Paul Bloom: The Origins of Pleasure

My eyes are attached by the title of the speech. Because I have been wondering that how can I feel happier on earth. Maybe I find the answers through the speech. It illustrates that humans are, to some extent, natural born essentialist, which means we don’t respond by things as we see them, as we feel them. We respond by our beliefs about what they are, what we come from. For example, if you drink wine in an exquisite bottle, it will taste better. The reason why we take origins so seriously is that we are snobs, who are focused on status. The theory applies to pain as well. You will hurt more if you know someone do it on purpose. While pain, under certain circumstances, can be transformed into pleasure, so people can seek out low-level pains and take pleasure from them. Actually, I can afford the pain but I don’t need to suffer from the negative emotions. In general, whether I am happy or not depends my own beliefs.

After I have watched the speech, some ideas come to my mind. In 2010, I entered into Lixin University of Commerce and majored in Taxation. If I took Taxation as my favorite major, maybe I would work better and feel better in every aspect of school life. Fortunately, it’s not too late to know it. In the future, I’ll try my best to take everything positive and transform the pain to the pleasure. In that, my life will be happier.

TED观后感