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If given a choice between knowing the "Truth," and being Happy, which would you choose? Turns out that the answer depends on how you are feeling right now. Read More
Which is more important Truth or happiness
The flaw in your argument is the assumption that truth and happiness are like polar opposites. They are not. Particularly if you take the perspective of personal truth as opposed to absolute truth, which is not possible.
But I don't...
Ray, I don't take the argument that they are polar opposites...as I make clear in the last part of the post.
HihIhi
This is funny.
Paper or Internet? Truth or Happiness?
With the Internet , printing is included so is it with Happiness. With happiness , the truth is included irrespective of class, culture, experience, etc (planet included :D )
However, paper must be converted to code before it can achieve the same status. Like paper , like truth.
Without conversion, it rots in the library.
Interesting Raj.
I think I understand you, but
I think I understand you, but am not 100% sure :)
Sometimes, in order to be
Sometimes, in order to be happy, one must hold on to lies.
A person who has no education, no prestige socially and professionally, and basically no hope for a bright future can employ various coping mechanisms to protect himself from sadness and anger at life.
He can gravitate to the rumors and lies that tarnish other people's reputation. He can choose to believe these lies, so he can feel better about himself.
That's a recipe for cognitive dissonance
You make it sound like it's only the poor, downtrodden and out of luck people who do this. The biggest self-deceivers are often the rich and famous. Lies are more likely intended to aggrandize one's own self esteem, not diminish others.
I am not sure I would make
I am not sure I would make the link from my article to material wealth...people can be happy without money; in fact, as you know from all the research on money and happiness, money really doesn't buy much happiness.
Neither exist
Both of these are relative terms and can't exactly be chosen in my opinion. What's true for me is not true for you and the only way we can know happiness is by knowing what makes us unhappy.
True is never an absolute, like the saying goes, "there's my version, there's your version and then there's the truth."
Therefore in my opinion we are able to morph truth by point of view and do the same with happiness.
Interesting premise though.
Yes and no
I agree that, for most of us, most of the time, what you say is true. However, if the spiritual traditions are to be believed, there is such a thing as absolute truth. And there is such a thing as "absolute bliss".
I also disagree that the only way we know happiness is by knowing what makes us unhappy. In fact, emotion states are sticky--those who are unhappy generally continue to be unhappy and vice versa.
neither exist...
so true...
Meaning
The 'will to meaning' of Viktor Frankl's existential analysis transcends the 'will to power' of Adlerian individual psychology, which transcends the 'will to pleasure' of Freudian psychoanalysis.
perhaps
Perhaps, Neelesh. In a sense, the "Truth" that I mentioned can be equated to the will of meaning.
truth or happiness..
I don't believe we have a choice..truth,"opinion" sets the mood for our happiness,"mental state."
I believe few are truly happy and that we spend a life time seeking this.Through this journey i feel that it can bring great sadness & depression. Is there really,"true happiness?"
the search for happiness
the search for happiness results in misery mostly because we are desperate to get to being happy when perhaps the answer lies in having the desire to be happy and put in the effort, but not really get hung up on whether we are there yet. I know, it's difficult to pull off, but if one can somehow do it, there wouldn't be as much sadness and misery!
Why the bias towards religion?
Interesting piece and empirical data. I'm just disappointed by our ending. "If the religious traditions are to be believed": it's a rather big "if" you're relying on. Atheists like me will reply that revealed religions are precisely paradigmatic examples of happiness-boosters based on lax reasoning, i.e. on a lack of concern for the truth. If atheism is correct, and God and souls do not exist, then knowing the truth might make it more difficult to be happy - the world then looks like a rather bleak place.
At least that would be my reaction. Maybe some people with a different personality profile than mine believe that the truth of atheism is great news. If so, that might also be an interesting topic of study for psychologists.
True
yes, it is a big if, and I agree with you that religion may have a lack of concern for truth on the whole, but that may be an over generalization as well. I think most Buddists would argue that they care more for truth than almost anyone else. Their way of arriving at or figuring out the truth, however, is a little difficult for most people with a scientific mind to grasp: it involves not thinking or at least trying not to think but rather, to just observe...and most meditators do believe that the experience of not thinking both reveals the Truth and is a blissful one.
