A tiger chases a zebra and doesn't know and care why — schopenhauer1
The mother tiger offers zebra to the young. It is quite yummy. — Outlander
that we need to make various goals in a complex world to gain items to consume for our survival, comfort, and entertainment. — schopenhauer1
I try to take the eastern approach and live in the moment as much as possible.
The moment, with no regrets of the past and no worries of the future, is always pleasant.
It seems that the moments that are not pleasant are the ones not lived in the moment.
Have you thought about this? — Pop
Wow that's a pretty big list. Animals are prone to at least half those things.. of course they are but they do not know why. Is that much different to a person a few hundred years ago who got sick but didn't know why? — Outlander
Some animals show a sense of self-consciousness at least. Example, I read if you have a dozen dogs in a cage and one by one they are taken out and killed in front of the others, the other dogs will "figure it out" and start to panic. — Outlander
Yes we are just engaged in glorified survival, but we have vastly more control over the terms of that survival and its opportunities for pleasure than any other animals do, by far. — Pro Hominem
Wow that is quite a list - brilliant! — Pop
I try to take the eastern approach and live in the moment as much as possible.
The moment, with no regrets of the past and no worries of the future, is always pleasant.
It seems that the moments that are not pleasant are the ones not lived in the moment.
Have you thought about this? — Pop
Not sure that kind of association is really the same as what I'm talking about. — schopenhauer1
I don't think living in the moment applies when doing many things in life. Quite the opposite. — schopenhauer1
I don't think living in the moment applies when doing many things in life. Quite the opposite. — schopenhauer1
"Living in the moment" doesn't have to automatically exclude any and all notion of planning, preparation, and long term goals. Does it? For many I suppose. Why do you have long term goals and aspirations anyway? So either you or another can more freely live in the moment. Is this not correct? — Outlander
Ability to recognize, albeit primitively, base cause and effect, idea of time (past, present, and future), and how outside influences can and will affect oneself? — Outlander
"Living in the moment" doesn't have to automatically exclude any and all notion of planning, preparation, and long term goals. Does it? For many I suppose. Why do you have long term goals and aspirations anyway? So either you or another can more freely live in the moment. Is this not correct? — Outlander
Schopenhauer had a saying about not being able to just be, and if so, very temporary. That is part of his idea of necessary suffering. — schopenhauer1
Perhaps Schopenhauer would have benefited from an understanding of mindfulness? :smile: — Pop
All kidding aside , it is an interesting topic in that total awareness of the moment excludes awareness, of other moments, and it is pleasant unless you are already in physical pain.
I imagine many animals would exist something like this. — Pop
For example, if someone is born with one leg, they aren't stressed out by the difficulty of the situation; until they learn that most humans have two legs. Now they have something to be pissed about.
Knowledge is a double-edged sword. Are the advantages worth the drawbacks? — Bird-Up
And that negates the other things? Pollyannaism.. screening out what one doesn't want to see when evaluating. — schopenhauer1
He thought that asceticism was the highest form of repose against Will's ceaseless impetus. — schopenhauer1
It isn't possible to 'live in the moment' as if 'a moment' were an object we could enter, — Pam Seeback
Put simply, human brain power is a double-edged sword, a knife that cuts both ways - it gives us an edge over non-humans but the downside is we suffer more. — TheMadFool
This is interesting. If will provides impetus, then what provides impetus to will? — Pop
Knowledge is a double-edged sword. Are the advantages worth the drawbacks? — Bird-Up
We know our situation, the context for which this situation is situated in the broader picture. Other animals do not. We know that things can be better or different, or we can at least imagine so, yet know the reality of the situation is different than what can be. We know there is no utopia, yet we are born in non-ideal worlds.
Yet presented with this, people simply downplay it. They don't want to discuss it. Keep ignoring, sublimating, etc. — schopenhauer1
Look, if I didn't know better I might've said that the game is rigged. We're intelligent for sure, we can learn, gain knowledge and skills, and use that to change the world - make alterations in it to suit our needs or, in a moral sense, we have the ability to, if committed enough, to transform Earth into the Garden of Eden. Surely, this ability to transform our world needs to go hand in hand with the ability to imagine a different world - the ability to create an Eden is pointless if we can't imagine one, right? The downside is if we can imagine Eden, we're going to be deeply disappointed by Earth despite all its wonders. — TheMadFool
A fish swims in its tank, and doesn't know or care why. A tiger chases a zebra and doesn't know and care why. Things are simpler. — schopenhauer1
The existential animal that just keeps on going, knows we don't have to, but does it anyways.. — schopenhauer1
There are humans that do this very thing. Instead of doing a sort of reductionism in comparing humans to fish, it's probably better to compare philosophers to non-philosophers. Scientists to non-scientists, thinkers to non-thinkers, etc. — Cobra
I think most people genuinely think they have to; in some cases, people must. I think this is a leading cause of human stressors. It isn't so much that they know they don't have to, but instead they know there are other options to the "have to" .. like laying down to rot, death, or not showing up. — Cobra
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