So, this is my third post. In my first post, I revealed my desire to explore my "self". I discussed how difficult that can be, comparing our own thoughts to gravity.
In spite of the difficulty of exploring a self, in my second post I did start on the task and came to the initial conclusion that...(drumroll please)... I would rather feel good than feel bad. I have more to say on that topic, but before I continue along that path, I want to step back and discuss a second desire for writing this blog.
I want to write this blog is to share with other people. I hope to put into words feelings that others have felt and ideas that others have thought. I hope to arrive at some sort of explanation for the actions that others have taken. Everyone asks questions about themselves and struggles to understand what they are, but it's often very difficult to put that struggle into words. And if putting our questions into words is difficult, then it's even more difficult to arrive at an answers to those questions.
In exploring myself, I would hope to start at a point that is common for all men. If you are reading this, then you are a "self" just like I am. That is the one point we all start from. We have many additional beliefs, and in those we begin to separate from each other, but at the core there is at least one point that we share in common.
When I think of all the beliefs of all the different people in the world, I sometimes envision a tree. The ends of the branches represent all of different beliefs that people come to hold. The trunk of the tree represents those things (if any) that all men believe.
Consider starting at the bottom and moving up. To me, it seems like the first major branching of the tree is essentially between the naturalists and the supernaturalists. The naturalists believe nothing exists beyond that which we can detect with our five senses. The supernaturalists believe in a spirit world of some type, or a least the possibility that something exists beyond that which we can detect with our five senses.
You could continue down either of those first major branches and would come to additional forks in the tree. For example, down the supernaturalists branch, you would soon come to another branch that would represent the monotheists versus those that believe in multiple gods. If you continued down the monotheists branch, you would soon come to a triple branch, representing the Jews, the Muslims, and the Christians. At least those are the major monotheistic religions. There are actually many more. But I hope you get the point.
The point is that each of us has some set of beliefs that we have arrived at. And the image of a tree seems to me to be a decent anology to represent the idea that one's current beliefs are the net result of an entire series of decisions on increasingly specific ideas.
Now, just to clarify a point, I am not claiming that we arrive at our beliefs in such an orderly way. Babies obviously don't sit in their cribs pondering whether they want to become supernaturalists or not. Instead, we start out believing essentially the same thing as those who raise us. As we grow, our believes grow and change, and even then most people still don't try to construct their beliefs by traveling from the most general to the most specific beliefs. My use of the tree image is just my attempt to organize in my mind all of those beliefs that people have arrived at - it's not an assertion about how people actually come to arrive at those beliefs.
So, having raised this analogy of tree, let me ask this: Is there a trunk to this tree? That is, is there anything that all men believe? Can I find a starting point that all men accept and from which we can begin to move forward? I believe I can. In fact, I believe I already have.
I believe that this assertion of "self" is a point upon which all men can agree. That is, I believe every person that has ever lived can say with absolute conviction that "I would rather feel good than feel bad."
Some of you might question that truth by raising the point of masochism. The existence of masochism in some people does not diminsh my point. Dictionary.com defines masochism as "the tendency to find pleasure in self-denial, submissiveness, etc." Some people may seek self-denial and submissiveness, but what is the reason given in the definition? To "find pleasure". The ultimate goal of finding pleasure is there in masochism the same as in any other actions. Masochism is just a different means to the same end.
If you eliminate masochism, I don't know what other exception might exist.
I hope you agree. I will continue to explore my self, and in doing so I will continue to climb the tree of beliefs and become increasingly specific in the ideas I accept. I'm sure there will be some points upon which some of you will disagree, and you may not continue in the journey. I suppose that is unavoidable, but my goal is to start, at least, at a common point that we can all agree upon. If I've succeeded, and so you're still with me, please continue reading as I press ahead.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Seeking Delight
This is my second post in this blog dedicated to exploring my own self. In my first post, I tried to express how difficult it can be. In this post, I'm going to actually start.
Many different people have many different ideas about exactly what a self is. I don't claim to have a clear picture. But I know that this self feels, it thinks, it makes choices. It get hungry and eats, it gets lonely and cries, it thinks something is funny and it laughs. I could go on and on, but you know what I'm talking about, because you are a self, too.
When all is said and done, at the most fundamental level, it seems to come down to this: This self can feel both good and bad, and without any doubt this self would rather feel good than feel bad.
To me, that is where I start. I want to feel good more often and bad less often. In fact, if I could, I would like to feel good all the time and never feel bad. This is so obvious that I fear you may think me silly for even stating it. But I just want to be clear, because everything else I say in the blog will rest upon this one concept.
To be honest, I can't imagine anybody feeling any differently. That is, I can't imagine any "self" denying that he would rather feel good than feel bad. I can't even imagine that God or Jesus would deny that he would rather feel good than feel bad. It just seems to me that this preference for feeling good over feeling bad is inextricably linked to any thing that you would call a self.
Another way of saying that same thing is that I seek delight (hence the name for this blog). I thought about other words before I decided on the word delight. I also considered words like self interest, pleasure, joy, good feelings and peace. I was looking for a way to express the fundamental motivation of this thing that is my "self". I settled on the word delight is because it is a general word for "feeling good", but also because it has a nice ring to it and makes for a nice little pun. "Seeking delight" sounds a lot like "seeking the light", which would imply a search for the truth at the same time that I am seeking literal delight.
