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There is nothing like engaging in an activity that yields great pleasure to bring a person fully into the here and now (Daniel Klein) | Part A’

There is nothing like engaging in an activity that yields great pleasure to bring a person fully into the here and now (Daniel Klein) | Part A’

Figure out the meaning of life? Who am I kidding? Who do I think I am?

Actually, after reading what Derek Parfit has to say about degrees of personal identity, “Who do I think I am?” is a pretty intriguing question. Could there be different meanings of life depending on what self I happen to be at any given moment?

Right there, in asking that question, is my problem in a nutshell.

I am fascinated by the questions philosophers raise and the answers to these questions that they offer. They bewitch me. But at the same time, I am skeptical of any philosopher who thinks he knows any absolute answer.

This is why that Bertrand Russell quote I jotted down resonates with me. I still take great pleasure in playing around with philosophical questions, the ones that Russell is the first to admit have no unequivocal answers. (Indeed, Russell says that is exactly what makes them philosophical questions and not scientific problems.)

I guess this quality makes me a Cerebral Hedonist, although some would say it makes me a mental masochist. I imagine if I had taken different roads along the way, I would have found my greatest pleasure in fly fishing or playing the banjo.

I certainly do not believe for a minute that my form of hedonism is better than any other—at least as long as that hedonism does not hurt any innocent bystanders.

One thing that struck me as I went over my collection of aphorisms and quotes is how often the paramount value of fully engaging in the present crops up and the various routes different philosophers take to arrive at this value. Epicurus makes it a centerpiece of his philosophy by counseling us to cease from always wanting something more than or different from what we have right now. Marcus Aurelius hits this idea even more forcefully by advising us to act as if every action were our last.

Millennia later, Henry David Thoreau articulates it with both simplicity and passion in his admonition to “launch yourself on every wave.” And the idea is catapulted into the transcendental realm in Wittgenstein’s breathtaking declaration, “[E]ternal life belongs to those who live in the present.”

There is nothing like engaging in an activity that yields great pleasure to bring a person fully into the here and now. In fact, it is a twofer—the activity produces pleasure in itself and that pleasure is multiplied by its putting us in that delightful space of the here and now. Playing a good game of tennis can do that for some people. Making a soufflé can do it for others. Sex can do it for most everyone. And for some people, frolicking around with philosophical questions does the trick.

 

 

Part B’:http://www.lecturesbureau.gr/1/there-is-nothing-like-engaging-in-an-activity-that-yields-great-pleasure-to-bring-a-person-fully-into-the-here-and-now-part-b-1178/

 

 

 

Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It
Daniel Klein

 

Image: https://jointheteem.com/skydiving-videos/the-hot-dog-skydive-exit/



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