While reading Aldous Huxley's A Brave New World, I found myself identifying with the savage. The idea that we must experience pain and hardship, in order to appreciate what we have, is something I agree with. This idea comes from the philosopher Friedric Nietzsche, and has been integrated into our society. It can be seen in the credos "No Pain, No Gain," and "That which doesn't kill me makes me stronger," which has been adopted by athletes and soldiers. Nietzsche believed that happieness came from overcoming our pain, and that if we mask our pain we won't fully enjoy our lives.
Science may have reduced our pains, but has it made us happier. I would say that it has, for several reasons. First off mental pains like depression come from a chemical imbalance in our brain, and not from external sources. Therfor, anti-deprassants can fix pain that couldn't be fixed before. Nietzsche's philosophy assumed that all our problems could be fixed through hard work, which I disagree with.
But what about Apotemnophilia? Is it a good idea to allow people to cut off their limbs? I think it is. The source of their unhappieness comes from possesing the limb, and if they amputate the limb they are addresing the issue and fixing it. What other alternatives are there? Living in unhappieness? Would this even be an ethical debate if prosthetic limbs were superior to their biological counterparts? I highly doubt it.
I think people should be able to pursue happieness in what ever way they see fit, as long as they do so with the constaints of the law. If somone wishes to live their life in front of a television or all drugged up, thats fine by me. I don't want to live my life that way, but I also don't want to meddle in their life, even if they want to chop of their own limbs. This idea was the quientessential thinking of John Locke.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think you're making two different points here, both interesting. The first is that living with and through pain is part of what makes us happy, which I think a lot of people would agree with given the popularity of the montras you mentioned, but is that really what people believe? Arguably, people do everything they can to limit the amount of pain we have to go through. So is the slogan "no pain no gain" just a way for people to rationalize the fact that it doesn't seem possible to live pain free? Plenty of professional athletes nowadays use performance enhancing drugs. They're chosing the eaiser, less painful way of becoming good at their sport, and if it works, is there actually anything wrong with it? Even the average college students do everything they can to minimize how much they feel when they binge drink on the weekends. We're stressed, so instead of struggle through it, we drink and forget our worries. And to the extreme degree, I would obviously always want anesthesia before going into surgery, but if we really thought we could gain more by feeling more pain, then we would all going under the knife wide awake. Granted, that's a radical example, but I still think that society as a whole struggles everyday to minimize the pain we feel. So I think what you say in the end of your post is actually more accurate for our society. We all want happiness, and more of us would be much more willing to cut off a limb than deal with the unhappiness of having one we didn't want still attached. Arguably, if a world like the one Huxley describes were possible, there would be plenty of people willing to sign away their worries for a chance at ignorant bliss.
ReplyDelete