Avoiding Suffering and Generation of Human Values: Some Likes The Nights, Some Drugs

This essay aims to discuss the effects of our suffers on our values (such as love, honesty, honor). We call this type of examination as phenomenal research. For the phenomenal examinations we need subjects to observe and make experiments. Here, “human conscious and emotions” are our subjects. It is little bit polemical topic if the conscious or emotions can be the subjects of the researches. Here I accept the idea that we can examine humans’ conscious and emotions as the phenomenal subjects. By using that method, I will make some evaluations about the relationship between suffering and generating values for humans.

Humans have many different and interesting features as liveness entities. With this point of view, we suffer from many different kind of things. When we say suffering, it brings lots of different meaning to our minds. Here is I mention suffering as physical and emotional feeling. I don’t think that physical and emotional suffering can be separated from each other. I will try to explain what it means below. Then I will try to tell the story between suffering and values.

What Does It Mean: Avoiding Suffering

When we start to think of what is suffering, firstly we imagine our physical experiences (Hurt could be another word for this example). Please think of an example that you experienced recently. Maybe you cut your finger, or because of cold your skin was cracked and you felt suffering. You can easily remember the feeling about those. Now it is clearer what suffering is for us perceptibly (with phenomenal way). So suffer is a feeling/sensing of our reactions against different stimulus. In another saying, while we are living in a normal routine, we can meet with some situations that can corrupt this normality. For example while we are riding a bicycle, we fall down. We hit our leg a solid subject. And this hitting ruined the ordinary running of the body. Then our body (brain) develops some reactions against this situation. What we feel and name in our conscious with this reaction is called as suffering.

Emotional suffering also occurs in a similar way. We meet a friend and have a chat. If this person act unexpectedly or say something harmful for us, this attitudes stimulate the parts who are responsible with the emotions in our brains. And the brain generates an alert and reacts back. Then some feelings occur in our conscious again that we name as suffering. We say that, I am feeling sad.

For both physical and emotional suffering we feel what we have, thanks to the activities in the brain. When we cut our finger, we feel the suffering with activities of our nervous systems. Peripheral nervous system transfers the knowledge from our hands to the brain (central nervous system). Then we feel the pain. Likewise, emotional suffering occurs in the same pathway. We hear, see, observe, and the information is transferred from our senses to the brain. Then feeling comes out. That means that for both feelings, they are related to physical activations of the body.

Humans and other mammals experiences lots of different sort of suffering, after they are born. In todays’ circumstances, it is easier to avoid physical suffering. If we have some level of socio-economic conditions, it is easier to protect our bodies against cold, easier to control what we eat, easier to heal the diseases. In addition to this, to avoid emotional suffering, we need to have many more opportunities and skills. Because in the modern world, emotions struggle with lots of parameters. For example every mammals suffer seriously from separating from his/her caregiver. This suffering occurs with the effects of hormones which provide the survival. Again to get rid of those feelings other hormones need to be secreted by the brain. For example a baby or a child who is suffering from separating from her/his caregiver, the brain secretes oxytocin or opioid. However, brain needs some stimulus to secrete those hormones, such as love by touching, sexual activity or playing with peers to be able (Panksepp, 1996, sf. 496, 552).

Human’s first instinct while living is the survival. And suffer is the most dangerous threat for the survival. Our bodies live for the homeostasis. Homeostasis means that living with a best balance for the body (look at. Homeostazi, Damasio, 2003). If we suffer that means that balance is corrupted. Because of this, our bodies use with most efficient ways to get rid of suffering.

As it is mentioned above, losing of the social bond is one of the serious sources for suffering. We start to have ties with our mothers (generally). Then firstly we are separated from mother. To avoid this suffering we again get new ties. For example our friends become our sources for joy (joy is a word for the opposite of suffer here). We never want to lose them also not to feel suffering again. Because social lost means suffering. As a result, we act to protect our closest relations as prior value.

Generation of Humans Values

Value is a concept that are used in many different studying areas. We see that concept a lot in economics, philosophy of ethics, computer sciences, and mathematics (like value of the goods, ethical value, variables values, and value of the unknown). When we think of biologically, value is a behavior of comprehension and description. When we see something, smell something, sense something in the external world, to understand the thing if it is dangerous or advantageous for us, we need to understand what it is, and we need to give some value to this. For example we see a cockroach, we observe it. We try to understand its size and its shape. To comprehend the concrete existence of the cockroach, we draw a limited, apparent, picture in our visual cortex. And then we make a description to ourselves about the cockroach. We tell ourselves what this cockroach means to us. And we assign a value to the cockroach. It can be the one causing suffering, or causing pleasure, or it is neutral.

Indeed it seems like that all of the values belongs to human beings are occurring like this. When we analyze the most the values which are especially socially occurring such as ethical, artistic and scientific values, it is likely possible to find the roots of those behavior models. In another word, there are some basic biological resources of our behaviors to create individualistic and social values. Let’s think that somebody loves the color of red. This can be thought that it is an internal, individual liking. In addition to this, environmental conditions leads this person into red as well. Of course some of us can like something much more than others. This is our temperament. But also the socio-economical, physical, biological conditions are the powerful parameters for our tendencies. For example, let’s think that, we were raised up in a wealthy ethos; people in this ethos thinks that bright yellow is irritating color. If we are a average person, even we love so much using this color, we would avoid using it. Because the effect of social push (look at Thomas Hobbes, conatus) leads us to avoid it. If the person is little bit more passionate and different from average persons, she/he will have to find some other group of people who can accept this kind of variety for example bright yellow. In a contrary way, as I mentioned above, emotional suffer would come out, and corrupt the balance of the body. And the body would not like it. Of course thanks to the originality of our genes and characters, we are authentic entities. We decide with our characteristics. Even so, the studies recently showed that epigenetic causes serious changes on genetic. It means that even we have individualistic tendencies, those tendencies are influenced very much by the environment (Asima, Kumar, 2019).

