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Excellent point. But "if the result of happiness_from_identification_with_current_religion + happiness_from_how_people_make_me_feel" is negative, maybe a) you a
by guylhem 14y ago
Excellent point. But "if the result of happiness_from_identification_with_current_religion + happiness_from_how_people_make_me_feel" is negative, maybe a) you are unhappy, b) it's not an untractable problem because c) there is something you can change in the equation, and there is something you can't change.
You know the saying - you can't change the others, only yourself.
- icebraining 14y agoSome things are worth being unhappy about. "The more we gave in, the more we complied with that kind of treatment, the more oppressive it became."
- guylhem 14y agoI guess it all depends on one's utility function. If you think that in life, suffering is a good thing, or that some things are more important that your own happiness, yes they are.
- ktizo 14y agoPerhaps there is a bit more to life than a 'utility function'.
- YuriNiyazov 14y agoNo there isn't. That's the beauty of a 'utility function' - it _is_ the "what there is to life".
- ktizo 14y agoOnly from a very narrow set of perspectives. There are many perspectives on life and for many of them a 'utility function' would seem nonsensical at best. Economics is not as all-encompassing a discipline as some people would like to make out.
- YuriNiyazov 14y agoWould you care to come up with such a "perspective on life"? I bet that for any actual, constructed perspective (rather than an a-priori incompatible one like "a perspective on life such that it doesn't admit a utility function") a utility function can be defined.
- ktizo 14y agoJust because a utility function can be defined for a given perspective doesn't mean that it automatically makes sense from within that perspective, given that defining a utility function is choosing to view things from an economic perspective and even in economics there is a difference of opinion of what that actually means, with some economists viewing it as something abstract that is only used to discuss more fundamental things and with others saying that utility functions are in themselves fundamental. Saying that utility functions are the "what there is to life", is a bit like 42 being the answer to life, the universe and everything in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. What meaning you can draw depends totally on what question you are asking, or what perspective you are looking at it from. For instance, if you are a squirrel, then an economist might be able to calculate a utility function for your behaviour, however the concept of utility functions themselves have no bearing (as far as we know) on "what there is to life" from the squirrel's perspective.
- icebraining 14y agoEven if you only consider personal happiness as important, you should reflect on the quote I posted. Some temporary unhappiness and struggle may be preferable in the long run.
- wpietri 14y agoRight, and this is basically saying that we should be aware of how much anti-Muslim prejudice sucks to experience, so that we can start changing ourselves.
- ktizo 14y agoI'm not sure I agree with that saying. There would seem to be overwhelming evidence against it for one thing.