Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Saturday night distinguished lecture, documentary & interview series, here is Dan Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard, presenting his talk: Why are we happy? Why aren't we happy? (2004, 22:02).
In our previous distinguished lecture series shows, we worked our way from metaphysics to epistemology to Hawkins' discussion of our neocortex, and Dennett's discussion of our consciousness. Tonight, Gilbert takes a look at our prefrontal cortex, our synthesis of happiness, and our psychological immune system.
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
How does one claim to discuss metaphysics without discussing Aristotle's Metaphysics?
Crimminy.
In what sense do you mean how?
As the lead topic relates to the workings of the mind..can we get something straight?
Ignatieff is not an intellectual.
Yes I will submit that he has written books, taught at Harvard, got a wack of initials after his name, and has oodles of academic training...but intelligence it is not.
Wisdom and academic learning don't neccessarily co-exist.
What Iggy is, is an insufferable boor that would suck the oxygen out of a room in less than twenty seconds, let alone twenty minutes.
The fact that Obama stayed awake long enough during Iggy's twenty minute lecture says more about Obama's character, than Iggy's so-called intelligence.
Lovely. That's two. 100%, so far. Next?
Money can't buy you happiness but it sure would be fun trying !
I have three University degrees myself AND was a college instructor. None of my degrees were "HOnarorary" like many of Ignatieff's - I had to work for them.
I also have edited many papers and reports and been published the odd time.
Does THAT make ME an intellectual like Ignatieff?
I know a couple who won a $Million. A few years later - broke, divorced and then he was dead. Suicide in the basement.
Recipe for disaster;
Fill pot with money and extra good looking people. Stir.
Will soon boil over with unhappiness, broken marriages, weirdos and elitism. aka Hollywood.
Now it's the United Nations under the bus !
[ U.S. officials are furious with the United Nations for its role in Hamas' attempt to enlist U.S. Sen John Kerry to transfer a letter from the Palestinian militant group to President Obama during Kerry's trip to the Middle East, an official source told FOX News.]
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/21/hamas-face-political-fallout-letter-obama/
Indeed, Ron, the central point of Gilbert's talk tonight is, I think, that we can, to a far greater degree than many people think, completely and naturally synthesize genuine happiness, in such a fashion that our lack of self-knowledge about that phenomenon places us at risk. On the other hand, I suppose we could always have a discussion about who has come up with the most creative mangling of the name of the leader of the opposition, or go back to television, and watch idols and survivors.
"In what sense do you mean how?"
You began your discussion with a topic from Philosophy of Mind - Consciousness, thereby continuing with epistemology and completely blew by metaphysics.
As well, Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics has a substantial section on happiness.
What gives?
ps sorry to start a brawl in reader tips. Not sure where the appropriate place to scrap on this topic is.
Jonathan Kay rips into Warren KInsella's attempt to censor TVO and Kathy Shaidle here:
http://tinyurl.com/angsxf
Comments on tonight's SDA LNR are completely valid here, Hannibal Lectern, the LNR show is the seed reader tip each night, though it is only that. Then, other reader tips, and comments on them, are also valid. Anyway, if you actually follow the previous link in my entry above, back to the dawn of the SDA LNR Distinguished Lecture, Documentary, and Interview Series, seen here every Saturday night on Small Dead Animals Late Nite Radio, you will find that we did indeed begin with metaphysics last January 11'th.
Returning, then, to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and its substantial section on happiness, what of it, exactly, do you find most worthy of sallying forth with in this fine discussion of said topic of the day.
It seems to me that most moderns and post-moderns have no idea of the very different definition of happiness that the ancients and medievals held. Happiness (eudaimonia) was not an emotion but rather the consequence of a life of moral excellence. Implicit in the discussion of moral excellence is a moral action theory that assumes the moral significance of each human moral act.
"begin with metaphysics last January 11'th."
You didn't. You began with modern physics.
http://www.morec.com/natural.htm
"The undeniable basis for the metaphysics of Aristotle and St. Thomas is their prior study of the natural world of changeable being—of “physics” in their sense of the term. If modern science had shown that Aristotle’s studies of the natural world were false in all relevant ways, then it would also have shown that the metaphysics of St. Thomas was false as well. Conversely, if St. Thomas’ metaphysics is a true science of being qua being, then in some essential respects his underlying physics—suitably updated and purified of empirical errors—is a true description of the natural world.
