(April 30, 2018 at 3:12 pm)Transcended Dimensions Wrote: Positive emotions is the good life, negative emotions is a bad life, and having neither positive nor negative emotions is a neutral life of no value which would be apathy. That is my personal view. It would be like how, if you have neither a positive nor negative charge, then you can only have no charge at all. Not having a negative charge does not equate to having a positive charge. So, if you have no bad value in your life, that does not equate to good value in your life. You need positive emotions to have good value in your life just as how you need a positive charge to have a positive charge.
The way I see it is: A lack of positive emotions=bad but an absence of positive emotions=neutral. But a presence of negative emotions=bad and an absence of negative emotions=good.
So whilst an absence of positive emotions isn't good an absence of negative emotions is good. I don't think an absence of negative emotions is a neutral thing. I think it's a very good thing indeed. The greatest possible good besides absolute pleasure all the time. I do think that pleasure is better than neutral emotion but pleasure is almost meaningless when suffering steps up.
You may say that there's a bias here on my part... as I'm putting more axiological weight on negative emotions than positive ones. And you'd be right. But I don't think it's a bias... I think it's a clear asymmetry. It's very clear to me that if there is a bunch of people and some are suffering a lot and others are having a lot of fun... it's the suffering that is morally important.
