A happy life Flashcards
Pleasure, despite being central to human experience and evolution, is quite hard to define.
Aristotle argued that what we call pleasure is comprised of least two distinct aspects, hedonia (pleasure) and eudaimonia (human flourishing or a life well-lived).
Imperfections in the mechanisms that govern pleasure in the brain leave us susceptible to conditions such as addiction, an unhealthy fixation on the pursuit of pleasure, or depression, in which both the desire for pleasure and pleasure itself are significantly diminished.
A common characteristic of these and other affective disorders is that they take people away from what Kringelbach argues are the two key – often overlooked – aspects of pleasure: variety and community.
Ultimately, he thinks, variation in pleasure, together with sharing that enjoyment with others, is what’s needed for a well-balanced, eudaimonic life.
It’s very hard to get aroused when you’re depressed.
The biggest pleasure is not sex or food, it’s other people.
Our brains know that we need other people. This is why addiction is a very solitary experience.
Research shows that we are here to enjoy pleasure with other people.
