From Lawrence PhiloMadrid Happy Holidays and Happy New Year 2022

Drear Friends,

Wishing you a Happy Holiday and a Happy New Year 2022.

Our next Skype meeting will be on the 9th January 2022 and the topic
will be:

"Morality" suggested by Sisa


All the best and take care
Lawrence

telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813
Email: philomadrid@gmail.com
http://www.philomadrid.com


From Lawrence PhiloMadrid Happy Holidays and Happy New Year 2022

PhiloMadrid on Skype 6:30pm Sunday 19th December: How to develop empathy in society (cont)

Dear Friends,

This Sunday we are continuing with the topic: How to develop empathy in
society.


Dear Friends,

This Sunday we are discussing: How to develop empathy in society

The topic was proposed by Ines and in my short essay I try to identify
the key condition for altruism:
How to develop empathy in society
https://www.philomadrid.com/2021/12/normal-0-false-false-false-en-gb-x-none_01054193886.html

In the meantime you can link to the current news and notices here:
https://www.philomadrid.com/2020/10/news-and-notices.html

-Alfonso has a new website and he gave us link to his latest book of
poems: Después

-Oscar's book on his reflections on COVID-19 is still available

-David J. Butler has published a new book "Absent Friends" regarding the
Cementerio Británico in Madrid

Finally if you have problems with Skype try launching it again if you
have the App or browser. Send me a message for the link. Please note we
do not use the video to save on mobile phone batteries for those
connecting on a phone.

Best and take care
Lawrence

telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813
Email: philomadrid@gmail.com
http://www.philomadrid.com


PhiloMadrid on Skype 6:30pm Sunday 19th December: How to develop empathy
in society (cont)

PhiloMadrid on Skype 6:30pm Sunday 12th December: How to develop empathy in society

Dear Friends,

This Sunday we are discussing: How to develop empathy in society

The topic was proposed by Ines and in my short essay I try to identify
the key condition for altruism:
How to develop empathy in society
https://www.philomadrid.com/2021/12/normal-0-false-false-false-en-gb-x-none_01054193886.html

In the meantime you can link to the current news and notices here:
https://www.philomadrid.com/2020/10/news-and-notices.html

-Alfonso has a new website and he gave us link to his latest book of
poems: Después

-Oscar's book on his reflections on COVID-19 is still available

-David J. Butler has published a new book "Absent Friends" regarding the
Cementerio Británico in Madrid

Finally if you have problems with Skype try launching it again if you
have the App or browser. Send me a message for the link. Please note we
do not use the video to save on mobile phone batteries for those
connecting on a phone.

Best and take care
Lawrence

telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813
Email: philomadrid@gmail.com
http://www.philomadrid.com


PhiloMadrid on Skype 6:30pm Sunday 12th December: How to develop empathy
in society

How to develop empathy in society

 

How to develop empathy in society

 

Topic by Ines

Short essay by Lawrence

 

There is an interesting article on our subject at:

 

Empathy at Psychology Today (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/empathy)

 

This article covers many of the obvious issues we might want to discuss. Hence I will be brief with my comments.

 

The key function of empathy is our ability to relate to the feelings of others. This mindset ought to lead to better relationships and our behaviour towards others. But what are the philosophical issues?

 

Does empathy belong to a set of terms such as altruism, cooperation, charity, compassion, sympathy and pity? Are these terms or concepts different from each other or simply degrees of the same phenomenon?

 

But before we can develop empathy in society empathy must confer some benefit for society and what is more, society recognizes such benefit. Of course, a benefit is relative, for example sacrificing an ox for the gods to make it rain won’t make it rain. In such societies an ox is a capital asset for that society. Hence a dead ox won’t make it rain but the collective anticipation unites the group at a time of need.

 

How, therefore, do we establish what is beneficial for someone and are we obliged to offer what is the best benefit of our empathy or any benefit will do? But with empathy and altruism one expects an action that directly affects the person in need in a positive way. So if these terms of kindness must have a meaning they must demonstrate a viable action to relieve the suffering of the person and not just nice words of comfort.

 

 

So how can we develop altruistic behaviour in society? The first necessary condition must surely be that members of society are in a position to help others. People in need themselves can hardly be in a position to help others in a similar situation.

 

Best Lawrence

 

telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813

Email: philomadrid@gmail.com

http://www.philomadrid.com

 

When does euphoria end and happiness begin? 

 

Topic by James

Essay by Lawrence

 

We must first of all clarify how to use the term “euphoria” given that this is a term used abundantly in medical and psychological disciplines. The term is also used to describe the rush after taking some form of narcotics.

