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Ambrosius
@ambrosius
What is it about sadness that gives a sense of realness to life. Why does happiness feel comparatively fake? Maybe my question is wrong. Maybe I’m comparing a state of deep emotion (sadness) with a state of superficial emotion (contentness). But even feelings of Euphoria can feel superficial in retrospect
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Thomas
@aviationdoctor.eth
There may be a neurological explanation. “Transient sadness and happiness affect different brain regions in divergent directions and are not merely opposite activity in identical brain regions”. George et al. (1995). https://doi.org/gjhnf9 cc: our resident neuroscientist @christin
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christin
@christin
Fascinating paper! I’m not sure if the current state of research tells us very much about the “trueness” of emotional states, since that’s more of a metaphysical question… I feel the opposite though, that happiness (or perhaps equanimity) is more real than sadness…
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Ambrosius
@ambrosius
That’s right! btw I’m not claiming that it is more real, just that it feels more real to me, so it’s a question of qualia. Very interesting that you feel the opposite. That kind of tells me that I haven’t felt real equanimity in years, but now that you mention it I have felt that realness too while travelling
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