3 comments

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  muirgeo

  11 months ago

  Truth and knowledge are the highest goals to obtain in my opinion. But if truth leads me to understand or believe my conscious being dissolves with my last heart beat I'll take that over bliss on a facade of ignorance. Maybe a little envious of the happy church goer who believes eternal bliss lies beyond but ultimately pitying them for missing out on the seemingly grim truth.
  
  My cat more content lazing through everyday then I could ever be, my dog happier then I could ever be while fetching a retrieving a stick 20 times over have no where's the value I get from looking over them and rejoicing in the contentment and happiness and being above it to recognize it and contemplate it.
  
  A child brings these nuanced satisfactions many times over that surveys which include questions of free time, money, stress and worry don't pick up on.
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  Ryan

  11 months ago

  Although I'm doubtful that this stuff you mention (happiness, meaning, intensity of devotion, etc) can be measured at all, I really admire your eagerness to attempt to develop a method to measure it. Good luck, I hope you accomplish a reliable way to do this, if it's at all possible.
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  Kai

  11 months ago

  In psychology, we distinguish between "hedonic" and "eudaimonic" well-being and happiness, the former referring to those needs (desires) that are only subjectively felt and whose satisfaction leads to momentary pleasure, and the latter to those needs that are rooted in human nature and whose realization is conducive to human growth. Hedonic well-being would be measured simply as a balance of positive and negative affect, whereas eudaimonic well-being needs to take more complex variables, such as goals, values and motivation into account.
  Having and raising children may or may not contribute to positive affect all of the time, but it may contribute to a feeling of achievement and contribution to humanity that is part of eudaimonic well-being and happiness.
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