1. James wrote Principles of Psychology to answer what question?
2. What did Aristotle say about habit?
3. What realization would make young people give more heed to their conduct?
4. James complained in 1884 that what devoured his time?
5. James thought everybody should do what each day?
6. How is habit "the enormous fly-wheel of society"?
7. There is "no more miserable human being" than ...
8. There is "no more contemptible type of human character" than ...
3. What realization would make young people give more heed to their conduct?
4. James complained in 1884 that what devoured his time?
5. James thought everybody should do what each day?
6. How is habit "the enormous fly-wheel of society"?
7. There is "no more miserable human being" than ...
8. There is "no more contemptible type of human character" than ...
LH
- What are three kinds of grief? Have you experienced any of them?
- What's the closest KS has come to grief?
- What "five neat steps" of grief does KS say there is no evidence for?
- What stoic attitude did Epictetus say would prevent you from being grievously upset at the death of a loved one? What does KS say about that?
- What does KS say should be our goal with respect to grief?
- The fact that someone is not alive, says Julian Barnes, does not mean what?
- What does KS call Epicurus's attitude towards death?
- If we did not grieve, we would not ____.
- How do the Dahomey of Western Africa celebrate the life of the deceased?
- What do conventions of mourning give us?
Discussion Questions:
- Do you want to "be somebody"? What does that mean? Does it make happiness harder to achieve?
- Does adult life make it harder to identify your "real" self? 70
- Is it good that "habit is the enormous fly-wheel of society"? 77
- Which comes first, happiness or laughter 87
- Is it bad to entertain emotions you don't act on? Why?
- Is habit, on balance, good for society?
- Are there any small habits you'd like to gain or lose? What's stopping you?
- COMMENT?: Are there any sequences of mental action you want or need to frequently repeat (or stop repeating)?
Section #1
ReplyDelete1. James wrote Principles of Psychology to answer what question?
How does life give rise to human consciousness?
4. James complained in 1884 that what devoured his time?
Teaching duties devoured his time.
5. James thought everybody should do what each day?
Everybody should do at least two things that they hate to do for practice.
Discussion Questions:
ReplyDeleteDo you want to "be somebody"? What does that mean? Does it make happiness harder to achieve?
When it comes to "being somebody," I personally think it depends on each person what and who that "somebody" is. I feel it right to assume that we all strive towards things that make us who we are, and in that case, would lead us to what we envision "somebody" to be. However, we can also get lost in that process and overthink the ambition and goal that we might strive for. It can cloud our feelings and affect our happiness and reason beyond who we already are. We put this goal or "person" on such a high pedestal that we lose sight of how our emotions and let our consciousness react to it. We all like to leave a legacy of that "person" behind; however, can it truly be the "somebody" that we first thought of, when the journey there has warped our perception of it? Are we truly happy to be that "person"?
Is habit, on balance, good for society?
I believe that habits make up part of who we are and add to society's way of creating a stable balance. However, that is not to say that habits shouldn't be broken. They absolutely can be and in fact is better for society as a whole to have a type of human cycle where we can rely on habit while being aware that it can be broken if things go south. It leads to a self-fulfilling reminder that we are free to act and break our own habits for the good of ourselves and society.
Is it bad to entertain emotions you don't act on? Why?
I think that really depends on the emotion. If I don't act on it, it's probably for a particular reason or habit that I subjected myself to as a way to balance my emotions. If I were to act on every emotion I feel, I believe it would lead to more of them than I, as a person, can handle. In other words, in my personal opinion, a good balance of action and inaction when it comes to emotions helps me better as to understand and manage them in a constructive way.
The subject that I resonated the most with in this chapter is habit. In my first semester of college, I feel that I had put a lot of effort into developing better habits. That has come with the realization that if I want to create things and learn and achieve my goals, I should construct habits that will help me get there and minimize the habits that take up my time and do not help me. It's definitely a matter that's easier said than done, but I very much think it is worth putting energy into. I find it interesting that the text claimed that there are some habits that are simply out of our own control. I'm not sure I fully grasp this concept and it's very possible that I misunderstood it.
ReplyDelete"Excellence is not an act. It is a habit." I think this Aristotle quote could be compared to the type of discipline that is required for any good musician. One cannot simply pick up an instrument and make beautiful music in a singular, unprepared act. A musical performance of any type is not constructed by what happens during the performance, but rather it is constructed primarily in the time leading up to the performance. I think in this way, Aristotle's meaning of habit could be described as synonymous with discipline.
