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08-12-2024, 08:50 PM
Would you rather be smart or happy?
It is indisputable that the being whose capacities of enjoyment are low, has the greatest chance of having them fully satisfied; and a highly endowed being will always feel that any happiness which he can look for, as the world is constituted, is imperfect. But he can learn to bear its imperfections, if they are at all bearable; and they will not make him envy the being who is indeed unconscious of the imperfections, but only because he feels not at all the good which those imperfections qualify.
It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, is of a different opinion, it is only because they only know their own side of the question.
― John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism
Do you agree with Mill that it is “better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied”?
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08-12-2024, 09:15 PM
Would you rather be smart or happy?
Smart and happy. I'm good.
Taking a break.
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08-12-2024, 09:16 PM
Would you rather be smart or happy?
yeah....I have no such problem.
- “The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.” ― H.L. Mencken, 1922
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08-12-2024, 09:26 PM
Would you rather be smart or happy?
I'd like to have no shit swirling around in my brain. I'd like to be content and have no beef with the world.
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08-12-2024, 09:47 PM
Would you rather be smart or happy?
I don't agree with Mill. I think people, like water conforming to a depression, always finds its level, smart or not.
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08-12-2024, 09:53 PM
Would you rather be smart or happy?
(08-12-2024, 09:15 PM)Fireball Wrote: Smart and happy. I'm good. Yeah -- why not both? I smell a false dichotomy.
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08-12-2024, 10:22 PM
Would you rather be smart or happy?
I've been lobotomized so neither is possible.
Think for yourselves, don't be sheep
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08-12-2024, 11:35 PM
Would you rather be smart or happy?
(08-12-2024, 09:53 PM)mordant Wrote: (08-12-2024, 09:15 PM)Fireball Wrote: Smart and happy. I'm good. Yeah -- why not both? I smell a false dichotomy.
Exactly!
So, are you a surfer or a low rider? 
Taking a break.
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08-13-2024, 01:03 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-13-2024, 01:04 AM by Thumpalumpacus.)
Would you rather be smart or happy?
Being smart might itself impart happiness in one form or another. There's possibly a false dichotomy in the premise.
What if being smart enough to see the bullshit in this world allows you to better navigate it? Might you not be happier for avoiding the reefs and shoals of life?
<insert important thought here>
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08-13-2024, 01:42 AM
Would you rather be smart or happy?
Like John Wayne said, "life is tough, but even it's tougher if you're stupid!"
Taking a break.
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08-13-2024, 01:54 AM
Would you rather be smart or happy?
(08-13-2024, 01:42 AM)Fireball Wrote: Like John Wayne said, "life is tough, but even it's tougher if you're stupid!"
lol, never heard it but it's to the point.
<insert important thought here>
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08-13-2024, 01:54 AM
Would you rather be smart or happy?
It may sound like a cop-out from me, but I'd like
to see some sort of definition of "happy" before I
answered the OP question.
I'm a creationist... I believe that man created God.
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