It is possible to think of the same example for scientific or artistic tendencies. Let’s take Mozart as an example. Indispensably, Mozart is very talented musician. But Mozart was raised up by a very ambitious father who was very determined to make him very successful and famous musician. Especially for a child, it is not much possible to get rid of the effects of emotional relations with a father. So we could imagine Mozart with a different occupation with a little chance. It is same for philosophers and science people who lived in Europe in the 20. century. Karl Popper was a friend of Einstein. Wittgenstein was born in the rich and powerful family. They needed a life style which could make him powerful in that ethos with his skills. So they were headed into be philosophers. We can increase the number of examples. If you live in an ethos with different socio-economic values, it is not that possible to be headed into different life styles. Being in the society, having a place to shelter, and eating will always be our priority. For sure, there are some extra ordinary people and examples. However, if we also examine this examples deeper, we will find some emotional and social resources for those tendencies.

Human are an exquisitely social species. We care about what the others do, we guess others’ feelings, actions, gestures, attitudes in general. And we check instinctively, what they do for the next step (Blakemore, Winston, Frith, 2004). Because internally we presume that we need those social ties to survive (By the way death is not opposite of survival for being alive, in that context I describe what is death in another essay, look at “Meaning of Death for Human Being”). Two basic needs lead us to social behaviors. First, we need to socially behave to sustain our entity in the herd. Because, if you don’t obey the herd’s social norms, the herd excludes you emotionally even physically. This could sound little bit exaggerative for the modern societies that we live in, however we can easily observe that from our daily routines. Of course for more primitive societies, going against rules means that death or beating down or throwing out from the shelter. Now it has new rules to apply this. People avoid talking to you. If you go further, you could not even earn money to eat, because of the relations.

Second reason is more physiological. Brain studies discovered mirror neurons. Those neurons are located in every part of brain. They need to be active for moving and behaving physically and socially. And what they do is to imitate other people for acting. As humans, we learn most of our behaviors with the help of those neuron cells by imitating others (Lepare, Teoret, 2007). If we don’t concretely somebody to communicate, survival would be too hard. Suffering comes out. And body is again headed to other people to struggle with suffering. This is a basic behavior and hard to manage for us.

As an opposite idea, some people can think that, some people can continue to live without other people. For example people who work in front of computers and make money, can survive easily. However, if we analyze their situations, we can find some emotional issues. Of course, if really want to be alone, it would be worth to try.

As we see that, our prior behaviors survival and avoiding suffer (homeostasis) are the main resources for our emotional, social and cognitive tendencies. We get very close relationships with our families, friends physically and emotionally. We compete and struggle with those people not to lose them (Because every relation has its dynamics to be sustained). Since we always interact each other, we are affected by them and according to those effects, we create some ideas and emotions. We create values. We shape those values with the capability of our skills. We try to be powerful in the environment that we live, then we can be alive. Even it is arguable that, which are more valuable to be believed much more such as humanity, art, science or the money, development et cetera or how much we need to work on those values not to be mentally sick (Akthar, 2014, sf.45–50), it is obvious that we produce and follow the values with the effects of biological needs.

Results

Most distinct survival for people is to be alive with the most ideal way that we perceive. This perception is shaped by lots of physical, social, cognitive and emotional components. We always want to feel physically well. And also we try to build up an identity in our social lives. While we are doing all those, we use our biological features.

We all have different characteristics and chances in the life. Some of us is softer. Some is stubborn. Some is born in the powerful families. Some come to world in chaotic environments which are hard to live. With the all of those parameters, we become ourselves. And here whatever we see as valuable, comes out from this wholeness.

As human being we always have to give values to something. Because the values are the closest havens for us. Those values are sometimes people, families, friends, sometimes gods, sometimes ideologies or beliefs. With the help of those circumstances and properties some of us love the nights. The night guys. They find the nights calm and safe. They find something in the nights which belongs to them. This is our survival. For some of us, it is hard to find the values. The feel of suffer from loneliness and unsafety can take us to the places which are tough to handle. For example we can be headed to drugs. Somehow we need to escape from suffering. And to this we find some pleasure resources for ourselves. Using drugs can give this pleasure to us. Drugs provide opiod for the brains (which mentioned above for avoiding suffering has the same chemical effect with drugs). And thanks to this, we are capable of avoiding suffering. Our new value is using drugs. However this will be hard value to handle for the body.

I don’t see much difference between people who tend to science or who tend to drugs for the being valuable. Those issues only create some difficulties and pleasures for those people. But both people try to survive with their own ways. And even that I also think that if there are some tough lives, we are affected directly or indirectly by those lives. Because of this, instead of examining what the values are, evaluating what the situations are, sometimes can be more important. And once again, maybe the values are not that important ones inside themselves, instead the important thing is to be able to sustain the life with a ordinariness and different colors.

References

Books

Jaak Panksepp, Affective Neurosicenc, Oxford Press, 1998.

Salman Akhtar, Sources of Suffering, Routledge 2014.

Antonio Damasio, Looking Forward Spinoza, William Heinemann: London, 2018.

Articles

Blakemore, Winston, Frith, Social cognitive neuroscience: where are we heading?, 2004.

Lepage, Teoret, The mirror neuron system: grasping others’ actions from birth? 2007.

Triphaty, Pradhan, Methylation-Assisted Epigenetic Evolution and the Psycho-biology of Human Experiences, 2019.