"Fortunately, in this very moment in history some empiriological scientists have a sufficiently “scientific cast of mind” to begin to see and grapple with the limits of reductionism in science, and thus return “from below,” as it were, towards a classical understanding of nature. Thus in biology we find a growing rebellion against reductionism and a return to holism in the writings of first-class scientists such as Franklin Harold in The Way of the Cell.
"Even in physics there is a movement toward holism and hierarchical ordering in nature, exemplified by the Nobel laureate Robert Laughlin’s astounding book A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down. Wherever we see scientists grappling with the existence of “emergent properties” in nature, we see the bottom-up rediscovery of the formal and structural principles long known to classical philosophy and still needed for a complete grasp of material reality." -- Christoph Cardinal Schönborn
Hannibal.....it seems to me that way to much time is wasted on this amoire thing.Or is that moray?
Ah, yes, well, Schönborn: what can I say?
I almost always find the Ted lectures interesting.
a week ago, I saw a lecture given by Hans Rosling regarding stats, health and culture, that was linked from www.caracaschronicals.com
he closes the lecture by swallowing a sword... a page from the circus!
thanks for the insight into happiness Vit.
I'm glad you liked that, Marc. By the way, we first covered Professor Rosling's work, here at SDA Late Nite Radio, on August 3, 2007. Also, there's some other stuff by me on the Gapminder software here, at the Sagacious Iconoclast.
"Ah, yes, well, Schönborn: what can I say?"
Apparently, not much.
Here's a link to Benedict Ashley's latest book, The Way Toward Wisdom is Through Metaphysics:
http://www.morec.com/rpc/meta.html
Beer makes me happy. If I have two bottles, and you take one away, I won't be very happy. If I have six beer, and you take away three of them, I won't be as happy as if I had two beer, and drank them both before you could get your greedy hands on them.
After about seven or eight beer, I can become very sad, staring at the bottom of my beer glass, but I'm enjoying my sadness, wallowing in it.
If it's last call, it doesn't matter how many beer I've had, if you try to get my last beer away from me, I'll fight you.
I'm pretty happy right now.
That's two, two, two ways to get Ashley's latest book, folks. Say, do we get any sort of discount, I mean, speaking as SDA Late Nite Radio listeners? Or should we, perhaps, just go and listen to Gilbert's talk? After all, it is free. I guess you get what you pay for, eh what? How much did you pay for your comment? No: wait, wait, Jimbo's got it, best to go hoard some beer before last call.
I don't know where else to post this or how to go aabout it, but...On CBC they posted a story about the Abu Ghraib prison re opening under a new name...How about an SDA poll with suggestions, I posted a suggestion on the Ceeb website..to call it...The Omar Khadr Centre for Terrorist Re-Education
cool!
I don't know where else to post this or how to go aabout it, but...On CBC they posted a story about the Abu Ghraib prison re opening under a new name...How about an SDA poll with suggestions, I posted a suggestion on the Ceeb website..to call it...The Omar Khadr Centre for Terrorist Re-Education
Posted by: frankinsaskatoon at February 22, 2009 1:19 AM
I suggest: Abu Ghraib II: Yet Another Excuse For The Mindless Leftard Western Media To Attack Western Civilization Whilst Ignoring The Islamist Barbarians At The Gate.
To move to a more quotidian plane: "CanWest's albatross on the balance sheet" (No, not the Liberal party, although the latter organization does have a similar albatross.)
"Obama's sky-high popularity takes a dip"
How long before the blame-the-Bush card is pulled out?...
"If Your Wife Gives You Any Smack Then . . . Cut Her Head Off? What The . . . ?
In his ongoing efforts to portray Muslims as chummy neighbors, Muzzammil Hassan, founder of Bridges TV, cut his wife’s head off last week when Muzzy found out she was going to ditch him. What’s that, you say?
This is the first you’ve heard of the 2/12/2009 beheading in Buffalo in which a Muslim TV exec chopped his wife’s noggin off in one of their office suites? Oh, I’m sorry. I assumed that you’d already heard about it—but then I just recalled that ABC, NBC, CBS, and NPR haven’t said a word about it since it happened. Oops. My bad."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2191246/posts
"give Britain the last rites?"
