/lit/ - Literature

>>6746963
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaqH7kJecnM this on repeat

>>6746963
Use realtime neurofeedback to condition yourself for it.

>>6746963
Yes.

Though don't be dogmatic about anything

>>6746963
happiness is just the absence of suffering.. escape the cycle anon

>>6747020
Last man get out.

>>6747020
Happiness is not the abscence of suffering. Euthymia is the abscence of suffering.

To attempt to attain a constant level of happiness is unreasonable and frankly undesirable.

>>6747047
Euthymia is unsustainable and only a frequent crossing point or shade of grey.

>>6747060
Any mental state is unsustainable due to the nature of perception. You can only attempt to manage the range.

kill yourself

>>6747072
or you can transcend perception. Open your third eye anon, it's all there.

Why do you want happiness?

>>6747093
My third eye is big and black. It's all there alright.

>>6746963
Who's the man in the picture?

C A M U S
A
M
U
S

>>6746963
>What's the best path to happiness?

You will know when you can ask this question to yourself AND ONLY YOURSELF, and have an answer.

Hint:
>introspection

>>6748720
That's Julius Ceasar

>>6748739
Shutup it's clearly Plato

>>6746963
No.

I'm not saying that Epicurus and his friends in his garden didn't have a nice live, but his philosophy, his written doctrine of what he interpreted that must be the way to a good life is... weak. He didn't understand what he was doing. He wasn't literate enough to be able to write it down and engage in philosophy discussion and, actually, was proud of this.

Epicureanism was Cicero's favorite philosophical punching-bag, and he wasn't even that good in philosophy.

>>6746963
To love the truth above all things. He don't lie, but he is not a real philosopher.

>>6749126
That's Epictetus you fucking pleb.

>>6746963
It's adopting the lifestyle of the natural man, and it lies in pic related's teachings.

Hunter/gatherer's are consistently regarded by anthropologists as the happiest people on the planet.

By trying, failing occasionally and never giving up

>>6746963
No man can show you the way to happiness, philosophical teachings can help, but eventually you have to find out what you want to do with the little time you have on this beautiful world yourself.

:^^)

>>6749480
Oh look, another whore of Dionysus setting the flame to civilization.

>>6749522
A good man should live out the Dionysian exclusively through art.

>>6749480
>Confederate flag
Top ayylmao

>>6749557
I agree, but I fear there's no way to impart that idea to the normals and get them to abide by it.

>>6749562
Hold your tongue anon. The "normies" browsing /lit/ at this moment will accuse you of relations to a certain random, "misogynistic", and perpetually depressed board on this site

>>6749331
based shia labeouf

>>6749480
So creating /pol/-tier humour is a better way to spend your time than pursuing happiness? Go to bed Sam

>>6748720
I'm sorry, I wrote this while half asleep. I feel like an idiot atm.

>>6746963
I like Epicurus a lot, but for me personally it seems like consciously trying to maximise happiness doesn't maximise my happiness. I seem to be happier when I don't pay as much attention to trying to be happy.

>>6746999
tell me more

>>6750149
Real time Neurofeedback

It's a cutting edge field but there's good evidence you can upregulate or downregulate neural activation / behaviour / emotions.

It's the direct path. Get a better understanding of how (that part) of the brain works. Then make it do what you want, as much as you can.

>>6746963
Who's that philosophy colonoscopy?

Happiness is the path my boy.

>>6750249
Sounds like the contemporary answer to Buddhism/Epicureanism/Stoicism et cetera.

Interesting as fuck.

The best path to happiness is to train more neuroscientists and engineers to make a machine that will simulate an existence in your brain and give you total control of your world. Combine that with the technology that will preserve your brain until the end of time, and BOOM, you have just won at life.

>inb4 b-but it's not real xdd
fuck off descartes
although, yeah, this could totally go wrong and someone could just simulate hell and keep that running until the end of the universe

>>6750373
Nope, the path to happiness is to train neuroscientists and engineers to create a medication that prevents critical thought and observation.

>>6746963

The best path to happiness is drinking a nice cold beer on a hat summer day underneath the shade of a palm tree listening to some good music.

Don't overthink it. It's right in front of us.

>>6749480
I have never seen so much ideology in a single image

>>6750402
well, shit

>tfw no sense of taste
>tfw allergic to alcohol
>tfw no hearing
>live in siberia

any other way or am I fucked?

>>6750373
I'd actually be okay with this; compared to the traditional Worm Food path.

>>6750426

try jenkem, my friend.

Daoism

>>6747115
That's your whispering eye

>>6749151
>but his philosophy, his written doctrine of what he interpreted that must be the way to a good life is... weak.
And you go on to not even describe this diagnosis. You find him lacking because the answers to these questions are rather simple. The weakness is yours.
>Epicureanism was Cicero's favorite philosophical punching-bag, and he wasn't even that good in philosophy.
Exactly.

