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It's a weakness of empiricism that scientists remain reluctant to consider the role of (unmeasurable) psychological states, such as pleasure or stress, in the c
by tremendulo 9y ago
It's a weakness of empiricism that scientists remain reluctant to consider the role of (unmeasurable) psychological states, such as pleasure or stress, in the context of a (measurable) physiological response, such as raised blood pressure.
My guess is that, together with stress, it is visceral pleasures (arising from our relationship to food, sex, drugs, alcohol, or other substances/habits) that are responsible for high blood pressure. Eating food with salt is just one of the ways it can be made more tasty, and thus more pleasurable, since salt heightens the response of our taste buds.
- naasking 9y agoBecause it's difficult to objectively measure stress and pleasure between people.
- jschwartzi 9y agoSo we continue to look for our keys under the streetlight rather than in the bushes where we dropped them.
- naasking 9y agoExcept we don't actually know where the keys were dropped, so might as well start under the streetlight.
- tremendulo 9y agoScience starts with problems, not observations. If excessive pleasure is unhealthy or bad, why do people seek it? We can use folk psychology as starting point, e.g. consumption of Ben and Jerry's in response to relationship difficulties.