The not so personal thoughts of KenH

[insidemyheadnoggin]

//Pleasure and Pain

After thoughts on Essays and Aphorisms by Arthur Schopenhauer

A man and animal only differ due to the ability that a man has to perceive what he/she wants in the future or has lost in the past. According to Arthur Schopenhauer this pleasure and pain (accumulative/not) sometime or most of the time over power the joy and pain that present event brings. This is both a form of curse and gift bestowed to humans. But why say that sexual pleasure is a form of brief pleasure and protracted suffering? It is true that it only brings short and brief pleasure as one is performing the action. But protracted suffering may due to the fact that humans understand the concept of time and able to fell lost of things that he/she never had to begin with.

An animal doesn’t know of death but only instinctively runs away from it, but man on the other hand knows the eventual end that slowly creeps. Animal is the perfect incarnation of the present. While human’s nature on the other hand, is to be constantly disrupted and chaos are put to shame by animal’s lesser and simplistic nature. Although they are unable to enjoy pleasure to our extent, who are we to say that they are not content. For us to do so, we need to be dull and insensitive for whatever comes our way.

after thought additions from the Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Knowledge brings value to ones life and aid to see the picture in a clearer view, it brings both the good and bad to the surface and in turn it increases our capacity of pain. 

[insidemyheadnoggin]

//On Challenges and Difficulties

After thoughts on the Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Often time we feel the difficulties we face to be so overwhelming, that we couldn’t possibly face it and come out the other end victorious. The feeling of despair torments every second and minutes, until the time to solve and face the problem comes. Marcus remarks that one should not be afraid or swayed by the greatness of the problem coming. As he mentioned that, at this point in life. No matter where you are, you have faced multiple problems as challenging as the one coming. You’ve overcome those mountains you thought were impassable, and when the time comes to face the coming challenges, you will be as sufficiently equipped to face it as you are right now.

He also said that there is nothing to be ashamed of failing. However, if you look at it with your own perspective this will sound morbid. There is nothing to be ashamed of or sad about of failing if you have try with all your might to solve it, as if that was the case than it is out of your power to begin with. The best thing to do is just to go with it. He even validates the reasoning to commit suicide, by saying if you truly believe that you have life your life to the fullest potential, suicide is permissible.

[insidemyheadnoggin]

//The Bliss of Ignorance

After Thoughts on the Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Marcus the last great emperor of Rome and a virtuous stoic practice the stoic-lifestyle through out his lifetime. In one of his chapter he talks about how little does praises and mockeries should mean to someone. In simple term he puts it this way: An emerald would not loses it value if someone were to say how ugly or displeasing it looks for them, the same can be said for praises. No matter how many praises you throw unto it, it will not appreciate in value. The emerald will stay as an emerald, no matter how many praises or mockeries it receives. For the emerald, praises and mockeries may as well be seen as the same thing as it does so little to it. Then he imposes this trait unto himself, throwing away what other people thinks of him to the sideline as it means nothing to him. 

To think like Marcus, takes a great deal of effort and perseverance. The ability to ignore. His view on life is further complicated by the want to be as whole as possible. To do this, he believes the only way for one to feel no negative emotions at all is to abandon all emotions itself, if one cannot feel happy then they won’t feel sad as well. Through this, no matter how many adversities one experience, they will not feel challenged at all. 

[insidemyheadnoggin]

//On Virtues and Vices

Thoughts after Nicomachean ethics by Aristotle

In this book, Aristotle discusses the nature of virtues and vices. How they play in our lives, and how they are just a case of moderation and vices are the result of having too much or lacking of said values. The main goal is to stay in the perfect ratio of the value. The example can be explained with ambition: Too much ambition may be perceived as being greedy and having too little may be perceived as indolence. With that, I have some thoughts and opinion regarding the matter.

For this topic, I will choose the virtue of being patient. Patience is a virtue with strong relationship with endurance. The ability to endure and control one’s impulse to act, with the perception of there will be a better time to act. However, being patient also means to acknowledge the want inside of an individual to act upon the emotion, but able to hold it for a better good. Being patient for most of the time are not done for pleasure or voluntarily, but rather out of necessary. It then can be looked through this perspective:

An individual being patient, and refusing to act upon his/her emotion can be interpreted as an act of dishonesty at one-self. However, dishonesty is more of a vice than a virtue. But when framed under the perfect light, it becomes the virtue of patience. I realized that in this scenario someone can be patient without in a state of denial and being dishonest to one-self, but I believe those states are rare, as we are creatures of impulse.