I like this question. It is a lot less intimidating that a lot of the other posts on this site I've seen in my short time being here, and I feel I can actually contribute using only my philosophy and ability to express myself in the English language, rather than also needing knowledge on other constructs.
In my opinion, emotion starts and ends with the mind, so the notion that for instance a specific human's emotion can exist outside of their mind is completely asinine. As such, listening to music in reality, in itself, is total redundancy. It is not mandatory for the Alice in your proposed scenario to listen to her music in reality to evoke and indulge in her emotion. The music she is listening to in reality serves only to interact with her physical being(in this scenario via her receptivity for sound) for the sake of rousing what I define as "memory" within her. Alice retains her emotionality regardless of ever having listened to her music in this scenario in her lifetime, therefore, the music serves only to rouse specific emotion within her, thus serving as a method to quantify it for her, mentally. There is still no inherent correlation between her music as it exists in reality and her emotion. All dissenting opinions are irrational, I believe...
Because Alice's indulging in her music or any music in reality is entirely unnecessary insofar as maximizing her pleasure or minimizing her pain is concerned- which is upon which my philosophy is founded and the end to which I believe all humans should tend- if her indulging in her music in this scenario infringes upon the most basic utilitarian doctrine of "live and let live" she should stop. Alice will never be able to provide a rational reason to listen to her music. Alice will never be able to absolutely, objectively explain why she should infringe upon the doctrine of "live and let live" for the sake of her arbitrarily ascribing emotion to music in 3D space. It would take me several hundred words to explain why I believe maximizing(the human's) pleasure and minimizing(the human's) pain is objective good and I would rather not, not yet, but these are my opinions...
Excluding my simply explaining why I believe my basis for rational thought(against which I contest all other bases for rational thought and claim them to be inferior) is correct, I don't see what more there is for me to address... sorry
Why do you turn an empirical question into a philosophical one? The question whether people can invoke emotions in themselves just as efficiently without external crutches such as music, horror movies, or romantic restaurants, is easily falsified by the simple existence of these services and the willingness to pay for them. Clearly people use them because it is easier to invoke the emotion than through e.g. meditation or whatever you are proposing.
Besides, this philosophy also applies to the other side. Is there an inherent correlation between what other p...
My hidden secret goal is to understand the sentiments behind social justice better, however I will refrain from asking questions that directly relate to it, as they can be mind-killers, instead, I have constructed an entirely apolitical, and probably safe thought experiment involving a common everyday problem that shouldn't be incisive.
Alice is living in an apartment, she is listening to music. The volume of her music is well within what is allowed by the regulations or social norms. Yet the neighbor is still complaining and wants her to turn it down, claiming that she (the neighbor) is unusually sensitive to noise due to some kind of ear or mental condition.
Bob, Alice's friend is also present, and he makes a case that while she can turn it down basically out of niceness or neighborliness, this level of kindness is going far beyond the requirements of duty, and should be considered a favor, because she has no ethical duty to turn it down, for the following reasons.
1) Her volume level of music is usual, it is the sensitivity level of the neighbor that is unusual, and we are under no duty to cater to every special need of others.
2) In other words, it is okay to cause suffering to others as long as it is a usual, common, accepted thing to do that would not cause suffering to a typical person.
The reasons for this are
A) It would be too hard to do otherwise, to cater to every special need, in this case it is easy, but not in all cases, so this is no general principle.
B/1) It would not help the other person much, if the other person is unusually sensitive, the problem would not be fixed by one person catering to them. A hundred people should cater to it, after all there are many sources of noise in the neighborhood.
B/2) In other words, if you are unusually rude, reducing it to usual levels of rudeness is efficient, because by that one move you made a lot of people content. But if you are already on the usual levels of rudeness and an unusually sensitive person is still suffering, further reduction is less efficient because you are only one of the many sources of their suffering. And these people are few anyway.
C) Special needs are easy to fake.
D) People should really work on toughening up and growing a thicker skin, it is actually possible.
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Please explain your view in the comments.