state of anything, and yes, from chemistry, to particle physics to psychology. All we can know for sure is that a machine (we did create) spat out a bunch of numbers and a text book (written by people we don't know) said those numbers were 'correct'. (Moreover, we already know a lot more about the measurement of internal mental states than you appear to be aware: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23249520 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23249520 )
    • ZenoArrow 11y ago
      Measuring happiness with an MRI is the sort of folly I'm referring to. Scientific knowledge needs to be objective, happiness is subjective. To illustrate what I mean, imagine we could directly stimulate areas of the brain. If we stimulate the same areas of the brain across a group of people, do we expect the resulting experience to be exactly the same across the group?
      • deleted 11y ago
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