DeleteI don't think I really understood what Kaag was saying when he said "James was intent on being somebody, which often makes being happy rather difficult." What is the alternative to being a somebody? How can a person not be a somebody? It kind of seems that he was implying that a person that does not go through the process of becoming a somebody is somehow inferior to a person who is a somebody. And why would this process make a person unhappy?
ReplyDeleteSection#1
ReplyDeleteDiscussion Question: Do you want to "be somebody"? What does that mean? Does it make happiness harder to achieve?
In order to "be somebody," in my opinion, you need to have some kind of effect on other people's lives. I think the best way to do that is by helping people. In that sense, yeah I want to be somebody. I'm not incredible at really anything in life but I know that I'm able-bodied and have the ability to help or care for someone. I think the only way that "being someone" in that sense might get in the way of happiness is if you neglect the people closest to you. My friends and family are a huge part of my life, but even now I feel torn between spending time and supporting them or doing my own thing.
Discussion Question: Does adult life make it harder to identify your "real" self?
I think it does make it harder, but I believe you can find yourself and stay true to yourself through the monotony of adult life. For example, my dad is the most hardworking person I know. He works a LOT and doesn't have much time for himself. But he still makes a point to laugh with us and show us movies and music he likes. He always tries to support me and my siblings at our school and sporting events, even if he comes straight from work to do it. Thinking about happiness-- I don't know if he is truly happy. He definitely has experienced a lot of suffering in his life and, to be honest, the state of the country right now has affected my family greatly. But he has remained consistent. I hope that's his true self.
I agree. I want to "be somebody" in the sense that I have affected other people's lives in a beneficial way. I don't want to be some guy who just goes through life helping myself and being lazy. I want to make an impact on other peoples lives, and I think that would make someone a "somebody"
DeleteSection #1
ReplyDelete(In response to question 3)
I also struggle with self-deprecation. Over the years, my main solution was to talk with someone about it-- of course, the common take away from that was "what? no, you did great! don't be so hard on yourself." That would usually result in me just trying to block that feeling out. But now, I try to neutralize those thoughts with positive ones about myself.
Section 2
ReplyDeleteDiscussion Q: Does adult life make it harder to identify your "real" self?
This depends entirely on how one defines their “‘real’ self” and even individuality as a whole. For James, it is the internal voice or drive that emerges in moments of feeling “deeply and intensely alive”. Unfortunately, this is a very vague answer from my perspective that leaves too much ambiguity to be immediately useful in terms like feeling “alive” and how one would determine deep versus shallow experiences of said “alive”-ness. To interpret this answer, I will make assumptions on his behalf and, as is the nature of assumption, will proceed knowing that I could very well be misidentifying James’ meaning. That being said, aliveness, as I take it based on context such as “intensely”, likely refers to self-awareness; the internalization of the belief that you exist and are interacting with the world. James clarifies that simply any amount of self-awareness is not sufficient to qualify for the “real” self; one must feel this DEEPLY and, perhaps, be extremely emotionally moved by the experience. If this is the case, John Kaag’s claim that identifying one’s “real” self becomes harder with age makes sense to me, simply because (as Kaag himself discusses) habit and monotony become harder to avoid, multiply, and even become progressively more societally enforced the older one gets. Life gets easier and easier to go about without thinking (sometimes making thought undesirable in general because of the aforementioned monotony), and it is through thinking that introspection and self-awareness are possible.
I personally, however, find this definition of the “real” self dissatisfying and disagreeable in connotation. In practice, I agree that introspection is made harder by mindless habit, but I do not see introspection as indicative of the connotation the term “‘real’ self” carries. First, defining the connotation I derived from the term, it seems to imply that the self is synonymous with introspection or a person undergoing an introspective state. Now let’s talk metaphysics, existence, and language.
(Continues in comments)
Starting with a thought experiment (not my own, though I regrettably do not remember the author), imagine that there exists an object called an “in-car”. Suppose this object is defined as “a vehicle inside a garage”. Suppose, as well, that an antonym exists called an “out-car”, which is “a vehicle outside of a garage”. So long as we accept the validity of these terms, the following sentence is both physically possible and frequent: in an empty garage, an in-car slowly materializes from the entrance while an out-car simultaneously shrinks into nonexistence. No matter was created or destroyed in the process, and yet an entire object which was there a moment earlier has completely ceased to be, and a new object has appeared. This sounds absurd, I am sure; obviously there is no paradox caused by this, the terms are simply and obtusely designed to describe objects in specific circumstances. The interest of this experiment, however, is exactly that last part; there are many, many terms throughout language which are exactly the same in application, even if they seem on the surface far less situational. Take, for example, a chair: how far can one chip away or add material onto a chair until it ceases to be a chair? One could argue that it is a chair until it can no longer serve its function or until it acquires a different predominant use, but regardless it illustrates rather plainly that a chair does not exist, only the material that comprises the concept (this dilemma is the same as the one tackled by the Ship of Theseus thought experiment).
