Happiness, what is it really?

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EmperorNero
 
Reply Tue 12 May, 2009 06:30 pm
@Seriost,
Would you clarify what you mean by this evolution.
 
Yogi DMT
 
Reply Tue 12 May, 2009 06:35 pm
@Seriost,
Maybe at times in the past, leisure was used to save energy but over time our society has molded leisure more of a way to clear your mind and take a break from stress, even if we do in fact have enough energy. That is just one example, my thoughts on this are that there are three types of attributes, 1) Originated in the primitive times and has stayed fairly the same through history (Food). 2) Originated in primitive times but has evolved and has lost or has distanced itself from its original meaning for survival. 3) Has originated in modern times where survival isn't as big of a priority.
 
EmperorNero
 
Reply Tue 12 May, 2009 07:59 pm
@Yogi DMT,
Yogi DMT;62751 wrote:
Maybe at times in the past, leisure was used to save energy but over time our society has molded leisure more of a way to clear your mind and take a break from stress, even if we do in fact have enough energy. That is just one example, my thoughts on this are that there are three types of attributes, 1) Originated in the primitive times and has stayed fairly the same through history (Food). 2) Originated in primitive times but has evolved and has lost or has distanced itself from its original meaning for survival. 3) Has originated in modern times where survival isn't as big of a priority.


How would that work? Biologically we can't really have changed. Only our lives have changed.
Maybe we have molded the attributes and applied other uses to them. Other ones are of little use to us any more or they are a disadvantage to us now. But I don't think the attributes can't have changed.

I can't sufficiently explain clearing the mind/getting a break yet, but there is some primal reason for that as well. The brain is a complex mechanism, it just had to have a build in impulse to get a pause once in a while. And with the endless toil that man was created for, we barely got to get a break. So it would have to be a really strong impulse to override that. And now that we can have a break, that strong impulse is still there telling us to get a break.
It's a bit like the 'eat' impulse that was a good idea when food was scarce, and now that food is available, we still have it and it makes us fat.
 
Yogi DMT
 
Reply Tue 12 May, 2009 08:04 pm
@Seriost,
When do you think survival became less of a problem? I mean the time in which we weren't hulking brutish animals that our only goal in life was to survive. Even in ancient times we weren't as barabric and primal and even had standards and decencies. Do you think from that time up until now we could have evolved and adapted into a lifestyle the is becoming increasing less focused on survival.
 
EmperorNero
 
Reply Tue 12 May, 2009 09:44 pm
@Yogi DMT,
Yogi DMT;62764 wrote:
When do you think survival became less of a problem? I mean the time in which we weren't hulking brutish animals that our only goal in life was to survive. Even in ancient times we weren't as barabric and primal and even had standards and decencies. Do you think from that time up until now we could have evolved and adapted into a lifestyle the is becoming increasing less focused on survival.


Yes, but we could not have evolved biologically. This lifestyle is at best a few millennia old.
 
Yogi DMT
 
Reply Wed 13 May, 2009 05:45 pm
@Seriost,
Yes your right, but this evolution would be more of mental evolution and not so much physical.
 
EmperorNero
 
Reply Wed 13 May, 2009 06:45 pm
@Seriost,
Yeah. That is an interesting idea. It's not entirely impossible. I didn't think of that.
I just think that the brain is a physical organ can't can't really have changed.
But maybe it does not have to. The causes of happiness could be determined by culture and the influence of out environment, like other behavior is.
I mean, someone is not dark-haired because his parents taught him that, but he is friendly or not because they did.
Our physiological bodies, that could not have changed so fast, could be more of a framework for changeable attributes, that are adapting to our environment. And reasons for happiness are not just set in stone, they would evolve. It would be a great way to be adaptable.
Am I being unclear? Was that what you meant?
 
Yogi DMT
 
Reply Wed 13 May, 2009 06:55 pm
@EmperorNero,
EmperorNero wrote:
Yeah. That is an interesting idea. It's not entirely impossible. I didn't think of that.
I just think that the brain is a physical organ can't can't really have changed.
But maybe it does not have to. The causes of happiness could be determined by culture and the influence of out environment, like other behavior is.
I mean, someone is not dark-haired because his parents taught him that, but he is friendly or not because they did.
Our physiological bodies, that could not have changed so fast, could be more of a framework for changeable attributes, that are adapting to our environment. And reasons for happiness are not just set in stone, they would evolve. It would be a great way to be adaptable.
Am I being unclear? Was that what you meant?


I see what your saying but maybe not our physical brain has chnaged but more of our mental values and mentality has changed mostly due what our society has shaped us to be. And yes i think you captures what my position on this subject is.
 
hue-man
 
Reply Wed 20 May, 2009 07:01 pm
@Yogi DMT,
Yogi DMT wrote:
I see what your saying but maybe not our physical brain has chnaged but more of our mental values and mentality has changed mostly due what our society has shaped us to be. And yes i think you captures what my position on this subject is.


Our brains haven't changed. Our environments, cultures, and societies have changed. Humans moved from biological evolution to socio-cultural evolution during the Neolithic Revolution, 10,000 years ago.
 
Yogi DMT
 
Reply Wed 20 May, 2009 07:37 pm
@Seriost,
I am proposing that due to our societies, cultures, and enviroments our brains have went trough a mental evoltuion, not so much a physical evolution. Our values, ideas, thinking process, ect. have evolved to adapt to today's society and what values our society imposes on us.
 
hue-man
 
Reply Wed 20 May, 2009 09:20 pm
@Yogi DMT,
Yogi DMT wrote:
I am proposing that due to our societies, cultures, and enviroments our brains have went trough a mental evoltuion, not so much a physical evolution. Our values, ideas, thinking process, ect. have evolved to adapt to today's society and what values our society imposes on us.