Thanks for your reply. Trying
Thanks for your reply. Trying "not to think" when considering such momentous matters is a suggestion that I find rather scary: doesn't it sound like the very opposite of intelligence? Anyway, I guess Buddhists could offer an argument for thinking that the tragedies of human history are not so terrible as they might seem, given that they believe in reincarnation. If they are right, then death is just a transitional phase, not the end, and better days might lie ahead for the deceased. But then we come back to the fundamental distinction you discuss in your article: is it the truth or happiness that matters most? If we take the former answer, we'll have to ask what justification we have for believing in reincarnation or souls. If we take the latter, then we can just accept such beliefs on the grounds that they "resonate with us", or that we find them comforting, regardless of their actual truth or falsity.
not thinking
Not thinking doesn't mean never thinking. In other words, just as you try various ways of arriving at the truth--through logic, personal experience, received wisdom, experimentation, etc., you use "not thinking" as another arrow in your quiver.
From a buddhist's standpoint (and I don't want to talk too knowoingly on their behalf since I am not a buddhist myself and haven't really explored meditation that much), reincarnation is not a "feel good" idea, it is the Truth, and one of the ways in which you figure this out for yourself is through going beyond the mind.
It is difficult to justify the non-use of the mind through the tool of the mind (thoughts), so at some point, you just need to have the willingness to give it a try...
Defining truth ?
Raj, the problem i have here is that there seems to an underlying assumption that there is just one absolute truth to all the questions. Obviously, everyone in their lives pursue truth or answers to different questions, everyday. I dont think one needs to be happy to find the truth or answers to their problems. It's actually necessary to find the truth or answers to one's problems or questions.
If by truth you mean , answers to very specific questions like
why are we here on earth, what happens to us after death, is there a god etc, obviously the truth or answers to each of these questions is different . I am not sure if "knowing the truth" to these questions leads to "eternal happiness" in life .
What does eternal bliss really mean ? Does it mean, once you know the answers to these few questions, you will somehow continue to remain in a constant happy state in this lifetime regardless of the events that happen around you ? (a happy zombie ?)
In the best case, You would simply know the answers to these puzzling questions but your issues/problems in real life would remain.
Unless you work on resolving your issues constantly in life, i guess one cannot be "constantly happy". The very nature of life is that it is a mixture of sad and happy states. Only if you experience sadness , you can experience , appreciate or even comprehend happiness. Human nature is
such that one gets "used" or bored of constant things. I can bet
if one magically does achieve this constant state of happiness,
he/she would be bored to death of it and would actually want to become sad! :-)
I dont think one should even contemplate these unrealistic, impossible goals such as "constant happiness". or "eternal bliss". This is a propoganda by religious/spiritual leaders who have always wanted it easy in life !!
I guess their only goal is to spread laziness all around and not happiness ! (I know i am going overboard here)..
If one sets themselves to such impossible goals, i guess all one would experience is a constant state of frustration, disillusionment and disappointment :-).
I really am not being sarcastic here.
You bring up many points
You bring up many points here, anon, so I am going to focus on the idea that one can't be constantly happy. I think the spiritual types will disagree. I agree with you that their message could be nothing but propaganda, but I am not sure that I would dismiss it altogether as being untrue.
I think most of us experience positive and negative states as a function of our perception how close or far we are from our goals. The closer we feel we are to achieving them, the happier. (and once we do achieve a goal, esp. important one, we feel happy).
What if one's emotional states get unhinged from goal-progress, as can happen sometimes (e.g., when watching a beautiful sunset)? What if one is tuned into the tremendous creativity of life unfolding and can feel its rush every moment? I agree that it seems like a tall order, but at the same time, I wouldn't dismiss it as impossible.
