From: rhinoceros (rhinoceros@freemail.gr)
Date: Tue May 25 2004 - 14:04:50 MDT
[Lucifer]
The happiness gained from a false belief is a fool's prize.
[rhinoceros]
1. What is happiness? I understand happiness as a set of states of the mind (-brain). It may contain pleasure but this is not necessary. I think happiness is being satisfied with your condition by some measures of your own, while you are aware of the possibility of a number of other less desirable conditions (hence "ignorance is bliss" -- when you can not see anything better than your current condition).
2. What is a false belief? To recognize one you have to find that it produces contradictions in the context of a belief system which is both self-consistent and consistent with all facts thrown at it so far. If you take a wider view, you may also include meaningless spurious beliefs which have no direct consequences at all (these may have indirect consequences though).
An interesting question is whether "false belief" as used in the TOTD should include beliefs which cannot be falsified by someone but can be falsified by someone else at another time and place.
What do you think of spurious beliefs which you consciously enforce on yourself so that you get the benefits of happiness in a limited context? Something like a fantasy game.
3. What is a fool's prize? This I don't know. Anyone?
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