I agree; I was just adding my thoughts.
 
Yogi DMT
 
Reply Wed 20 May, 2009 09:55 pm
@Seriost,
Yes.

I just think its kind of interesting, the idea of a mental evolution to the point where there may actually be some real changes done to the brain and mental state regardless of society molding your values and ideas from the start.
 
EmperorNero
 
Reply Thu 21 May, 2009 05:33 am
@Seriost,
@ the last few posts.
Interesting idea, but how can humans have changed in that short amount of time?
Evolution happens over millions of years, even mankind 500.000 years ago was not that different from what we are today.
And you two are telling me than changes in lifestyle in the last 1000... 2000... 3000 years have evolved human kind?
I like to know how that works out?

Cheers.
 
hue-man
 
Reply Thu 21 May, 2009 07:31 am
@EmperorNero,
EmperorNero wrote:
@ the last few posts.
Interesting idea, but how can humans have changed in that short amount of time?
Evolution happens over millions of years, even mankind 500.000 years ago was not that different from what we are today.
And you two are telling me than changes in lifestyle in the last 1000... 2000... 3000 years have evolved human kind?
I like to know how that works out?

Cheers.


I don't believe that the human brain has changed. We still have the stone age brains of our ancestors. What has changed are our societies, cultures, and values. I don't think that Yogi is saying that the brain has physically changed. If he is saying that then I strongly disagree. He calls it mental evolution, and understandably that is a misleading term because it seems to allude to the idea that the brain has changed, seeing that the mind is a holistic term used to describe the functional properties of the brain. The more correct term that is used to describe this phenomenon is called socio-cultural evolution.
 
EmperorNero
 
Reply Thu 21 May, 2009 07:50 am
@hue-man,
hue-man;64173 wrote:
I don't believe that the human brain has changed. We still have the stone age brains of our ancestors. What has changed are our societies, cultures, and values. I don't think that Yogi is saying that the brain has physically changed. If he is saying that then I strongly disagree. He calls it mental evolution, and understandably that is a misleading term because it seems to allude to the idea that the brain has changed, seeing that the mind is a holistic term used to describe the functional properties of the brain. The more correct term that is used to describe this phenomenon is called socio-cultural evolution.


The ability to socio-cultural evolution without physical evolution would imply that the reasons for our happiness are adaptable.
So to say that reasons for happiness are not "hardcoded" with our physical nature, but changeable with culture and the influence of out environment.
Happiness would be a choice.
 
hue-man
 
Reply Thu 21 May, 2009 08:49 am
@EmperorNero,
EmperorNero wrote:
The ability to socio-cultural evolution without physical evolution would imply that the reasons for our happiness are adaptable.
So to say that reasons for happiness are not "hardcoded" with our physical nature, but changeable with culture and the influence of out environment.
Happiness would be a choice.


I'm not really saying that evolutionary biology has nothing to do with what makes us happy. Indeed the input you gave on the basic ingredients, such as family, friends, etc, still apply today. However, I think that our changing societies have made happiness more of a contemplative problem than it was before the invention of the city and civilization. I think that the ingredients to suffering, such as bad health, economic or financial troubles, and the loss of loved ones, are still the same as they were before we moved on to socio-cultural evolution. I think that self-fulfillment has a lot to do with it as well, because our current societies seem (emphasis on seem) to want to nurture our potential.
 
Yogi DMT
 
Reply Thu 21 May, 2009 01:42 pm
@hue-man,
hue-man wrote:
I don't believe that the human brain has changed. We still have the stone age brains of our ancestors. What has changed are our societies, cultures, and values. I don't think that Yogi is saying that the brain has physically changed. If he is saying that then I strongly disagree. He calls it mental evolution, and understandably that is a misleading term because it seems to allude to the idea that the brain has changed, seeing that the mind is a holistic term used to describe the functional properties of the brain. The more correct term that is used to describe this phenomenon is called socio-cultural evolution.


No i am not saying that there is a physcial change going on in the brain more of a mental change, but certainly a definitive one.
 
hue-man
 
Reply Thu 21 May, 2009 02:31 pm
@Yogi DMT,
Yogi DMT wrote:
No i am not saying that there is a physcial change going on in the brain more of a mental change, but certainly a definitive one.


My misunderstanding of your statement stems from the phrase you use; mental evolution or mental change. In this last statement above, you seem to be separating the mind from the brain. What's up with that?
 
EmperorNero
 
Reply Thu 21 May, 2009 02:53 pm
@Yogi DMT,
Yogi DMT;64228 wrote:
No i am not saying that there is a physcial change going on in the brain more of a mental change, but certainly a definitive one.


You have to explain what you mean. Our surroundings changed, either we changed as well or we didn't.
You seem to be disagreeing with both options.
 
deepthot
 
Reply Sat 23 May, 2009 03:57 pm
@hue-man,
hue-man wrote:
Happiness is the tendency of a being to have its appetites and intentions fulfilled. It is the state of mind representative of contentment, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy.



This article may prove helpful in defining and explaining what Happiness really is, and how to attain it:
The New Science of Happiness -- Printout -- TIME

You must put that url into the Time Magaine search box and click :Search. If that doesn't work, enter the words Science of Happiness. Then click.
 
 

 
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