<a href="http://www.geocities.com/vaksam/">Sam Vaknin's Psychology, Philosophy, Economics and Foreign Affairs Web Sites
Abstract
People often confuse satisfaction or pleasure with meaning. It is one thing to ask "How" (what Science does), another to seek an answer to "Why" (a teleological quest in most cases) and still different to contemplate the "What for". For instance: people often do something because it gives them pleasure or satisfaction – however this does not endow the act with meaning. Meaningless things can be – and many times, are – pleasant and satisfying.
A prime example is human games. Games are structured, they are governed by rules and represent the results of negotiations, analysis, synthesis and forecasting. They please and satisfy. Yet, a few will dispute their meaninglessness.
Games are useful. They teach and prepare us for real life situations. Sometimes, they bring in their wake fame, status, money, the ability to influence the real world. And even this does not make them meaningful.
It is easy to answer HOW people play games. Specify the rules of the game or observe it long enough, until the rules become apparent – and you have the answer.
It is easy to answer WHAT FOR do people play games. Pleasure, satisfaction, money, fame, learning, simulating real life experiences in anticipation and preparation for them.
But al this does not draw us an inch closer to the answer to the question:
WHAT IS THE MEANING OF GAMES?
For meaning to exist, we must have the following (cumulating) elements:
A relationship between at least two distinctive (at least partially mutually exclusive) entities (space-time is the result of such a relationship)
This relationship must manifest itself as the ability to map important parts of the entities unto each other ("Important" – without which the entity is not the same, an identity element)
That one of the entities should be larger than the other in some important sense. One of the entities must be physically bigger, older, more encompassing, mappable to more entities, etc.
That there be an interpreter to discern and understand the relationship between the entities (therefore, an "intelligent" interpreter)
That such observations would lead the interpreter (potentially) to explain and to predict an important facet of the identity and of the behaviour of one of the entities (usually, in terms of the other, within the context and while using the laws of mathematical logic)
That the understanding of a "Meaning" will provoke in a human observer an emotional reaction and in a non-human observer, an alteration in its information content and / or in its behaviour
Moreover, video games also serve as a source of fun for all sorts of people. The purpose for the creation of video games was for it to be a source of entertainment for people. As time passes, the game industry grows. Video games are now so diverse in content that there is bound to be a game type that any given person will find
Hume distinguishes two categories into which “all the objects of human reason or enquiry” may be placed into: Relations of Ideas and Matters of Fact (15). In regards to matters of fact, cause and effect seems to be the main principle involved. It is clear that when we have a fact, it must have been inferred...
Therefore, with every proposition we could possibly apprehend (whether true or not) each of their constituents are real entities with which we do have immediate acquaintance, so long as we can apprehend them.
ABSTRACT: Indeterminacy theories, such as Wittgenstein's and Kripke's indeterminacy principle on rules and language and Quine's indeterminacy of radical translation, raise some fundamental questions on our knowledge and understanding. In this paper we try to outline and interpret Wittgenstein's and Kripke's indeterminacy, and then compare it to some other related theories on indeterminacy of human thinking, such as raised by Hume, Quine, and Goodman.
I would like to conclude by saying that satisfaction is felt by everyone, but the trigger can be as different as my A+ on a paper to Berry’s manure shoveling. Therefore, there isn’t any hard and fast rule to feeling satisfaction, but when people find what induces this feeling, all else seems void of fulfillment. In case of Berry, his farm is his source of enjoyment so naturally, technology related activities aren’t psychologically rewarding to him. My message to all would be that next time there’s a moment to spare don’t waste it, seize it to do something you are passionate about and savor the sweet satisfaction that comes after.
In determining what is the foundation of happiness, hedonism claims that it is pleasure with the absence of pain that is the only intrinsic good. An intrinsic good can be described as something that is good in and of itself. It is good not because it leads to something else, it is good for its own sake; as compared to an instrumental good, which is a means to an end. Pleasure describes the broad class of mental states that humans experience as positive, enjoyable, or worth seeking. Qualitative hedonists believe that there can be different levels of pleasure, meaning that some will be better than others. John Stuart Mill would be considered as a qualitative hedonist, which makes up part of his theory of Utilitarianism. In order to determine what is happiness, Mill establishes his Greatest Happiness Principle, which introduces the adoption of Hedonism. Mill’s argument for qualitative distinction of pleasures is inconsistent and problematic for hedonism, which brings about more problems than it solves for Utilitarianism.
Through games we are learning how to master motivation and engagement. Games have the amazing ability to keep people engaged for a long time, build relationships and trust between people, and develop their creative potentials.
... sense as well as an observable quality of personal sameness and continuity, paired with some belief in the sameness and continuity of some shared world image" (Self, et al., 185).
A very wise man; Charles Schaefer, once said “We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing.” To begin with, there is no one explanation about what play really is, other than the fact that it holds infinite numbers of definitions according to every single individual. Play is just not a physical body movement involved in an activity, but more than that if you look outside of the box. For centuries, play has been practiced in its own unique way with not only children, but adults as well.
The experience of game play can be described as an activity in which the player is virtually embodied in the game world. Anyone who has experienced the world of gaming knows how the engaging experience can manifest itself with “sweaty palms and chills down the spine” (http://www.eludamos.org/index.php/eludamos/article/viewArticle/80/147) when coming face-to-face with alien creatures; or with the adrenaline rush we get when racing a high speed automobile head-to-head with a friend. Gaming is an excellent source of entertainment. It provides an opportunity for social growth, provides a meaningful form of exploring expression, and provides heightened sensitivity.
Video games have been argued about for decades. Some people have argued that video games are linked to violence. However, new research shows that video games can be used for therapeutic purposes, exercise, stress relievers, positive interactive learning, hand eye coordination, and different types of patient treatment for people all around the world.
Secondly, it is that language in entertwined with the structure of the relationship between the Individual and Other, meaning that language is integral to any relation between consciousnesses. Ones language is
The word pleasure means a state of enjoying, satisfaction, sex… When I first think about it, I think as it is a way of having fun from something simple. I don't think pleasure is like passion. It doesn't have to mean you a lot. It isn't a wish or a goal or a life time wish. It is just finding joy from something simple and good enough to satisfy you. I concerned about it because in my mind the first definition that came up to my mind was sex. I was prejudiced about this word. But why should I be? That's why I chose it. I pushed myself a bit to do my search with pleasure. If we don't know exactly what is pleasure means we can concerned about it. Unknown makes fears and fears make us prejudice. We need facts to believe and find out our truths. I take a risk at least for me so my journey began.
Majority of games are not designed for educational purposes. However, there are some games that are made for educational to teach ethical/political issues to teenagers through a familiar medium. Teenagers also have to know when to play game and when to stop. It is a wrong time to play games if a teenager hasn’t done his/her homework. And this will result in parents asking their son/daughter to study. There’s no problem of talking about the game with friends. However, there are some people who cannot come out from the “game world” because they are not attached to the real world and ending up killing two policeman in the real world like the incident in Alabama, US in 2003.
In the opening section of the Investigations, Wittgenstein gave a simple statement as ‘a particular picture of the essence of human language’. The individual words of language name objects sentences are combinations of such names. In this picture of language we find the roots of the following idea: Every word has a meaning. This meaning is correlated with the word. It is the object for which the word stands (PI 1). It means there is a relationship between words and objects through language. We might say that in the case of word and object it is one of meaning- the meaning of a word being ‘the object for which the word stands’. The meaning seems to depend, rather, on the meanings of the words making up the sentence.