DeleteFollowing this train of thought, I believe the same logic and conclusions can be attributed to individuals and the concept of “self”. What are we defining, materially, when we define the self? (Obviously, believers of the existence of souls or other things beyond the material realm may not find this logic very compelling). One could say the mind, that is a common conclusion, some may say every human cell, and some still may even include the independent but essential bacteria, microorganisms, and nonliving matter that keeps our bodies operating, though all rely on identifying an object based on its atomic makeup and structure, meaning that like the chair, in-car, or ship of Theseus, parts can drift to and from the entity despite it supposedly only qualifying as what it is made up of. Semantically, you, like I do, could say ‘perhaps this is true, but it is more convenient in common conversation to speak as though terms do describe physical matter and not elusive concepts with no real substance’ but this becomes interesting when thinking about the self. If we are not “we” at all, but hundreds, thousands of independent elementary particles or whatever is the most basic substance (supposing there IS a most basic substance, which if not true could indicate that nothing truly exists because every term would describe a structure which could disappear or appear without a change in matter), then there is no self, no collective, and certainly no “real” self uncover. Again, though, this is mostly semantics and more of an exciting and strange thought to me than a practical answer. For a practical answer, perhaps see above (the part about self-awareness).
1.Do you want to "be somebody"? What does that mean? Does it make happiness harder to achieve?
ReplyDelete2.Which comes first, happiness or laughter
3.Are there any small habits you'd like to gain or lose? What's stopping you?
1.Yes i want to be somebody and i think it does lead to happiness because it gives you a clear goal in what you want to achieve i always have just been going with the flow kind of guy never really having goals except to do good in school but makes me feel so empty and lazy with myself.
2.I think what comes first is neither actually for me it is joy now whats the difference happiness is from outside sources having fun eating something you enjoy things like that but joy is inward you don’t need to do anything to feel joy a and joy can stay with you even in hard times.
3.I have so many bad habits i want to get rid off and the only thing stopping me is myself i am holding myself back and that is so hard because how do i stop what is the first step and the worst part i use to never have them and now i can’t get rid of them.
Are there any small habits you'd like to gain or lose? What's stopping you?
ReplyDeleteThere is one small habit that I would like to lose, and that is procrastination. I tend to wait to do certain tasks until the last minute. I think the reason I continue doing it is because I know that I can finish something an hour before the due date and still make a 100 on it. I have a bad habit that hasn't had any serious consequences yet, so it's difficult to stop doing it. Recently, I have made pretty good strides to stopping myself from procrastinating, though. I've not completely stopped, but I've definitely gotten better.
William James described habit as “the enormous fly-wheel of society,” meaning it keeps life stable and predictable. I think that’s both comforting and a little scary. Habits make daily life smoother because we don’t have to rethink every action, but they can also trap us in routines that limit growth. Society depends on people following certain habits, like showing up to work or obeying laws, but personally I’d like to be more aware of which habits I’ve chosen and which ones just happen automatically. Maybe balance is the key—enough routine to function, but enough flexibility to grow.
ReplyDeleteI’ve been thinking about what it means to “be somebody.” It seems like our culture pushes us to build an identity, to achieve, stand out, and be unique. But maybe that pressure makes happiness harder to find. When we focus too much on becoming “somebody,” we might forget to just be. Maybe happiness isn’t about achieving a fixed version of yourself but about being present and authentic in the moment. Adult life probably makes this tougher since we get wrapped up in careers and responsibilities, but maybe our “real” self is less a goal and more a daily practice.
Grief comes in many forms, like mourning a person, a relationship, or even a version of yourself. KS says the “five neat steps” of grief are a myth, and I agree. Everyone’s process is unique. I like the idea that grief isn’t just about loss but about love, because if we did not grieve, we would not love. Different cultures, such as the Dahomey in West Africa, celebrate the deceased’s life, reminding us that grief doesn’t have to be only sorrowful. Maybe the goal isn’t to avoid grief but to let it shape us into more empathetic people.