Diminishing Fervour

Losing interest in something is a strange experience. Recently, for example, I have been struggling to maintain interest at work. There have been other things too, and I suspect they are related. It happens slowly, but it's interesting how you can have a progression from something which really motivated and excited you, to finding that same thing an indifferent pleasure at best.

What is it that happens inside someone's head when they find their interest on the decline. Ignoring things like depression or stress as underlying psychological problems, it still seems well within a person's natural thought processes. I think that this phenomena is a powerful piece of evidence from introspection into human nature.

It is an example of, Heidegger's idea of thrown-ness. That is to say we find ourselves thrown into the world in a particular state of mind, without having particularly much control or understanding of it.

There is no simple effort of will which can bring back the enjoyment of an activity, nor make us happy, nor sad. Of course there are some things we can do to improve ourselves, but what those things are need to be identified and studied. They are not apparent to us. Disclosing what will make us happy, or motivated, or whatever is one of the tasks of philosophy or psychology, and would make rich ground for further study. It is interesting that few philosophers take very seriously the connection between happiness and philosophical correctness, even those who rank philosophy as being a very important thing.

In so far as my position goes, I am barracking for Plato's position that an unexamined life is not worth living. Nonetheless, my examinations have not as yet revealed to me the fundamental nature of my own changing motivations. Perhaps it does all boil down to evolution, but even so, that is not a functional analysis of great use.

Oh well... Perhaps I will work it out tomorrow.