Not too long ago things were going just fine. I was making great progress in my studies and seemed to be on a well defined path to achieving my goal of bettering the world. However, my studies led me to certain questions that changed all this for me. I’ll try to concisely illustrate how this happened. So first there is the purpose principle, which states that everything we do must have a purpose. But we must also understand that there are various levels of purpose. For example, in going to school. Why do we do it? More specifically, why do we complete a certain assignment? We can view the completion of a particular assignment as a purpose, but it is not an end in itself. We complete the assignment because we want a good grade, and we want the good grade so that we can graduate in good standing, and then maybe get into a good graduate school, which will allow us to get a PhD, which will allow us to establish the lifestyle that we think we desire. So the way I see it, all purposes always lead back to increasing pleasure and avoiding pain. Additionally, when logic is added to this principle, the ultimate purpose of the greatest overall human happiness is derived. This Utilitarianism was the clear focus of my life from when I was 15 years old up to about a week ago.
The problem that changed my life was the question of what ought to make us happy. I then noticed that we become happy when we fulfill our values, but why should we value anything in the first place? Is it not always arbitrary? Really, why the hell am a writing this right now? Why do I see value in articulating my thoughts and sharing them with certain people? Am I simply a machine following what’s programmed into my biology? Does my biology determine what is and isn’t pleasing to me? But the problem is that these biological determinations are non-rational. Thus, when I examine my values logically they seem absurd. And no, I can’t just “go with it,” since rationality is the only thing I can rationally value.
So maybe I can get over the seeming absurdity of values and re-learn to derive happiness from these arbitrary associations. However, even the prospect of substantially increasing the happiness of humanity seems insignificant in the large scheme of things. After all, what does the happiness of all of the creatures that have ever or will ever inhabit Earth matter when compared to eternity? Well I guess objectively it does matter at least a little, since even one divided by infinity is not zero. But still, I can’t help but stay focused on the large scheme of things, which is frustrating because I know essentially nothing about it.
To be continued...
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I'm sort of sad to see you bring up biological determinism with such an interest in and knowledge of the social sciences! So much of what we value is not just absurd or entirely arbitrary...at least not insomuch as it has meaning which is derived from sharing these values and purposes with a group of people (a community, a society, some microcosm of a society). Meaning does not exists "out there" in the objective world...in that sense everything is, to some degree, arbitrary but it does exist, or is created, at the coming together of people, at the articulation of values. It is contested and changes over time but it is something (italics).
ReplyDeleteI think the happiness of creatures matters in so much as our qualitative experience of life matters. That our time on earth, in this life, is not full of suffering seems enough for me (I wouldn't say that hedonistic living is the kind of happiness we should go for but I think you are already in agreement with this). What's more, if we want to see progress as a society or a people (whatever that might mean) then aiming to achieve happiness seems a good motivator to get people there.
These are just some preliminary thoughts. Maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about!
IT's nice to see you writing. I look forward to more.