-Does it Matter if Things go Wrong?
How Sad should we Be?
The Dialectics of Life:
(Opposites Looking for Equilibrium)
-Individual as Problem Solver vs. Individual as Passive Victim of Circumstance
-Individual as Individual vs. Individual as Part of a Collective
-Individual as Practical Person vs. Individual as Romantic Dreamer
A Life of Work vs. A Life of Pleasure
The Dialectics of Good and Bad:
1. There is a "Good" way to do things and a "Bad" way to do things.
2. Doing things well leads to success -and doing things badly leads to failure.
3. Success tends to make people happy -while failure tends to make them sad.
So there is an emotional as well as a practical aspect.
4. On a practical level, "Failure" is a sign that things have not been done well
5. "Failure" is thus a chance to learn and do better next time
There is a fundamental dialectic between "Good" and "bad"
"Good" promotes life, equilibrium and (sustainable?) creative development
-while "Bad" promotes death, imbalance and unsustainable decline
These are not irreconcilable oppositions
-good can come out of bad -and bad can come out of good
The Interpretative Dialectic:
Our experience and interpretation of the world often determines how we define "good" and "bad"
-what is "good" for one person might be "bad" for another.
-what is "good" for us at one moment might be "bad" at another moment.
The Work Ethic (or Not?):
It is common to feel encouraged by success and discouraged by failure
-but perhaps we should see both sides of the coin as being equally valuable
-although one perhaps remains more enjoyable than the other......
Perhaps we should see "work" less in practical terms and more in philosophical terms
-Not as something which has to
be done -but as a medium for giving meaning to our lives
Some related themes?
Health, Food and Energy Equilibria
The Aesthetics of Choice
Energy, Economy and Ecology
Vectors and Forces (The Philosophy of Water)
Mental Maps and Vectored Forces
Note: Equilibrium might be a better integrating concept than Harmony.
The concept of Harmony seems to suggest a static fitting together of elements
-which my be out of balance
Equilibrium implies (individual or collective) balance -which might be inharmonious......