...-
"PETER HITCHENS: Why invite the Pope to a country that revels in persecuting Christians?
Why did Gordon Brown’s anti-Christian Government ask the Pope here? Is it so that Benedict can give Britain the last rites?
The poor country certainly seems to be in the final stages of a sort of national dementia."
urlm.in/bsmd
maz2, the MSM dosen't want to "inflate" that story. too close to home for inbreds.
"Ignatieff's Chief Strategist Threatened TVO: Paikin
Warren Kinsella, Chief Strategist to Liberal
Leader Michael "Iggy" Ignatieff
(I bet he hates this picture of himself and wishes people wouldn't post it, eh?)
Story here.
Later that same day, I received another email from Warren informing me that he was emailing the Minister of Education to ask her to pressure us to “unbook” Kathy Shaidle, and that if we didn’t, there would be significant consequences for TVO and The Agenda. He did, indeed, email the Minister.
Well, now we’ve got a different story, right? Now, it’s no longer a story about the appropriateness of our choosing Kathy to appear on the program. Now it’s a story about a well known Liberal Party operative threatening us (with what? We didn’t know) unless we did what he said."
http://thecanadiansentinel.blogspot.com/
Greggy's Laugh-Out: Best Bee-Ess Line Award:
"CBC Radio provides unique and valuable broadcasting not available anywhere else on the dial."
Cut CBC's cash to Ozeronadanuttinkzilchsquat >>>
Down with CBC/Pravda.
Gitmo needs CBC. Send CBC home to Gahdr.
...-
"CBC wants more cash
In hard economic times others cut, the public broadcaster begs
By GREG WESTON"
" Lacroix says CBC brass are already looking at alternatives "including the sale of some of our assets to balance this budget."
The Corp's options that don't involve dynamite are getting pretty thin.
AD REVENUES DOWN
The federal agency has already sucked $77 million from its pension plan, another $34 million from selling Vancouver real estate, and in the past year spent all of its reserves and contingencies.
In his memo, Lacroix does not say how much extra taxpayers' money the CBC is after, only that ad revenues alone for 2008 were 17% less than forecast.
To top it all off, the Corp's latest financial reports warn "cutting costs and generating new revenues cannot give us the resources we need to meet new challenges such as replacing aging broadcasting infrastructure..."
Too bad, so sad, but to paraphrase that old song, maybe it's time to think the whole thing over."
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/02/22/8483481-sun.html
CFRA repeats the Big Lie.
These men are not, not "Canadian envoys".
They are not, not "Canadian diplomats".
They are agents of Moon-United Nations.
...-
"Ransom Request Allegedly Issued for Canadian Envoys
The agency is aware of a reported demand from individuals who seized a pair of Canadian diplomats."
http://www.cfra.com/?cat=3&nid=63242
"That's two, two, two ways to get Ashley's latest book, folks"
If you followed the link you would have realized that's the text of Ashley's entire book. For free.
"While most Canadian media outlets are slashing jobs and other costs to stay afloat in a sea of bad economic news for the industry, the CBC is once again rattling its tin cup for more handouts from taxpayers."
Greg Weston, Toronto Sun, Feb 22
http://www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/greg_weston/2009/02/22/8481486-sun.html
via maz2: "Lacroix says CBC brass are already looking at alternatives 'including the sale of some of our assets to balance this budget.'"
Hey, not so fast. What do they mean by "our assets"?
Don't CBC assets belong to the Canadian taxpayer? Surely, the publicly funded CBC can't sell "their" assets to raise money when said assets aren't theirs to sell.
What are they talking about?
Re the CBC asking for more money from the government -- i.e. the Canadian taxpayer -- to keep the lifestyles they've become accustomed to, why am I not surprised?
The thing about these leftards is, they always expect the government to bail them out, someone else to do without (i.e., the rest of us) while they retain their inflated salaries, benefits, and perks.
CBC President Hubert Lacroix in his memo to the Mother Corp[se] employees: "The combination of a severe slump in our commercial revenues, coupled with rising costs of production, is a menacing test that will demand some tough choices on our part."
