Philosophy to Share

Ok, I just dug this up; it's an old assignment from college. We had to come up with our philosophy in life, and I thought I might share it with you guys to see what you think. Quoth myself:

In my opinion (for that's what this paper is based upon) there are three keys to happiness and success in life.

The first is to have the ability to accept imperfection. Imperfection runs rampant in the world we live in, and never will it cease to exist. If one can learn to accept this fact, then they can be able to see the bright side of what really matters. This leads to my other key:

Pessimism. If you can expect everything you face to be intolerable, then you will be pleasantly surprised when it proves itself to be merely catastrophic. Now, this may seem a bit too pessimistic. But, consider the man who expects everything to be absolutely fantastic, wonderful, fabulous and imperfect, only to reveal that it is merely great. This breeds disappointment and the expectance of perfection, when in fact the man is looking no further than his overzealous preconceptions. There is another, more subtle advantage to pessimism, also. Most self-proclaimed optimists are always preaching about how looking on the bright side of a dark situation makes the world seem brighter. This, in fact, is untrue. If one keeps focusing on the good side, how is he to realize how to make the bad side brighter?

My third and most important key is to believe in fact, science, and oneself. When a man looks at the world logically, throwing out all emotions and opinions, he is likely to realize that what he accepts to be reality is simply what he perceives reality to be. Reality, as an (unfortunately) anonymous thinker once said, is nothing beyond its' observation. The only thing that can be taken as truth is what is perceived. Before even comprehending the feed our senses give us, it is important to throw it emotion and opinion and look purely at fact when making important decisions. Believing what everyone tells you without looking at it logically breeds not only the tendency to be naive, but also room for materialism. When someone is possessed by this demon, they throw out true value in an attempt to fit in with peers. For example, we all have memories from high school when there was the one "fashionable" thing. One person would proclaim it "funky fresh," and everyone would run to go get it. Whether it be glasses, an afro, anything. They will get it because they believe it will make them popular and "funky fresh" as well. If your peers judge you superficially as such, then it is better to be shunned by them then to drop to their level of immaturity and desperation for acceptance.

If you can learn to be pessimistic for the purpose of raising your enjoyment and therefore focus of what would otherwise be mundane events, if you can learn to accept imperfection and move on without trying to cure the impossible, if you can learn to believe in only fact, science, and what you perceive above all else, then you will lead a happier and more successful life.



Ok, reading this over it was pretty dull, but tell me what ya guys think, eh?

Oh, and I think I revealed my age with the "funky fresh" thing, huh? Everything in the late 70s was funky fresh

Hehe, that was great. I think you're a genius Darwin That whole optimism thing is highly overrated.

I'm a sucker for philosophy, nicely done Darwin

You should write more philosophy, it'd be "uber funky fresh".

The times when optimism really pays off are when you are faced with a life problem, challenge or setback. An optimistic thinking style at these times will increase your resilience, maintain hope and improve your chances of a successful or acceptable outcome.

Pessimism will tend to make you feel more anxious, depressed and hopeless, none of which will help you overcome obstacles, deal with tough situations or persevere with difficult projects.

"I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist."

Apart from the endless, moebius-like philosophical debate on reality that could be entered into at this point, there is another, much more pertinent reason why optimism beats pessimism any day.

There is some research to show that pessimists have a more accurate take on some situations than optimists. But not the sort of situations that really matter.

In a study of students after an exam, those who were shown to have a pessimistic thinking style guessed their performance more accurately than the optimists. All well and good.

But what about the ambiguous situation presented by a relationship difficulty for example? While the pessimist might have a more 'accurate' take on the reality of the situation, the optimist will tend to persevere, and so is much more likely to overcome the problem.

The pessimist is more likely to give up early. So who is better off? Well, as long as you think relationships are worthwhile (and you'd have to be a major pessimist to think they are not), the optimist of course!

And this applies in all sorts of uncertain situations - the stuff of which life is made.

Usefulness, not Accuracy

The thing is, optimism simply much more useful than pessimism in the sphere of emotions, relationships and life in general. As mentioned above, learning optimism makes life more enjoyable. Period.

Optimism tends to engender pleasant emotions, while pessimism creates unpleasant ones. And that, in essence, makes for an enjoyable life.

At least I think it does.

2 cents worth


"No one can make you feel inferior without your permission"
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Aaaaak! Nononononono

I believe in an objective reality! How can you talk about throwing out emotions and opinions, and then say reality is what you perceive it to be? That is the theory of subjective reality - that reality can actually differ between two observers of the same phenomenon.

