"Why do men learn through pain and suffering, and not through pleasure and happiness? Very simply, because pleasure and happiness accustom one to satisfaction with the things given in this world, whereas pain and suffering drive one to seek a more profound happiness beyond the limitations of this world." - Fr. Seraphim (Rose) of Platina
I'm not sure we can say humans don't learn through pleasure at all... good quote, though.
- Gus
Interesting quote that I think holds some truth. I think we learn from having both pleasure and pain. I also think it is impossible to have one without the other.
- Josh Haley
I don't think he intended to say that we don't learn through both. This quote is from a man that went through much suffering before finding peace.
- Michael McKean
Maybe he meant we learn deeper things through suffering, but he did say "and not through pleasure and happiness" which is hard to ignore. Pleasure and happiness are vital things, especially when young and building bonds of trust - and trust is one of the most important things to learn as a human.
- Gus
Pain is often more immediate and the cause is more obvious. It can take longer to tie pleasure to the source. Plus, pain is more important to learn from. Avoiding pain is more important (mostly) then finding pleasure. (Wow that sounds pessimistic, I don't mean it that harshly though.)
- Heather
At the low level it's interesting that reward is what guides thinking. When trying to solve a math problem what is that makes the brain take one line of thought or another? It's which path the brain calculates will offer the greatest reward. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed...)
- Todd Hoff