Philosophy Now Forum

Thanks guys. It's nice to know that you're out there, somewhere, and thought enough to reply. It does help. I just have to keep swimming, and not sink. But your words do add buoyancy to the journey, whether you know it or not.

I realise that I have to find a way to come to terms, for my own part, with existence, and allow for compromise, in order to find peace. I guess that's true for us all.

Livin' ain't easy, Dal. As I say: you gotta find your reason for gettin' up in the morning. Sometimes reasons present themselves; other times you gotta hunt 'em down.

henry quirk wrote: ↑Sun Nov 04, 2018 4:04 pm Livin' ain't easy, Dal. As I say: you gotta find your reason for gettin' up in the morning. Sometimes reasons present themselves; other times you gotta hunt 'em down.

I'm actively hunting, henry. No stone unturned.

Good. You may find the hunt 'is' the reason.

Sometimes the reason to get up is the knowledge there are a coupla more stones out there still lying flat.

Under the stones you will find more stones.

This should carry on until you (general "you", although it probably applies to you (specific "you"), too) eventually will be put under your own personal stone.

Dubious wrote: ↑Sat Aug 04, 2018 8:59 pm

Dalek Prime wrote: ↑Sat Aug 04, 2018 7:50 pm Who was it who was discussing his anhedonia? Mozart Link or something? Because I'm hitting the same wall, and it's really sucking. I care enough to care that I have it, and don't want to go down the rabbit hole, but that's pretty much all I care about anymore.

Don't know how old you are or how long you've had this pleasure deprivation but don't you think it may only be temporary? Things don't always flow with the same intensity. Or perhaps the things which satisfied in the past have just worn themselves out and you haven't yet discovered replacements? I think the worst you can do is to force yourself into feeling what you used to feel. That kind of concern makes it worse since pleasure is mostly spontaneous and can't be forced by demand but it's not unlikely that new sources of it can be learned. Maybe its time to mine other sources...but that's just my view.

Daley, Dubious has it right.

The main thing is to tell yourself over and over again that your depressed mood is going to turn out to be temporary.

You may not be enjoying the things you used to enjoy right now, but you will be able to enjoy things again, whether they are the same things or new things.

Dubious’ post is good advice. Read his words again.

commonsense wrote: ↑Sun Dec 23, 2018 12:45 am

Dubious wrote: ↑Sat Aug 04, 2018 8:59 pm

Dalek Prime wrote: ↑Sat Aug 04, 2018 7:50 pm Who was it who was discussing his anhedonia? Mozart Link or something? Because I'm hitting the same wall, and it's really sucking. I care enough to care that I have it, and don't want to go down the rabbit hole, but that's pretty much all I care about anymore.

Don't know how old you are or how long you've had this pleasure deprivation but don't you think it may only be temporary? Things don't always flow with the same intensity. Or perhaps the things which satisfied in the past have just worn themselves out and you haven't yet discovered replacements? I think the worst you can do is to force yourself into feeling what you used to feel. That kind of concern makes it worse since pleasure is mostly spontaneous and can't be forced by demand but it's not unlikely that new sources of it can be learned. Maybe its time to mine other sources...but that's just my view.

Daley, Dubious has it right.

The main thing is to tell yourself over and over again that your depressed mood is going to turn out to be temporary.

You may not be enjoying the things you used to enjoy right now, but you will be able to enjoy things again, whether they are the same things or new things.

Dubious’ post is good advice. Read his words again.

You're both right, commonsense. Intensity of feeling changes over time. Thanks for reminding me of this. Yep, ups and downs. I try to remind myself that 'this too shall pass'.

My approach is to try out new things.

In case of problems concerning shallow human interactions one can experiment with one´s own expectations.
1. I just predict what will happen and later see if I had predicted correctly or if there had been some substantial deviations. (Usually things happen differently.)
2. Imagine yourself to be playing a certain role (a Shakespearian character, a hero from a movie, your uncle George, or Sir Hugo from a novel by Patrick McGrath, to name but just a few) and see how people react to your performance.
3. Imagine that your own body is performing what you programmed into it (like into a robot) while you yourself watch the performance like a film director, Mr Hitchcock or Mr Scorsese.
4. ...

