Philosophy Now Forum

If ignorance is bliss, then why bother to learn? What is the point in learning if it results in anxiety, despair and unhappiness? Is learning worth it if knowledge is ultimately knowledge of finality?

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Thu Aug 24, 2023 10:06 pm If ignorance is bliss, then why bother to learn? What is the point in learning if it results in anxiety, despair and unhappiness? Is learning worth it if knowledge is ultimately knowledge of finality?

Personally I don't find problems negatives to be avoided, rather challenges to be overcome.

LuckyR wrote: ↑Fri Aug 25, 2023 12:14 am

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Thu Aug 24, 2023 10:06 pm If ignorance is bliss, then why bother to learn? What is the point in learning if it results in anxiety, despair and unhappiness? Is learning worth it if knowledge is ultimately knowledge of finality?

Personally I don't find problems negatives to be avoided, rather challenges to be overcome.

That's good.

I mean bro if u have the right understanding of what man is and what he does, your wisdom would allow your expectations to be so low u wouldn't be offended by the fact of all the anxiety, despair and unhappiness. Think about what your homeboy FN said (not verbatim) when he was like when we judge morally we pass sentence on all of existence, make it guilty, make it malicious.

Imagine being so let down by the fact of meaninglessness and death that u were like let's call the whole thing off like Gary did.

Anyway man lower your expectations and indulge in the pleasures, passions and virtues that are available to creatures like us. Essentially we're all just rational hedonists... materialists that manipulate physical environments with opposable thumbs (we have the thumbs, not the environment. I mean we have the environment but environments don't have thumbs) and as such are able to successfully and comfortably facilitate vast amounts of reproductive sex. Meanwhile we acquire a buncha property and privileges so that we can experience all manner of simple pleasures while we live out our lives as creative nothings.

That is to say whatever one believes, commits to or stands for, he does so for a sense of some kind of security, some kind of fulfillment. But not for the sake of that security and fulfillment, see. It's for the sake of the pleasure we experience when we believe, commit to or stand for something, instead. Ergo, rational hedonists subdivided into voluntary and involuntary egoists... which is totally okay becuz everyone doesn't have to be mean and treacherous like your homeboy max. All it means is that we need a reorientation and a new philosophy of man before we can readily confront all that anxiety and despair and unhappiness and stuff and channel that existential absurdity (ultimately what it is) into art and bohemian nonsense. At least that's what i do. I'm like a tour guide who's seeing u through something too terrible for u to fully grasp so i just tryta make u happy and laugh and stuff so u don't get overwhelmed and freak out. I'm like a psionic healer sorta.

Anyway everything only appears so bleak and negative when he who looks into it is suffering. So, we must become sdtronger (with German inflection).

Who was the only philosopher that was able to hold perfectly still and remain totally immovable? Hint; N called him a sickly recluse once but then was like yo he was my greatest predecessor and a kindred spirit.

But see Fritz was just irritated becuz dude never got excited or passionate about nothing and just sat there and nonchalantly won arguments with conclusions that nobody liked, and Fritz was amazed if intimidated by his stone coldness to that extent. No the philosopher is not steve Austin.

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Thu Aug 24, 2023 10:06 pm If ignorance is bliss, then why bother to learn? What is the point in learning if it results in anxiety, despair and unhappiness? Is learning worth it if knowledge is ultimately knowledge of finality?

Good grief, Gary, can you be any more of what us old hippies call a "downer"?

Google wrote: Downer is a slang term that can refer to:

• Something or someone disagreeable, dispiriting or depressing; a killjoy.

Were you never attacked by a vicious swarm of puppies when you were young?...

https://youtu.be/cdVYK4mB3lE
_______

seeds wrote: ↑Fri Aug 25, 2023 3:25 pm Were you never attacked by a vicious swarm of puppies when you were young?...

https://youtu.be/cdVYK4mB3lE
_______

No.

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Thu Aug 24, 2023 10:06 pm If ignorance is bliss, then why bother to learn? What is the point in learning if it results in anxiety, despair and unhappiness? Is learning worth it if knowledge is ultimately knowledge of finality?

Ignorance is only bliss until the thing you didn't know about smacks you in the face because you didn't take steps to avoid it.

Harbal wrote: ↑Fri Aug 25, 2023 4:01 pm

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Thu Aug 24, 2023 10:06 pm If ignorance is bliss, then why bother to learn? What is the point in learning if it results in anxiety, despair and unhappiness? Is learning worth it if knowledge is ultimately knowledge of finality?

Ignorance is only bliss until the thing you didn't know about smacks you in the face because you didn't take steps to avoid it.

So ignorance is bliss until you learn what you didn't know about? Is anyone in this world born knowing everything? Some never learn anything they didn't know about?

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Thu Aug 24, 2023 10:06 pm If ignorance is bliss, then why bother to learn?

Bliss has nothing to do with knowledge.

Ignorance is bliss is an adage usually applied on a personal level. If you discover something that's only going to sour-up and torment you without the ability of doing anything about it, then ignorance is indeed bliss even if you don't feel the bliss since you're not aware of what could disrupt it.

This saying has never applied to knowledge and learning as a human function.