But will someone two hundred years from now look back in horror at what I tolerated? Probably. So, in the end, I think people are just as dissatisfied with their lives as they ever were. — RogueAI
most non-philosophers who mostly think that modernity is clearly better than living in the past. — TheHedoMinimalist
So, in the end, I think people are just as dissatisfied with their lives as they ever were. — RogueAI
I could go into many other examples but my observation is that the "modern" is an inevitable result of experiences more than an invention or diversion that distracted us from some stable form of life that we gave up for something else. — Valentinus
A prime positive example is technological progress, but so is the alarming ballooning overpopulation and ensuing loss of planetary resources. — magritte
Someone on here introduced me to the concept of the hedonic treadmill, something I believe may be of relevance to your claim.
Take my favorite PC game. I really like it. When I first played it I couldn't stop. Then after I beat it, started a new game, several times over.. I kinda just needed a break lol. It didn't "give" what it did when I first got it and everything was new. — Outlander
I think one can acknowledge the reality of the hedonic treadmill and still argue that modern technology and material goods increase the welfare of humans. At the very least, the continuous improvement of technology will lead to more pre-adaptational periods of great happiness. — TheHedoMinimalist
I think that the way that you can hack the hedonic treadmill is by making slight improvements in your material wealth that will give you a continuous boost in happiness and maybe it’s also helpful to practice modest abstinence from activities that give you pleasure so that they can give you more pleasure as you start to miss those activities more. — TheHedoMinimalist
As you acknowledged, the modern day reality of total nuclear winter is nothing other than nightmarish, if given sufficient focus. And why shouldn't it be. — Outlander
That's why you don't ever need to get too comfortable, and when you do, consider taking say a weekend outing in the woods with the pledge that any modern technologies you bring with are to be used solely in case of an emergency only. — Outlander
I have noticed that there seems to be quite a few philosophers who have a tendency of spending a lot of time criticizing modernity. These criticisms are quite unusual as it is quite contrary to the opinions of most non-philosophers who mostly think that modernity is clearly better than living in the past. — TheHedoMinimalist
I don’t see why pointing out problems caused by something requires us to criticize that thing in any significant way. — TheHedoMinimalist
Of course, “first world problems” can cause some serious distress to modern people and may even cause them to commit suicide. But, this wouldn’t entail that modern people are justified to be so upset about these problems or that these problems are just as big as the problems that existed in the past. — TheHedoMinimalist
In contrast, it seems like there are plenty of people like me that just don’t have any problem with modernity whatsoever. Given this, I tend to think that maybe we should give modernity more credit and maybe we should be more modest in our criticism of modern life. — TheHedoMinimalist
Why is the only alternative to modernity "living in the past". What about an alternative modernity? — Isaac
It's literally the definition of criticising. — Isaac
Really. What is more severe than suicide then? — Isaac
You're happy with it so the rest of us should be? What a bizarre argument. — Isaac
I would say that having someone scream in agony for many years and not be able to commit suicide is more severe than suicide. I think having time, energy, and resources to commit suicide is actually a privilege in many ways. People in past often didn’t have adequate means to commit suicide and they often were too busy trying to survive and find comfort to even seriously contemplate suicide. — TheHedoMinimalist
having someone scream in agony for many years and not be able to commit suicide is more severe than suicide. I think having time, energy, and resources to commit suicide is actually a privilege in many ways. People in past often didn’t have adequate means to commit suicide — TheHedoMinimalist
Though I would think that for a philosophical hedonist considering all options, it might follow more to avoid the greater evils and pains first before seeking comparatively more transient pleasures. — magritte
I am as concerned about the extinction of the majority of flora and fauna species going extinct as I am humans going that route. — Photios
Whatever the case may be, it seems to me that those who approve of modern life, as you do, do so on the same ground: the benefits of science and technology to the improvement of man’s physical well-being; as though merely living longer and in better health were the keys to human bliss. — Todd Martin
According to this optic, one might say,”Oh Mozart! If only he had lived in this day, when modern medicine prolongs lives, so that he could produce so many more masterpieces!”...but modernity has not only extinguished the aristocratic taste that he exemplified in his music: it has also turned our taste away from any real appreciation of it. Not only this, but Mozart, who died at the age of 35, accomplished far more than any present musician will ever accomplish, should he live to the age of 100. — Todd Martin
Genius aside, let’s consider the everyday lives of everyday ppl like you and me: what modernity promotes is individualism, the notion that each human being is a separate entity with peculiar rights, not necessarily attached to anything other than his or her own selfish self — Todd Martin
O Hedomenos, that was a personal affront to me, that you set the preferred end of your life at an age, 55, younger than my present years! You are obviously yet a rather young man, and I doubt the sincerity of your sentiment: I would like to know how you feel when you turn 54. — Todd Martin
As far as Mozart is concerned, there are three sorts of ppl that are attracted to him out of the general population: the most obvious are the white-hairs who commonly go to classical concerts because that is the music that they were steeped in as youngsters (that group may have already died out); another is the younger sort, wealthy and upwardly mobile, who take an interest out of vanity and ostentation; the last is the mothers who think their infants will become smarter if they hear his music regularly... — Todd Martin
...but there are very very few who listen to his music now simply because it stirs their soul, regardless of how many listen to his music on YouTube, and there are no new Mozarts, or Schuberts, or Beethovens, or Brahmses being produced in our day. They have all been replaced by jazz and rock and hip-hip and rap in the popular consciousness...which is an opprobrium less of classical music than it is of the modern soul. — Todd Martin
But is the bald fact that a power can be abused reason to eliminate it entirely? — Todd Martin
Don’t such powers often also conduce to greater good? — Todd Martin
Do not the traditional marriage vows, “for better or worse”, take account not just of misfortune, but also of the frailty of the paterfamilias, his proneness to error, of the fact that he is a mere mortal? — Todd Martin
When divorce becomes easy, when a man and woman who have formally pledged to devote their lives to each other decide that they might be happier going separate ways, and split up, what do their children learn from this to guide them in their adult lives? They learn that there is no unbreakable bond between human beings, and that, with whomsoever they should form a bond with in their own lives, be it a wife or husband, mother or father, brother or sister, priest or friend, that bond has no fetters, is a will-o-the wisp. — Todd Martin
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