As for pleasures ... one is free to discover new ones, or invent some new ones.

If you lack your own ideas ask a kid hanging around, they have something excellent to share for sure.

The New Year.
A year of resolutions …

This one is going to be a wild year in American politics.
The forces are aligned this time.
It is the Golden Age of Double-speak.

Pay attention because it will all relate to philosophy.

For some reason I forget, this thread popped into attention again.
-1-‘s poem (?) jumped out this time, and something else that I’ll get to, if I don’t forget it.

Good writing there -1-.
It reads fast, it has potential.
It would take me some focus to write as well as that (me being my basis of comparison.)

It’s like when you read a book, then re-read it later in life.
I read The Call of The Wild as a kid.
I read it again as an adult.
Do you remember how, when your imagination was awakened as a child, it was both a discovery and a recognition?

As an adult I could really appreciate the magnificence of London’s language, and I can see myself in some of his other characters.

So I look up the definition of this word and it says, the inability to feel pleasure.

Dalek.
That’s the other thing.
You have to tell these Daleks things because they are not like Time Lords.

You must clean out your ears.
You have not heard.
It’s been said plain, for years.

Pleasure ain’t the thing.

There are pitfalls in the cosmos much worse than not finding pleasure, assuredly.

But back to the topic of finding Now.
It’s like Walter Huston in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
It’s like a lot of things.

It’s always right Now as -1- has shared, and he probably did that by waiting expectantly and lightly for the arrival of the next thought, the next phrasing to say just the way it is right now, which is why the poem (?) reads fast.

It’s equanimity, Dalek.
Learn it. Live it. Love it.

Equanimity is not pleasure.
It is the root of being human.

Daleks are at war with the world and everything in it.
Their mantra is, “exterminate.”
So, you must accept human knowledge of human-being on faith, which is close as you will get to knowing, since you're a Dalek.

As evidenced by your words, equanimity is not what you think it is, at least when looking up there, up there, from Anhedonia consciousness.

Equanimity is more than pleasure.
Equanimity is less than pleasure.

Equanimity is like the singularity of a black hole that contains an incomprehensible multitude of things, and yet is incomprehensibly smaller than a pre-elemental.

The child sees forward with simplicity through Jack London. Eventually the adult looks back with simplicity through other than London knew, and remembers the comforts of delusion.

So, let’s see what happens in a year.

Is a surprise a pleasure ?

For many of us, it.

We can arrange circumstances in our lives for surprises to happen.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::

I read a book about self-developement through drama techniques.
One of the numerous exercises is to write a letter to someone, being unusually honest.
One is supposed to release hidden emotions that way.

It can be pleasurable to discover new secret aspects of one´s own personality.

How about the microbiom we contain ?

5 kilograms or 10 pounds of bacteria and other microorganisms every adult.

They influence our feelings of pleasure.

It´s good to stay on good terms with them and to greet them daily, saying for example:

Hello little darlings, how are you today ?
What dainties shall I tempt you with this morning ?

A person with a high level of self-awareness will hear their happy voices asking for the food and drink of the moment.

A microwaved meal is an offence, believe me.

duszek wrote: ↑Wed Jan 02, 2019 7:21 pm One of the numerous exercises is to write a letter to someone, being unusually honest.
One is supposed to release hidden emotions that way.

I have heard that in the past great men have used the method of writing that letter, and then putting the letter in a drawer, not to be read.

This is interesting because the writing of the letter has an effect more positive that the reading of the letter.

This physical act that is a decision and not a speculation, produces implications that influence the moral nature of relationships, of give and take, of commerce, and freedom of thought.

Take the tonglen practice, for example. It is an act and therefore, a decision. As such it has effects that are surprising so best to find out for oneself rather than begin with expectations.

Tonglen practice ?

Is a letter so much different from just holding a speech in one´s empty room ?

Much different.

Once written, the thought becomes an independent entity.

Lock it up.