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Why is there hunger?

Psyduck

Psyduck

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Feb 24, 2008
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The scientific explanation answer goes along the lines: the body needs nutrion and energy in order to organize the bodily processes and activities. The philosophical question asks: IF there were to exist something at all, WHY should there exist beings that can suffer from hunger. For example, there could be a universe with only spirits which don't need to eat. Hunger seems to be most natural evil of all (i.e. natural evil is evil not caused by the human will); every person encounters it, and it's impossible to escape its repetition. Thousands of people from third world countries die out of hunger, and no philosophical reason can be given for this. Why (IF there were to exist something at all) is there hunger? On the other hand, food is also one of the most natural pleasures for humans. Eating gives people instant pleasure, so there is a counterpart to the natural evil. But still, there doesn't seem to be rational reason why entities ought to eat and can suffer from hunger.
 
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Those are the only kind of things that can be. If there were to be a being that felt no hunger, why would it eat? If it did not eat, how could it live?
 
The problem of contingency was implicit in the original post. This "kind" of universe (with biological creatures, organisms, plants, etc.) might only be a contingent (and not necessary) universe. There might have existed another kind of universe, which is made up by other kind of things, and where things behave completely different.
 
the feeling of hunger has evolved as a way of giving animals motivation to seek out food because eating food, or taking in energy, increases the chances of survival of that animal and the dna molecules can carry on self replicating. the pleasure from eating is also another way of motivating animals to seek food.
 
Indeed there might, but why single out hunger? Hunger is wrapped up in the greater phenomenon of biology. Hunger doesn't make sense without sex, for example. It seems to me that you're asking "Why is there life?". Which is a good question, of course. It seems to be the purity of the natural evil that has particularly piqued your interest, but is it really more evil than disease or volcanoes?
 
In my mind, this all leads back to the fundamental laws of thermodynamics.
The first of which states:
Energy cannot be created nor destroyed.
If any animate being is to exist in this universe, i.e. to expend energy, it must draw energy from some source.
Even if there was a kind of "spirit" being that didn't need to "eat", as suggested in your original post (and which I do not deny could exist within our known universe, of which we have only yet seen a tiny fraction), it would still need to draw energy from somewhere in order to function or even exist.

"Hunger" is purely a chemical reaction in the body. The emotions attached to hunger, nay, to "evil" and "pleasure", are all purely chemical processes in the brain.

There may well be universes in existence right now, and possibly have been and will be for all eternity, that have different laws of physics and therefore different atomic particles and molecules and chemical reactions occurring etc. I, for one, fully accept and sometimes indulge exploring this idea :)
 
Vader said:
but is it really more evil than disease or volcanoes?
Click to expand...
No, it isn't. I had every kind of natural evil in mind (earthquakes, tsnuamis, etc.) not caused by human agency*. But hunger is the one which all people are confronted by on a regular basis.


* ignore scientific materialism and determinism, as a worldview, for a moment.
 
Would humans be social if they were asexual? Wed basically be clones as genetic diversity would be a lot less, but speciation would be higher.

It seems to me we fundamentally need nutrients for replication and repair. I dont know how to really address the issue.
In australia they were working on growing cow muscle in vats and using electrical stimulation for tone. When people at it the texture disgusted them. This is however the future.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vitro_meat
 
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Living things are dynamic entities. We're like whirlpools in the fabric of existence -- our inherent nature is dynamic, and dependent on the constant input of new matter and output of old. When we feel hungry (for anything), we're reminded of that dynamism. I think this applies to yearnings and cravings for anything.

If you're talking exclusively about food, I think this is a good example of how science does not require philosophy, and how things that can be explained with science demand no philosophical justification. In this case, medical science has tested and documented a wide range of feedback mechanisms that turn on when calorie supplies are low, which cause people to be more likely to encounter and consume food.

I clicked this thread thinking it would be about why there is hunger in the world. The main reason for this, I think, is that starvation is often used as a weapon of war. Some famines are accidental, and result from natural disasters and weak and unreliable supply chains. Ones in the past (and likely the future) were the result of population growth outpacing food production growth. But most present famines are the result of willful neglect on someone's part, someone who either wants to hog all available food when it gets scarce, or is trying to put pressure on someone to get demands met, or both.
 
UAd a couple of posts. This isn't the Lounge, guys, serious contributions only please.
 
I tought P&S was about discussing "our latest musings"?

My answer was serious, btw.

Oh well, whatever.
 
