Asking philosophical questions…

…and answering them (with the Catamount staff!)

Nyla Libed and Téa Schmid

Why are humans so confident in beliefs that can’t be proven?

We all have beliefs. Whether it’s to do with religion, economics, or politics, we all have our own personal beliefs. Religion, as many will point out, cannot be proven for certain. This does not stop people from believing it because it gives them comfort and hope. Some do not feel they need this branch of belief to give them these feelings but for some feel they do. Just as everyone has different tastes in food and clothes, people require different beliefs to make their lives whole. Confidence often comes from years of belief.

 

Is love at first sight real?

The short answer — no, love, at first sight, is not real. When humans say they experience “love at first sight”, what they are really experiencing is attraction. According to Ann Rosen Spector, a clinical psychologist, real love only comes with time. It is possible to look at someone and be attracted to their physical manifestation and fall for them fast but you cannot be in love with that person until you get to know them. Without knowing who they truly are you cannot be in love with them — you love the way they look.

 

If everyone said what they were thinking, what would happen to society?

I feel like society would actually become better. While there would be more feelings hurt by all of the brutal truths that everyone would have said, we must also consider the possibility that people could overcome more of their problems by saying things that needed to be said. It would be easier to find the people that truly cared about you, as well as shut down the people that don’t. People would understand each other better once they knew what everyone was truly thinking.

 

Does jealousy have value in driving humans to improve themselves, or is it purely a negative emotion?

We’ve all seen that chick flick cliche where the shy, nerdy main character sees her crush with another girl, gets all jealous, and then reinvents herself into someone who’s totally confident and then takes her man for herself. Much like this cliche, jealousy seems to drive some people to make themselves better, or to do more things on their own with the mindset that they have to be better than the other person. It helps to motivate us to be more successful, so no, I do not believe that jealousy is purely a bad emotion.