 

The euphoria we are interested in is the euphoria as excitement associated with “normal” activities. This does not mean that the euphoria medical scientists talk about is not valid in our context, but rather they use this term in a specific and technical meaning of the discipline in question. But the meaning of euphoria we are interested is the everyday use of the term.

 

The everyday use of euphoria would be the result of acting in anticipation of an event in the future. Or even having embarked on what will bring about a rush of excitement that usually wanes away with time. I would say that the idea of visiting one’s favourite pizzeria on Friday would certainly create a feeling of euphoria. Not to mention the real feeling of euphoria at the sight of and the first bite of our favourite pizza. But it would too much to say that this sense of euphoria lasts till we finish the pizza. By the time we finish the pizza it would be more appropriate to say we feel happy and certainly satisfied.

 

Although we cannot really say in advance how long an episode of euphoria lasts we can safely assume that it wouldn’t last too long. The rush of excitement will wear off in no time at all. This might very well be the consequence of the novelty of what we are doing wearing off. What is clear is that the experience of euphoria happens before the actual event takes place: we become euphoric before we tuck into our pizza although there might be spill over into the actual eating of the pizza.

 

I would argue that happiness goes beyond the end of the event. For example, we can be happy that we had a good experience travelling abroad before the pandemic put a stop to that. Ideally we can argue that happiness starts soon after our euphoria begins to wane. Maybe because we are too busy living the moment that we need to concentrate on performing the event, and thus enjoy the event, rather than linger on about the anticipation of the event.

 

We see this behaviour in some animals as well especially in dogs (cats have such experiences as well) who are about to be taken out for a walk or when we are preparing food for them. Once we take the dog for a walk or it finishes its food we can describe the animal as being content or happy. A question for us is why should we feel euphoric? We know that on Friday we are going for a pizza and the dog knows that in a few minutes they’ll be served their food. So why the mental rush and expense of mental energy?

 

And is euphoria only linked with pleasant activities? There is no reason why it shouldn’t be specific to pleasant activities but then again we know those activities will happen so why spend so much mental energy? At face value it makes no sense to assume that we can be euphoric about something that is not pleasant but what about masochism? Surely masochistic events are better subjects for psychologists than philosophers?

 

An even more relevant question would be whether euphoria should always cause or leads to happiness? Can we just have an episode of euphoria and that will be it. Sure, I doubt that after having a dozen pizzas over a short period of time we might not feel as euphoric as the first or second pizza (diminishing returns). We can also argue that in these repeated experiences, what becomes important for us is the consequent generic happiness. After so many visits to the pizzeria, we are left with a sense of happiness rather than the individual euphoric moments; but then again there is nothing necessary about this.

 

To answer my question, “why euphoria?” maybe because such an overwhelming rush of excitement guarantees that our experience to come will be well embedded in our memory: a sort of pay attention or else….. Now whether this rush is chemical, for example to create the right conditions for our sense perceptions to reach our memory, or even physiological, to make sure that the physical events are captured by our memory, is beyond our scope of philosophy. What matters is that experiences preceded by euphoria are more likely to be remembered and hence make us happier.

 

This leads us to another question: can we only be happy if we remember the events that make us happy? Followed by: is happiness a conscious recall of an exceptional experience?  Can we be happy if we are unconscious or have a loss of memory? Thus euphoria might act like a booster to make sure that our anticipated special experiences are well anchored in our memory.

 

Best

 

Lawrence

 

telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813

Email: philomadrid@gmail.com

http://www.philomadrid.com

 

PhiloMadrid on Skype 6:30pm Sunday 5th December: Euphoria / Happiness (short title)

Dear Friends,

This Sunday we are discussing: When does euphoria end and happiness begin?

The subject was proposed by James and in my short essay I ask the
question: why bother with euphoria?

When does euphoria end and happiness begin? Essay by Lawrence
https://www.philomadrid.com/2021/12/normal-0-false-false-false-en-gb-x-none.html

In the meantime you can link to the current news and notices here:
https://www.philomadrid.com/2020/10/news-and-notices.html

-Alfonso has a new website and he gave us link to his latest book of
poems: Después

-Oscar's book on his reflections on COVID-19 is still available

-David J. Butler has published a new book "Absent Friends" regarding the
Cementerio Británico in Madrid

Finally if you have problems with Skype try launching it again if you
have the App or browser. Send me a message for the link. Please note we
do not use the video to save on mobile phone batteries for those
connecting on a phone.

Best and take care
Lawrence

telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813
Email: philomadrid@gmail.com
http://www.philomadrid.com


PhiloMadrid on Skype 6:30pm Sunday 5th December: Euphoria / Happiness
(short title)