Yeah, right. The only tough choice is how much to ask the Canadian government to fork over. I hope our government tells Lacroix and co. to go fly a kite -- on their own dime. For those of us who have always lived frugally, within our means, bills paid by the end of the month, putting our kids through university and not relying on government handouts, these crocodile tears from a bloated, irresponsible, and entitled bureaucracy are disingenuous, to say the least.
Perhaps the CBC should be looking at why most Canadians can't be bothered to watch its television shows. Perhaps they could admit the huge disconnect between their POV and most Canadians' who happen, unlike them, to live in the real world.
And then, perhaps, the CBC could begin their foray into reality by cancelling "Little Mosque on the Prairie."
another poorly researched and reported article from the MSM.
hydrogen has to be created from natural gas or hydro. is hard to transport and store. is dangerous. creates a greenhouse gas anyway.
the best example is a cellphone tower? gimme a break.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090220/fuel_cells_090222/20090222?hub=TopStories
Al Qaeda Founder Blames bin Laden For All Bloodshed in Iraq, Afghanistan
http://thecanadiansentinel.blogspot.com/2009/02/al-qaeda-founder-blames-bin-laden-for.html
Why hasn't the Big Media picked up on this? This is BIG!
"Slightly Historical: Never retell anything from the past for fear of insulting someone"
by Michael Coren
http://www.ottawasun.com/Comment/2009/02/21/8472771-sun.html
Headline: MSM's political correctness:
"Aguanga man to serve seven life sentences"
Rewrite:
>>>> Aguanga black convert to Islam to serve seven life sentences.
" An Aguanga polygamist received seven life sentences for torturing and endangering seven of his 19 children and abusing and imprisoning his three wives.
Mansa Musa Muhummed, 55, also known as Richard Boddie Jr., sat in the courtroom last Friday looking unmoved as the judge issued his decision."
http://www.myvalleynews.com/story.php?story_id=35997
Let us see now.
Would like to present the idea that has been cooking in the mind for many years now.
There is no such state as happiness.
There are happy moments, many happy moments, a long string of happy moments. Days, weeks, months of happy moments, though state it is not. For if happiness becomes a state, it ceases to be happiness and becomes normal state.
Now the unfortunate things begin to happen in hope of increasing happiness. Like alcohol, drugs and other such excesses because the plateau of actual state of happiness is not good enough and since it has become normal state where the happiness is not appreciated any more, there is a need to increase the intensity in hope of achieving some.
More a person needs happiness, the more elusive it is. In fact the less one seeks, in the way of materialistic accomplishments, the happier one can be. This is not at once obvious though it works, as long as one gets to enjoy thing that are creative in nature.
Santelli responding to the 'print and read' message on the mortgage situation.
http://copiousdissent.blogspot.com/2009/02/rick-santelli-rips-up-mortgage-bill.html
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=a2e2abf7-1b5c-4af7-9475-181c7b23f46b
John Ivison (national post): "Michael Ignatieff may be a 'smart set intellectual,' as The New York Times says, but does he have what it takes to make the tough decisions?"
In a word, no.
The guy flip flops all over the place, saying whatever the group he's pow-wowing with wants to hear. Michael Ignatieff is a total disaster when it comes to political leadership and smarts. He's way above his pay grade concerning Canadian politics, because after over 30 years of living outside of Canada, he hasn't a clue.
I love the label "smart set intellectual"! 'Just what Canada needs in a Prime Minister, eh? ;-)
This is one paper that needs feedback. The owners of it, especially.
http://www.westmountexaminer.com/article-306079-Obama-and-Harper-Very-different-men.html#comment
batb.."smart set intellectual" sounds like a kid's toy.
Lev - how true.
Happiness cannot be bought nor can it be given to someone. At best, happiness is temporary: something usually comes around to spoil the moment. It is something that comes from within an individual. Better to strive for contentment. This brings somewhat happiness and last a lifetime.
Pwople mixup euphoria with happiness. Both are temporary.
Great article on the discussion-ending speech on race that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder gave, saying he wanted to promote a discussion on race.
This is all too familiar to conservative Canadians, as much too often we encounter liberals and radical leftists who go on & on about how open-minded they are. But "dare" disagree with them and you quickly realize that they're only open-minded if your views are in lock step with theirs.