Why is it evil? Panic in paradise makes a good point; the resources available are already unable to sustain the number of people alive. If we did not experience the need for food then we would be extinct long ago. We're hungry, so we eat. I have no idea what the ultimate purpose is but it seems to be the way things are. Most people go through life miserable yet fear the end as if it's some sort of curse.
 
hunger,
it hurts, thats the problem
its telling you that if you dont eat you die
so what is the evil ?
its suffering
so why is there suffering ?
cuz there is pleasure
following life gives you pleasure
its all about survival and evolution and how chaos like to express itself

there is nothing "evil" about it, tho evil is just a world and i think get what you are saying
i use to wonder why life would be worth it if there is suffering in it ?
and there is torture and wars and genocide and rape and hate and hunger and disease and death and a million things thats are just not acceptable
i was in a situation where i didnt believed in god but was thinking that if there is a god that created all this my mission would be to go find him and kill him cuz he is the most awful disgusting evil thing there could be to create all that possibility of suffering (not even including the burning in hell for eternity part)
it was a time in my life where i was thinking about killing myself or maybe a little bit after that
i just wasnt at peace with the fact that life can be so bad, so so fucking bad

so lately i was watching a documentary about genocides, and genocides are at the top of the list when i think about how awful the world we live in can be, it includes all the other bad; torture, starvation, rape, murder....
and the thing is genocides have killed more people than wars this past century
but i was fine watching it, it didnt made me down or philosophical about it all

i came to the understanding or maybe i should say acceptance that there is good cuz there is bad
there is suffering cuz there is pleasure
and there is life cuz there is death
and "life is unfair so kill yourself or get over it"
which was a quote from a song i use to tell myself
i did not kill myself, i choose to live, and now i had to get over it
problem was that as a kid i was sheltered from that reality and i didnt learn to deal with it
as a kid the good guy always win at the end, and if you do it right things will go fine, and there is a reason a good reason for things to happens and adult are in control of the situation
but that whole world was wisful thinking, it was a lie
but thats what was in me, i wanted to believed that things where good, that life was good...
but it aint
life aint good or bad
good is good
bad is bad
and life is life

buddha said life is suffering
and that would piss me off back when i was depress cuz it seemed so true
and it aint like he is some random guy who said life is a bitch
hes got some authority on the mater
and in a situation where my life was hurt it made sense tho i didnt want it to make sense
but life isnt suffering
life is doing just fine
you may be suffering, and thats cause you are centering on suffering
when i was a happy kid life wasnt suffering
life was happy, i was happy
why did it became suffering ? cuz i was wondering why
why
and why
and why i was wondering why, that was the psychoanalysis part where i try to figure out why i ended up in a situation where i wonder why
and i was cuz i had lost balance
life was suffering cuz i was looking for something
something...
what was it
i wasnt sure
but thats why i ended up in that situation where life was suffering
cuz i had lost balance

but then i found it back
and life isnt suffering
life is life and suffering is suffering and if your life is suffering you are doing something wrong
and in Buddhism they have their ways of dealing with that but i didnt identified whit Buddhism much cuz it didnt work for me, it simply made me more depress...
but i found my ways to deal with it

so ill go back to me not killing myself
then what, then you learn to let go until you dont expect things to go your way
things are things and you let them be
you need to accept your own suffering to be able to accept the suffering in others
so its 2 for the price of one, once you can deal with yourself you can deal with the whole world

so ill go back to "following life gives you pleasure"
because thats how it works, you find pleasure in eating and sex because thats what preserve your life on a individual level and on a species level
life is trying to survive and its using you to keep herself alive and if you follow her she makes you feel good
why is there life, because there is death
why is there something, because there is nothing

so why is there suffering, because there is pleasure
that duality creates consciousness
you could not be a aware being without suffering
you could not experience life without duality

like if i take a piece of paper and write something on it
the only reason i can write something on it is cuz there was nothing on it to begin with
and you cant write white on white or black on black or else you wont see something
you need the duality to experience something

hunger for food, hunger for love, hunger for sex...
you experiment suffering cuz you, the you in you, the ego, it wants to keep you alive
if you didnt identified with your ego you wouldnt feel pain
like some people with mental problem do sometimes

so why is there hunger? : because there is hunger !

...and sorry to be so unfocused in what im writing, ive just had a lot of fun lately writhing long post : )


((btw the documentary was this : Genocide: Worse Than War http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7cZuhqSzzc))
 
I don't believe entities would exist without a need for something. In a way we are only here as a part of the problem.
 
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