Are we hardwired to seek pleasure and avoid pain?

Question

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Answer 1

Yes we are. If you think about it, things that are beneficial bring pleasure-eating, reproduction, etc...things that aren't beneficial bring pain-chopping off a limb, eating something poisonous.

Answer 2

Consider the difference between pleasure and pain.
The cause of pleasure is normally voluntary.
The cause of pain is normally involuntary.
An individual's volition can be thought to seek causes of
pleasure, so long as the individual maintains self-control.
Pain is not the source of pain. Pain is the bodies way
of alerting an individual that the body has suffered damage
and reconstruction is underway. Therefore, an individual
can be thought to seek to avoid the causes of pain.
In my opinion, the human body is hardwired for pleasure
and pain, but not to seek the causes of pleasure and
pain. Consider if a baby upon being born is secluded
in a room until the age of 30 with almost no stimulus.
After leaving the room the person will be stunted in
his/her ability to seek out the stimuli which cause pleasure
and inadvertently cause pain.

Answer 3

When seeking the pleasure we naturally seek the pain. Though in doing so we often think we are not attaining our intended goal so we continue to pursue pleasure and continue to derive non-satisfaction.

In the physical realm, merely in terms of survival, there is a point to seek pleasure above pain. However in the spiritual realm it is necessary to embrace the pain to enable growth. Its a balance between preservation of the the physical "shell" and "maturity" of the soul body.

So to answer your question, not necessarily hard wired more so a primal instinct that no longer serves the evolving nature of man.

Good question*

Answer 4

Sort of. We're programmed, I guess, to seek out activities that allow us to feel better, you can't say we're always going to be avoiding pain, because there are some people in the world who have tied pain and pleasure. But it is in our nature to find pleasurable things and it's always different for different people.

Answer 5

Yes. It's a basic survival mechanism. Unfortunately some people try to avoid any kind of emotional pain & therefore avoid taking risks that they should take & miss out on a lot of the most wonderful experiences life has to offer: (such as falling in love...)

Answer 6

I don't think we are wired at all, but I do think that we enjoy pleasure more then we do pain so we would rather have that and try to figure out ways to get it even though it doesn't always work and then there is life.

Answer 7

Yes. Everything we do is to seek pleasure.
Helping ourselves, helping others, even helping animals.
We fret over a lizard getting stepped on.

We are built to automatically avoid pain. Stick a pin in your finger, and you pull your arm back.

Answer 8

Yes we as animals are hardwired that way. However as humans we have the ability to change the effect of that wiring with our conscious minds.

Answer 9

In our simplest form, yes, but we grow up to the understanding that some pain is endured to accomplish or acquire the greater good.

Answer 10

No , some people feel that its easier for them to speak in a nice way but truth is i would rather hear the hard part than to have it sugar coated