So here’s the rub: we seek fulfillment, but there seem to be two conflicting kinds of fulfillment. There is the kind of fulfillment that comes from gratifying the sensual pleasures and impulses, and there is the kind that comes from enjoyment of “higher” pleasures, like love, and gratifying one’s moral feelings and intellect. These two seem in conflict with each, and cause problems when we are deciding how to live. For which should I live?
I have been wrestling with this question. Not that I have been contemplating giving myself over completely to my instinctual desires. rather, I have been struggling with the question because it gets to the very heart of the larger question that I am exploring: How should we live as humans? Is there a rational answer?
As I have been struggling with the question, and I think I have been approaching it in the wrong way. I have been thinking of it as an either-or situation: either lower or higher level fulfillment, either base desires or intellectual and moral desires. But maybe it’s not either-or. Maybe it can be both.
Can’t I find a balance in which my “lower” desires are fulfilled while not decreasing the fulfillment of my “higher” desires. I think it should be possible. If I cultivate my marriage and family, I can enjoy the pleasures of erotic love andthe rewards of raising children. i can enjoy the excitement of adventures and be satisfied with a successful and moral life.
If I were to plunge into the animal life, I would lose my wife, permanently damage my children, hurt all of those I love, and ultimatley destroy myself. And living a morally satisfying life, a life that does not leave me with shame, a life I can feel good about, does not prohibit the enjoyment of those “lower” pleasures of sex and adrenaline.
Like wine and tobacco, they must be used in moderation and with balance. If misused, though I gain more immediate pleasure, I lose other important sources of fulfillment.
If I am to seek maximum fulfillment, I must seek the correct balance, the correct combination of sources. The man who lives as beast is out of balance and is irrational. He sells his birthright for a single meal.
But why is it difficult? Why do they lower pleasures demand to dominate my life?
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[...] January 28, 2010 in fulfillment, meaning, morality, sex | Tags: fulfillment, life, love, meaning, morality, philosophy, sex, thoughts I struggle with the conflict between fulfilling my base desires and living for higher fulfillment. But I forget that it is not either/or… [...]