No one can perceive quantum strings, life elsewhere in the universe, or the molten core of the earth. That does not mean that none of these exist.

I also have to throw my hat in with Frankie - pessimism can lead to the "self fulfilling prophecy." You don't have to be a shiny-happy person, but if you don't have hope, and just expect the worst to happen no matter what, they why try? Why bother learning to be pessimistic in order to raise your level of enjoyment? It probably won't work, anyway Also, people who are religious tend to be happier, despite the fact that religion is based on the tenet of faith, which is intrinsically non-logical and non-scientific. Except for the Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (I went to college, too).

Oh, and not everything in the 70s was funky fresh. Some of it was bichin @$$ - especially my 'fro and pink shades

And one could say that is because reality is perception, and perception is nothing without emotion and experience to interpret what is percieved.

Of course, I could be talking out of my ass. I percieve that to be a possiblity

The bad thing about optimism is that it can lead to expectation, and there are few sources of disappointment quite as potent as unmet expectations, especially in relationships. A realist knows that relationships take work and that not everything is going to be happily ever after. An optimist when confronted with the inevitability of things going down the toilet in one way or another is more likely to be confused about why, and is more likely to assign the blame on themselves in an unrealistic way and be very disillusioned about it all. To be a true optimist means you believe that for some people everything is happy, perfect, and effortless, so if it's not working out that way in their own life then they must be doing something wrong. I submit that hope is far more useful (and different) than optimism. Optimism says "things will get better." Hope says "things might get better." Pessimism says "to hell with both of you, pass me the scotch."

My philosophy is that life is a game.

SL is a lot like it, but real life is a much bigger, longer and deadlier game.

In both you create what you are every minute, only in real life you are stuck with the results!

Same goes for optimism, luck, enthusiasm, whatever you want to call it. You create it as you go along, and if you don't you'll miss it when it passes by. In other words, you get exactly what you really (REALLY) think you'll get.

I am a pragmatist and don't often engage in navel-gazing because I'm too busy doing other things. For me it's pretty much a matter of moving my body out of bed every morning and doing what I HAVE to do, then getting to do a bit of what I WANT to do.

We (the U.S.) are a nation of people too often obsessed with how we individually feel, instead of considering the common good. In the bigger picture, whether I'm optimistic or pessimistic about my life doesn't really make a bit of difference in the grand scheme of things - life goes on, and every 24 hours we all move one day closer to our eventual deaths.

Besides, in my opinion, balance is the most reasonable goal in life: you must exercise both optimism and pessimism, eat your vegetables and your cake, live life and be prepared to die.

Yes, Darwin, you do reveal your age... over and over again...

And in *my* reality, the phrase "funky fresh" calls to mind the many diapers I've changed over the past almost-five years...

“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” - Abraham Lincoln

I personally try to approach things from a realistic angle, not pessimistic or optimistic. Just taking it all in, allowing for my typical reactions, then breaking it all down and persuing my desired outcome. Thats the key right there, creating my desired outcome and persuing it. Creating is the keyword.

Whether the Glass is half full or half empty is irrelevent if you really want a bowl of cereal.

If you are always persuing what you create, you will always be happy. Well...at least I think so.

^_^

Some people think the glass is half full
Some people think the glass is half empty
We pour it out onto the ground and laugh.

I tend to go the pessimistic / logical approach to life. Unfortunately, it seems to put me into a perpetual state of dysthymia. It seems the more I understand things, the more lonely and depressed I feel. Sometimes this makes me envy those of faith and irrational hope.

As to imperfections, there are a lot of things that I avoid or neglect because I think that I am not worthy, because it is impossible for me to be the ideal person that I want to be.

In those places where perfections are achieveable (such as programming or building things in 3D), I can be very obsessive about ensuring I do a perfect job. I get a lot of happyness and comfort out of these kind of things.

But for the things that can't be perfect, I often let them lapse into mediocrity -- i feel no inspiration at all to bother improving my capabilities with them (such as drawing sketches on paper, or make an effort to dress fashionably).

I think my problems with perfection may be my nemesis and my biggest source of unhappyness...

Ahahahahahaha. That's beautiful Sean. I'll be repeating that one for sure

The leading cause of death in the world is life.

&

If you kill everyone... there will be no war

Yeah, I realised a lot of those points as I was re-typing this to my comp. Do you think it's good enough to revise into something I agree with as a (slightly) more mature individual?

What is your desired outcome?