All things good to us are rewarding to us

[MozartLink]

All my previous topics were too long and sort of incoherent. No debate could be had in those topics since they were too long and incoherent. Therefore, I am going to state something brief here for us to debate:

Everything good to us is a reward to us. If you lived a depressed life and thought that you having good meaning in your life is nothing but words and phrases and isn't actual good meaning, then that would not be a reward to you. But the moment you perceive good meaning in your life in such a way that it is actual good meaning to you and not just words and phrases, then that would be the reward to you.

I will give another example. If you did not focus on yourself at all and just focused on living for others, making their lives good, and this has good meaning to you, then that would be rewarding to you as well. For you to make the lives of others good (rewarding) is rewarding to you. But as I said before, our reward system (good moods) are the only reward for us. They are the one and only things that can give us a rewarding experience in life since it all comes down to the functioning of our brains that gives us all our experiences in life.

If you had nothing but disrewarding pain and misery from having your wounds attended to at the hospital, then just the fact that the idea of you being healed is of good value/worth to you means that it is rewarding to you despite your pain and misery. But like I said before, if you did not experience your good moods despite your pain and misery, then that would actually be of no good value/worth to you.

Now to say that something can be of good value/worth to you even though it is not rewarding to you would be no different than saying that something can be rewarding to you even though it is not rewarding to you. Therefore, that would be a false (contradictory) statement.

We have different functions of our brains. Our thinking function gives us the experience of thoughts. Our hearing function gives us the experience of hearing. Our sight function gives us the experience of sight, etc. But our reward system gives us the experience of reward (our good moods). Our hearing function cannot give us sight, our sight function cannot give us hearing or reward, etc. The mental experiences are tied (restricted) to their functions.

Therefore, the only way helping someone in life can have good meaning to you is if you were in a good mood in doing so. As long as you are in a depressed mood or any other bad mood, then nothing can be of any good value/worth to you in those given moments. Not even if you changed the world and made it a better place. Only when you are in a good mood again would that have good meaning to you.

It doesn't matter what you tell yourself otherwise when you are in a bad mood. If you told yourself that you still have good meaning in your life despite your bad mood, then you would be telling yourself nothing more than labels (words and phrases). That would not bring you any actual good meaning.

So with all of that being said, it is only the feeling/emotional non-moral (mood) version of good and bad that can give good and bad meaning to our lives. The moral version of good and bad and all other versions of good and bad are fake and do not give our lives any real good or bad meaning.

[duszek]

I read the first half of your post and it makes sense to me.

I always feel rewarded if I make a friend laugh or if I tell him something interesting or if I help him somehow because I can feel that he likes me at this moment. I can hear it in the tone of his voice. And this gives me a feeling of a happy community.

It only works with a friend. It does not work with a parasite who sponges on you and takes everything for granted.

Have you ever had a friend who was grateful when you did something good to him or her ?

[Jaded Sage]

All my previous topics were too long and sort of incoherent. No debate could be had in those topics since they were too long and incoherent. Therefore, I am going to state something brief here for us to debate:

Everything good to us is a reward to us. If you lived a depressed life and thought that you having good meaning in your life is nothing but words and phrases and isn't actual good meaning, then that would not be a reward to you. But the moment you perceive good meaning in your life in such a way that it is actual good meaning to you and not just words and phrases, then that would be the reward to you.

I will give another example. If you did not focus on yourself at all and just focused on living for others, making their lives good, and this has good meaning to you, then that would be rewarding to you as well. For you to make the lives of others good (rewarding) is rewarding to you. But as I said before, our reward system (good moods) are the only reward for us. They are the one and only things that can give us a rewarding experience in life since it all comes down to the functioning of our brains that gives us all our experiences in life.

If you had nothing but disrewarding pain and misery from having your wounds attended to at the hospital, then just the fact that the idea of you being healed is of good value/worth to you means that it is rewarding to you despite your pain and misery. But like I said before, if you did not experience your good moods despite your pain and misery, then that would actually be of no good value/worth to you.

Now to say that something can be of good value/worth to you even though it is not rewarding to you would be no different than saying that something can be rewarding to you even though it is not rewarding to you. Therefore, that would be a false (contradictory) statement.

We have different functions of our brains. Our thinking function gives us the experience of thoughts. Our hearing function gives us the experience of hearing. Our sight function gives us the experience of sight, etc. But our reward system gives us the experience of reward (our good moods). Our hearing function cannot give us sight, our sight function cannot give us hearing or reward, etc. The mental experiences are tied (restricted) to their functions.

Therefore, the only way helping someone in life can have good meaning to you is if you were in a good mood in doing so. As long as you are in a depressed mood or any other bad mood, then nothing can be of any good value/worth to you in those given moments. Not even if you changed the world and made it a better place. Only when you are in a good mood again would that have good meaning to you.

It doesn't matter what you tell yourself otherwise when you are in a bad mood. If you told yourself that you still have good meaning in your life despite your bad mood, then you would be telling yourself nothing more than labels (words and phrases). That would not bring you any actual good meaning.

So with all of that being said, it is only the feeling/emotional non-moral (mood) version of good and bad that can give good and bad meaning to our lives. The moral version of good and bad and all other versions of good and bad are fake and do not give our lives any real good or bad meaning.

I like your definition of "rewarding": "having value or worth."
"Now to say that something can be of good value/worth to you even though it is not rewarding to you would be no different than saying that something can be rewarding to you even though it is not rewarding to you. Therefore, that would be a false (contradictory) statement."

I also like your definition of "depression": "inability to receive reward" (meaninglessness).
"As long as you are in a depressed mood or any other bad mood, then nothing can be of any good value/worth to you in those given moments."

It seems as if you want to define 'meaning' into the word 'rewarding.' That would make your conclusion follow: the good life is the most rewarding and most meaningful. I would agree.

I find your thinking about physical pleasure to be most interesting part of all. It follows from what you say that no matter how great the pleasure of the five senses are, they cannot provide meaning. Have you considered music and poetry? Surely these things fall into that category and bring us great happiness and uplift our mood. Perhaps it is not the sense experience that does it. I suppose then the only thing left is the mental stimulation they provide. As it happens, this point you've brought up is quite mentally stimulating. It is pure mental stimulation, so it is unaided by sense stimulation. If I can be frank, I would like to say that your stating that gave me a bit of inspiration, and also allowed me to gain a greater insight into a possible meaning in my own life. I would say that is quite the reward.

"The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms."
- Socrates