Now you're just being silly

I'm being silly? Really?

Thing is Evie, after what you did in the other thread, this should be perfectly fine by your standards. Never again can anyone from that debate show a definition of something and say, here, look, this is what it means. Instead, I'm going to be able to say happiness is merely an idea, which it is, it's not a range of emotions except for some silly definition on the internet, and the idea of it isn't real, it's inherently unachievable, it resembles perfection in that way.

It's rather like the free will debate. If you think happiness is real, you probably mean something extremely trivial by it, something people experience every single day of their lives. That is not the sort of happiness that is being idealized though, in art as well as in real life. That kind of happiness doesn't exist, and people forever look for it and never ever say, here, I found it, I'm done looking.

Sociologically, true happiness comes from being satisfied to the point in one's life where all needs are met. Not "wants", but needs.

Ignosticism doesn't apply to happiness and I'm not an ignostic anyway.

Happiness is not trivial but the existence of it is indeed trivially true. Of course happiness exists. This thread is about achieving it, not questioning its existence.

(July 30, 2016 at 12:35 am)Maelstrom Wrote: Sociologically, true happiness comes from being satisfied to the point in one's life where all needs are met.  Not "wants", but needs.

That doesn't even make sense. How can that be sociological when you're referring to an individual?

(July 30, 2016 at 12:39 am)Alasdair Ham Wrote: Of course happiness exists.

Not precisely.

I have to take the realistic view toward happiness and understand that most people delude themselves into being happy. It is all about perception and how one wishes to perceive how his life should be; the ever self-deluding known as "If I think it, it is true". Realistically, there is too much wrong with this world for anyone to truly be happy. Therefore, what one does is put on blinders in order to ignore reality and focus on personal happiness.

Those who can state with one hundred percent certainty that they are happy are one hundred percent delusional.

Yes it exists as much as any other emotion, it's not rocket science.

(July 30, 2016 at 12:44 am)Faith No More Wrote:

(July 30, 2016 at 12:35 am)Maelstrom Wrote: Sociologically, true happiness comes from being satisfied to the point in one's life where all needs are met.  Not "wants", but needs.

That doesn't even make sense.  How can that be sociological when you're referring to an individual.

It was something I learned in sociology class. I cannot remember the specifics, but certain needs to be met for an individual to be truly happy. Financially secure, loving family/friends. It makes sense from a sociological viewpoint.

(July 30, 2016 at 12:39 am)Alasdair Ham Wrote: Ignosticism doesn't apply to happiness and I'm not an ignostic anyway.

Happiness is not trivial but the existence of it is indeed trivially true. Of course happiness exists. This thread is about achieving it, not questioning its existence.

Happiness is an ambiguous term, just as that wiki post states, so I'm saying it's meaningless. Ignosticism may not apply to happiness, but something quite like it does nevertheless.

In a trivial sense, yes, happiness exists, except in that trivial sense it is simply an umbrella term for a variety of other emotions, so happiness isn't its own emotion. And then there's the idealized version of happiness, which I already mentioned. That, certainly, doesn't exist, and people never achieve it - and it's the only one people search for. You don't search for love, you find it, you don't search for good times, you stumble upon them, you don't seek out an emotion, it surfaces within you. The only thing people search for is happiness, and happiness is unachievable.

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness are our unalienable rights.

But what if my happiness only comes from the removal of someone's liberty and life? (You know, the 4 people in my basement with gaffa tape around their mouth).
Surely my right is just as important as theirs? lol!