“Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure.”
-Jeremy Bentham
This article does not concern itself regarding the sovereign masters or gods, but rather it is regarding human motivation and its link with the perception of pain & pleasure. It seems like common wisdom at first that every individual seek pleasure and wants to escape pain. If a person is given a choice between a comfortable bed and a dirty floor to sleep, you would predictably choose the comfortable bed.
But there arises confusion when trying to define pain or pleasure. What should we consider as pleasure? How long should it last? Should an action be valued upon immediate results or should it be valued based on present and future probable consequences?
The answer to this may come out hardly solid or universal. Some people get pleasure out of working out, doing gym, boxing etc while in reality they are painful at the sensory basis. Some people frown at the thought of taking marijuana while they may feel good in reality. Now what is the thing that changes our perception of pain and pleasure? Is it the thought of consequences? Is it the fact that a good work-out will lead to good health and thus making a painful exercise seem like pleasure to some? Then shouldn’t everyone enjoy a good workout? Shouldn’t everybody frown at the thought of taking marijuana? The reality says otherwise.
The reality shows that people’s perception of pain and pleasure can differ between individuals of similar backgrounds and surroundings. It can even differ in the same individual at different times. I know people who once ridiculed anyone going to gym, and now they are going there themselves. I know people who once thought of taking marijuana as a stylish habit but now they can’t even tolerate smoking cigarettes.
What changed? Not the knowledge about the things, marijuana and gym work-outs are not complicated science that people will have to study before setting a mindset. It is not about the sensory impact either; they remained the same. The change was in belief. Belief has less to do with knowledge, fact or sensory impact. But it has more to do with will and cognition. It is the belief, about everything around an action and its consequences, that makes it painful or pleasing to an individual.
I wish to talk more about this belief in the next two articles: (a) The Dilemma of Pain and Pleasure – Part 2 and (b) Fluid Belief.
Read Part 2
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.