My point is not that all
My point is not that all happiness comes only from goal-oriented activities. We do experience happiness from eating our fav foods, watching a good movie or when we pursue any of our fav hobbies etc. Just because one can derive happiness from non-goal oriented pursuits, doesn't make happiness itself a constant state.
One needs to constantly strive to be happy by doing things that make them happy . But this doesn't mean they would never experience sad states.
Life is a mixture of both and will continue to be just that, no matter
which of your questions get answered.
To my knowledge i am not sure how many such spiritual leaders actively led a happy regular life by actively engaging themselves in worldly pursuits and achievements. Such leaders create a separate world for themselves not engaging in any worldly pursuits but preach their version of happiness from their experiences from their "make-believe" world,to the rest of us who live in this world. Also, I am not sure how many such leaders tested their own theories of happiness while actively pursuing something worthwhile in this world. If these guys don't do anything except preach "wisdom" and "spirituality" and live on other people's money all the time , i think it's reasonable to dismiss them altogether. Wouldnt you agree ?
Why would you want to adopt meaningless goals of happiness from someone that lives in a different world and leads a very different life from the rest of us ?
The other point i wanted to make is, there is no ONE absolute truth to
life or happiness. There are different answers or truths to different questions.
We go in search of most of them in our daily lives out of necessity regardless of the mental state we are in.
I agree that those leaders
I agree that those leaders who only preach and don't do are prime candidates to be dismissed, but not all of them are like that. (Dalai Lama comes to mind, as does Mother Theresa.)
Let me ask you a question about little kids: do you think they too are subject to this rule that they can only experience happiness if they have experienced sadness? Isn't it possible that they can experience a totally absorbing and happy day and then fall asleep blissfully, and then have another day like that and so on? Conceptually, it seems possible that one can experience happiness all the time (it's another matter that practically speaking, something or the other screws up). In other words, I don't think it is necessary to experience sadness in order to experience happiness...but this is likely going to be a long, philosophical discusssion that may be difficult to carry out through emails.
I think age plays an
I think age plays an important role too in this.. When one is younger, happiness gets more importance - prestigious job, cool car, fat bonuses.. When one gets older, truth becomes more important because one realizes that truth is included in overall happiness... I do think that age plays a vital role..
Your thoughts??
You are probably right
Sampoorna...although I can also see how it could go the other way--people who are retired and feeling somewhat alone and even depressed may want to seek happiness (and thus veer towards belief in God).
Very interesting. I'm struck
Very interesting. I'm struck with a likeness, or perhaps an extension of, Maslows needs hierarchy though. Would you say you find yourself a proponent of the basic concepts he set forth in his theory?
hmmm...
That's a good question. I do think that the data I report suggest a hierarchy, but both truth and happiness would be pretty high up in Maslow's hierarchy, so I guess what I am suggesting is that there's a hierarchy within some of the higher-order goals.
I think truth is the
I think truth is the precursor to happiness,e.g. when I realize that there will always be problems, greed is never satisfied, death is certain, etc. we can concentrate on things we really like to do and will become happier.
could be
what you have is a clarity about what you believe in, and that clarity allows you to go about life with a certain level of stability. However, what would happen if something makes you question some of these beliefs about which you are very certain now--e.g., greed is never satisfied? What if, at least for you, you feel that you can conquer greed? Would that actually make you feel better (since you are no longer under the control of greed) or worse (because you have lost clarity)?
I know this is unrelated to the original post topic, but I wonder whether, at some level, clarity is even more important than truth.
Just a quick question: The
Just a quick question: The article talks about people in "positive" moods tend to process/ remember negative effects of caffeine (TRUTH) and those who are in "negative" moods tend of process/ remember positive effects of caffeine (HAPPINESS). What is the measure for positive and negative moods? How do you measure a respondent to be in positive or negative mood?
we used standard scales
Mood is basically measured through pretty standard mood scales--participants are directly asked how they feel after their mood has been manipulated. We used various mood manipulations in this paper, including a false feedback on a test that they had just taken, as well autobiographical memory. If you are interested in knowing more, please look up the paper: it came out in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2002. (or email me and I can send you the paper).
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