Let me clarify a few things. First, if I'm in pain, I don't necessarily seek delight. Instead, I seek to be free from pain. Imagine a number line that spans from -10 on the left to +10 on the right, where -10 represents the most intense pain and +10 represents the most utter delight. When I say that I seek delight, I really mean that I seek to move to the right on the scale. If I'm at a -5, which would represent significant pain, then moving to zero would be a significant improvement and would fall under the definition of what I mean when I say that I seek delight. Seeking delight, as I use it, just means seeking to feel better rather than worse, and delight is at the far end of the scale on the good side.
A second point I want to clarify refers to hedonism. I don't consider myself a hedonist, at least not in the way that I understand that word. According to dictionary.com, a hedonist is "a person whose life is devoted to the pursuit of pleasure and self-gratification". That might sound similar to what I am at trying to express, but there are a couple of significant differences between me and my understanding of a traditional hedonist.
First, a traditional hedonist tends to pursue physical pleasure. I include physical pleasure in my definition of what I pursue, but I don't limit my definition to physical pleasure. In fact, I would say the greatest feelings that I can feel are non-physical.
Second, a traditional hedonist tends to pursue immediate pleasure. I am not concerned about how soon the pleasure comes, but am instead concerned about maximizing the total pleasure that a certain action will bring. So, my goal of maximizing my delight may very well include working hard to accomplish a certain satisfying goal. If the good feelings I ultimately receive from my efforts outweigh the bad feelings that it took for me to achieve it, then the net sum of delight is positive, and so those efforts would fall within my definition of seeking delight.
So, in summary, I am exploring my own self. In doing so, the first thing I notice is that I would rather feel good than feel bad. In other words, I seek delight. That may seem obvious to you, but it so important to everything else that follows that I want to be very clear about it.
Many different people have many different ideas about exactly what a self is. I don't claim to have a clear picture. But I know that this self feels, it thinks, it makes choices. It get hungry and eats, it gets lonely and cries, it thinks something is funny and it laughs. I could go on and on, but you know what I'm talking about, because you are a self, too.
When all is said and done, at the most fundamental level, it seems to come down to this: This self can feel both good and bad, and without any doubt this self would rather feel good than feel bad.
To me, that is where I start. I want to feel good more often and bad less often. In fact, if I could, I would like to feel good all the time and never feel bad. This is so obvious that I fear you may think me silly for even stating it. But I just want to be clear, because everything else I say in the blog will rest upon this one concept.
To be honest, I can't imagine anybody feeling any differently. That is, I can't imagine any "self" denying that he would rather feel good than feel bad. I can't even imagine that God or Jesus would deny that he would rather feel good than feel bad. It just seems to me that this preference for feeling good over feeling bad is inextricably linked to any thing that you would call a self.
Another way of saying that same thing is that I seek delight (hence the name for this blog). I thought about other words before I decided on the word delight. I also considered words like self interest, pleasure, joy, good feelings and peace. I was looking for a way to express the fundamental motivation of this thing that is my "self". I settled on the word delight is because it is a general word for "feeling good", but also because it has a nice ring to it and makes for a nice little pun. "Seeking delight" sounds a lot like "seeking the light", which would imply a search for the truth at the same time that I am seeking literal delight.
Let me clarify a few things. First, if I'm in pain, I don't necessarily seek delight. Instead, I seek to be free from pain. Imagine a number line that spans from -10 on the left to +10 on the right, where -10 represents the most intense pain and +10 represents the most utter delight. When I say that I seek delight, I really mean that I seek to move to the right on the scale. If I'm at a -5, which would represent significant pain, then moving to zero would be a significant improvement and would fall under the definition of what I mean when I say that I seek delight. Seeking delight, as I use it, just means seeking to feel better rather than worse, and delight is at the far end of the scale on the good side.
A second point I want to clarify refers to hedonism. I don't consider myself a hedonist, at least not in the way that I understand that word. According to dictionary.com, a hedonist is "a person whose life is devoted to the pursuit of pleasure and self-gratification". That might sound similar to what I am at trying to express, but there are a couple of significant differences between me and my understanding of a traditional hedonist.
First, a traditional hedonist tends to pursue physical pleasure. I include physical pleasure in my definition of what I pursue, but I don't limit my definition to physical pleasure. In fact, I would say the greatest feelings that I can feel are non-physical.
Second, a traditional hedonist tends to pursue immediate pleasure. I am not concerned about how soon the pleasure comes, but am instead concerned about maximizing the total pleasure that a certain action will bring. So, my goal of maximizing my delight may very well include working hard to accomplish a certain satisfying goal. If the good feelings I ultimately receive from my efforts outweigh the bad feelings that it took for me to achieve it, then the net sum of delight is positive, and so those efforts would fall within my definition of seeking delight.
So, in summary, I am exploring my own self. In doing so, the first thing I notice is that I would rather feel good than feel bad. In other words, I seek delight. That may seem obvious to you, but it so important to everything else that follows that I want to be very clear about it.
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