but who’s thought a lot about joy? Now, a shift from the physical effects of joy to the metaphysical concepts of joy through an extensive skimming of philosophical thought of the people who think and write extensively on the subject of human existence, happiness and attaining it. Although philosophers have been grouped according to commonalities of their observed views, while some are aligned geographically like Plato and Aristotle, the mind map’s organisation is primarily thematic. Overall, Transcendentalist thought paired well with several Daoists, and overall spirituality hugged the perimeter of Buddha, Rumi and even Emerson (who was particularly prickly in terms of placement and I am neither satisfied nor happy about where he ended up). Marx, Durkheim, and Adam Smith are by no means shockingly grouped, as they all held that a real Protestant work ethic would result in pure joy. The Bummer category holds Kant, Voltaire, Huxley and Nietsche all aligned in that joy is simply a fallacy. The shrug guy ¯\_( : J )_/¯ emoji section comprises individuals who seemingly can’t make up their minds and/or are the real mavericks in thinking and thus do not really align with anyone. Naturally, this section is what I most closely align with on a personal level. In the following section Kant, Camus, and Locke will be explained further. Have I mentioned that I am a builder of sorts? Well, I am. It’s something I really enjoy doing and have come to find particular value in the flow state I enter while executing a project, which is in fact about a hundred thousand little puzzles and processes in part of a much larger goal. I wondered if I could synthesise or come to understand the complexities of the theories laid out in the psychology and philosophy section in greater detail through building. These meditative practices on joy garnered the names Weirdo 001-010 , and are rendered thematically by colour according to philosophical interpretations (red), psychological (yellow), and humour (blue), i.e. weirdo 001 , left. Of these weirdo interpretations, four have been physically constructed. In ideation, the weirdos as a whole were meant to challenge and resist conventional ways of building, either known by me or overall in the realm of woodworking and furniture design. To do so, a series of obstructions were laid out for each, which force innovative previously unforeseen opportunities. In essence, the obstructions disrupt and resist convention. Metaphorically, they’re meant to make me fumble around in a room I’ve never been in, desperately looking for the light switch, only for the lights to reveal a chair.
Conveniently, the same criteria may also lend well to longevity. Currently, there are five locations around the globe identified for a seemingly miraculous effect on the length of life. Known as blue zones, people of vastly different cultural and economic backgrounds live way longer, happier lives than most other places due to interpersonal connections and a healthy (ish) lifestyle (I say -ish because in the Netflix mini-series Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones , a particularly honest centenarian reveals that the tea linked to her long life was in fact her family’s recipe for wine). Interestingly, these Blue Zones are hyper-focused and cannot be examined at a regional scale, but at that of the city, village or island. Beyond strong interpersonal connections, blue zone people have a continued purpose even if no longer working (though some just seemingly don’t stop and terms like work seem inappropriate in place of vocation or raison d’etre ), and sustained physical activity. One response to joy which I haven’t mentioned yet might be the most recognisable one: laughter. While the cliché ‘laughter is the best medicine’ does hold some merit to beneficial mental health outcomes, it is also examined closely by sociologists and psychoanalysts alike. Laughter of course is generally the response to something humorous. Two main theories of humour, superiority and incongruity, differ slightly, however their overarching ideals are that within a joke a winner and loser exist (superiority), and that for something to be humorous it must be incongruous (incongruity theory) in relation to an object or concept. Laughter is the result of this incongruity.
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on site review 44 : play
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