• TranscendedRealms
    126
    I think we as human beings have a sense that people are unaware of and deny. It is a whole new sense that scientists around the world have yet to discover. This sense is the ultimate sense. It is a special and unique sense since it allows us to sense values to give our lives value. That sense would be our emotions. Many people say that there are the basic, lower, animalistic emotions which are very fleeting and that there are the higher emotions founded upon morality and intellect. The base emotions are actually like a sense. They are a feeling version of value since they allow us to feel certain values such as horror or beauty.

    When, for example, you are in a dangerous situation and feel fear, you are sensing danger. Our positive emotions allow us to sense that something is good, right, and beautiful while our negative emotions allow us to sense that something is bad, wrong, or horrible. But this is an internal sense which means there are no sense organs indicating our emotions are senses. We sense value through our emotions via our way of thinking. If we have the thought that it is a lovely, beautiful day today, that would make us feel a positive emotion which would allow us to sense that beautiful value we thought of.

    Positive and negative emotions, also known as pleasant and unpleasant emotions, are the only things that can give our lives value. It would be no different than saying that the only real colors, sounds, and smells we can have in our lives are the colors, sounds, and smells we sense. When we feel certain values, that is no different than experiencing certain colors, sounds, and smells. This means that good and bad are actual things like colors, sounds, and smells. So, the next time you hear someone say "I feel good today" or "I feel bad today," take this literally because this is a literal form of good and bad. It is the absolute, objective good and bad that many people are unaware of. It was staring them right in front of their faces this entire time and they couldn't even see it.

    Anyway, continuing on here. Colors, sounds, and smells do not exist in the physical world. Sure, there are sound waves, but the actual sound itself is a mental state since it is where we hear something. Therefore, good and bad was a state of mind all along (the emotions themselves). As for morality and intellect, there are no higher emotions because morality and intellect cannot allow us to sense value. It would be no different than saying how there is no moral and intellectual form of hearing, sight, hot, cold, or smell for a person who has become deaf, lost his sight, doesn't feel hot, doesn't feel cold, or lost his sense of smell. That's what it was like for me and I am just sharing to you my own personal experience.

    During my worst hopeless moments, it was like I was in the most cold, dark, empty place completely devoid of any good value, beauty, and worth in my life. Telling me that I can have real good value and beauty in my life during these hopeless moments would, thus, be no different than telling a person in the freezing arctics that he doesn't need any real heat and that he can just warm himself up through his sense of morality, character, and intellect alone. As long as there is no real sensation of heat the person is experiencing, then he has no real heat in his life. My positive emotions are like the real heat I need in my life.

    They set my soul/being ablaze with positive passion and profound joy. It is a heat or inner light of pure goodness, joy, and beauty. Therefore, I can honestly conclude that hedonism was the correct worldview all along since this worldview advocates the idea that our basic, animalistic emotions are the only source of value to our lives whether that value be good (pleasure) or bad (displeasure). Our morals and intellect can only allow us to perceive and experience the idea of sounds, colors, smells, and values, but it cannot allow us to perceive and experience any real sounds, colors, smells, and values as long as it did not make us hear sounds, see colors, smell certain scents, and feel positive or negative emotions.

    We can lose our ability to feel positive or negative emotions due to a mental illness just as how we can lose our other senses. This means that famous, genius artists who struggled with depression and created amazing works of art were living lives virtually devoid of anything positive or good since positive emotions are the only good and positive things in life.

    These artists could not sense the beauty, good value, and joy of their artistic endeavors and that is why their lives and artistic endeavors were dead and empty. If they felt a small degree of positive emotions though, that would only give their lives a slim degree of good value. This means that the only true way to live and be an artist would be through positive emotions. That is the only beautiful way to create any given work of art whether it be gothic, tragic, joyful, or beautiful.

    But what about the idea that a psychopath who harms innocent people and derives positive emotions being a good thing, according to my worldview? Well, it would be no different than water. Water is still water no matter if it benefits others or drowns others. Likewise, it doesn't matter if you are someone who feels positive emotions from helping others or if you were a criminal feeling positive emotions from harming others; it would all still be good.

    It would be no different than saying that colors, sounds, and smells are always colors, sounds, and smells no matter what. Therefore, positive emotions will always be good no matter what. But many people are delusional and believe in values that are not true. I think the moral and intellectual values are false, people believe they are true, and they believe they are somehow higher emotions when they never were.

    As a matter of fact, if I were to ask many people in this world, they would deny the fact that their base emotions are a feeling version of value. This proves here that humanity are in denial of even their own emotions and personal experience. Who knows, they could also be delusional and in denial when it comes to these moral and intellectual based values and emotions they think are real. In conclusion, I am utterly reliant and dependent upon these positive emotions to give value to my life and to my hobbies such as my composing dream.
  • Rich
    3.2k
    I do not believe a philosophy that speaks about delusions of denials of other people gets one anywhere. Better to just understand oneself and what one is experiencing in the world. Are you delusional or denying anything? Or are you just experiencing and navigating through your life with memories of the past and some direction that you envision?
  • Ashtree
    1

    The problem with a pleasure-based moral system is that it tends to be self-defeating. Addicts who accidentally overdose cut off the prerequisite (their own life) for experiencing pleasure and positive emotions.

    That system tends to be other-destructive too. Wouldn't take long for those with criminal tendencies to overrun the rest of us if the only moral system we established was founded on pleasure and positive emotions (presuming, then, that law does not exist since the standard for morality is subjective).

    Positive emotions are important to a good life, but your anecdotal evidence isn't enough to discount morality or the intellect as sources of value. Suppose someone had an aesthetic experience, or something analogous to what you had, while contemplating a moral or intellectual theory?
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