>>6749330
He lived as a bum. Doing away with all the complexities doesn't make life happier. What an odd thing for us all to do if we all followed this way of life. I advocate anarchism, but not Diogenes'

>>6750140
>I seem to be happier when I don't pay as much attention to trying to be happy.
It sounds like you are a practicing Epicurean already. Welcome.

>>6751173
>It sounds like you are a practicing Epicurean already. Welcome.
But Epicurus stressed constant and deliberate attention to it.

>>6747007
>Though don't be dogmatic about anything

>>6751298
So? He isn't god. Do what makes you happiest. Take what he said as sage advice. Like getting married and raising a family. You'll see the various heartache that comes with the joys of parenting and remember his words. You just had to do things your way. Ah-well.

>>6751318
See above. I recommend looking around, I have. I like Daoism, Zen, Stirner, and a lot of what I hear from Nietzsche. Add, adapt a personal philosophy. Over a lifetime if you feel like it.

>>6751343
>So? He isn't god. Do what makes you happiest.
Of course, but that still makes his approach flawed from my perspective. It's too methodical, so responding to OP it doesn't completely seem like the path to happiness to me.

Dao lads seem wiser to me there:

>The right way to go easy is to forget the right way, and forget that the going is easy.

>>6751173
You can read one of the moral dialogues from Cicero. First and Second Books of De Finibus adress Epicurus' Doctrines..

The main problem with Epicreanism is the slipperyness of his definition of pleasure. You can't put "enjoyable feelings", the one you get by hainging out with you friends, and apatheia (the absence of pain) under the same name. They are too different. And this shows in Epicurus writings. Sometimes he means the first instance, sometimes, the second. It is sophistry, even if it is unintended. All comes down to the fact that you can't really preach hedonism and asceticism at the same time.

As I said, Epicurus actually had a nice life. One which inspired a lot of people to follow him or create their own gardens in their cities that mirrored Epicrurus' original one. But he was too much illiterate in writing and philosophy. So he could not engage in philosophical discussions. It was his example, his life and relationships in his garden that convinced people to become epicureans. and they became epicureans ny living a life that mirrored their masters, not by following scripture or engaging in philosophy.

And, unless you have a time machine, you can't really be an Epicurean, because his gardens were lost in time. Sorry, whatever you're thinking you're following is just a shade of whatever Epicurus really preached.

>>6746963
>repress emotions with 'truth'.
He assumes (rightly for some people) that we have ultimately self-harming desires. He prunes and cuts these desires with 'truth'. Ironically, this is tantamount to lying. If a perception is biologically necessary, then denial of that perception is a lie. Therefore epicurus is no different than jesus or buddha, choosing imagination over the phenomena.

If a constructed reality satisfies your needs, then yes, he's your guy.

>>6751401
I like Daoism.

>>6751404
False false false false false.
>...not by following scripture or engaging in philosophy.
Correct.
>And, unless you have a time machine, you can't really be...
Pbbbssshhh

>>6751451
So the "truth" that one craves junk food in massive quantities should not be denied?

>>6751492
If that is true for an individual, you'd disparage it? Your metrics for assigning value are, I assume, based off personal prejudice. Talk of higher and lower pleasures is no different than talk of higher and lower animals, it's nonsensical.

>>6751528
>Your metrics for assigning value are, I assume, based off personal prejudice
My personal prejudices have nothing to do with someone who has overeaten their self into ill health. I think you might not be getting negative hedonism.

>>6746963
What kind of stupid fucking question is that?

>>6751812
you're assigning value to health. Again, by what metric if not personal prejudice?

>>6752642
A lot of philosophy is under the assumption that there is value in life.
Quite an assumption but it's a good place to start when talking about how to live.

>>6752959
it's not an assumption when it's biologically/psychologically determined. It is an assumption when it's based on arbitrary external criteria.

of paths, the best is the Eightfold

Applying late Wittgenstein to the word happiness is the first step to realizing this isn't the right question.

>>6746963
Happiness isn't everything.

You want meaning and beauty and fulfillment, and you can be pretty blue and have those.

>>6752642
Oh wait. Are you an emotional nihilist or a linguistic nihilist?

>>6753084
But a linguistic nihilist doesn't believe we can even assign a proper name to anything.

Checkmate happy people.

>>6753416
>8 step programs

>>6753491
Beauty, health, success, wont bring happiness on it's own, (though they help) it's another feeling all unto itself. I assign differing levels to it too. You can't walk around with constant elation or ataraxia, you have to come down to a sort of slow burn that can border on boredom

>>6753564
I haven't heard of any other 8 step programs.