Philosophy Now Forum

For some reason I've been noticing body language a lot more lately than I usually do, I think it's just as you get older you like to indulge in the whole language experience at a more adept level than maybe you did when you were younger, perhaps I just like looking at breasts that heave when you enter the room, or the finely turned hand of a man who's just handed your change like you were a bit of a dick.

Anyway, has anyone else noticed that it's easier to read people as you get older, you do get a sort of sense for it. My question though is should you, psychologically it's bad enough having to deal with what they say, to then have to know, or at least suspect, what they actually mean... Psychologists of course have spent Aeons, trying to find out how body language works, and it is always an art because no two people have the same body language, any more than any two people speak the same language even if it is the same language.

Should we really want to research a subject like this, or even think about it, (outside of areas where it clearly is ver useful, such as in knowing if you are in with a chance of being laid, or the girl is just bored and stringing you along j/k). It's said for example you can tell if people are lying, but it's usually impossible to most people, micro movements on the face sometimes give people a better chance, but there's no well documneted method to a read, even if you have watched Lie To Me, and that series is bullshit incidentally (although I did like it), because the guy is usually right when of course even people with the talent to read microscopic facal gestures are most often wrong.

So probably explained very badly but is this an art that the philosopher of the mind really wants to know. Would it be better to remain blissfully unaware of what people really think of you, despite what they say, or do you think it's something you should notice and notice always? Are you Sherlock Holmes, or that kid who likes turtles?

Thing is, though, you can't be unaware of subtext. Gestures and facial expressions, stance, vocal inflection, tone and pitch - even body odour - give you clues to another person's feelings. We are animals and animals have always needed to be aware of potential danger, mating opportunities, alliances and deceptions, risk and gain.

No social species can help reading other members of their species - or, indeed members of other species with which we are closely associated. You need to know whether a dog will bite or lick your hand; whether a neighbour is more likely to help than harm you; whether it's time to join a feast or run for your life. You can't stop watching and guessing. That also makes it necessary, in a crowded civilization, to hide as many of our feelings and notions as possible, in order to maintain some privacy and safety. We have many feelings and thoughts that might seem threatening to others, even if we don't intend to act out, and we don't want to be at a disadvantage in a competition, contest or transaction by giving away our strategy, and so forth - there are many occasions when being transparent is a liability.

The problem is, we're not all equally adept at reading at others, nor at disguising our own feelings. This is compounded in a heterogeneous society, where cultural differences make mis-reading far too common.
The much bigger problem is, we're an imaginative species: we see, hear, read, guess and believe a lot of things that aren't real.

Ignorance isn't bliss - it's just another source of anxiety.

I agree with the above, not a lot more to say except I think it was a good argument.