Anticipatory arousal activates the positive affect parts of the brain more than goal achievement. Motivation is better than alleviation!
How do we go about achieving a rich philosophy?
Descartes started by discussing what things could we know fundamentally and figured out that the only thing he could be sure of was that he was. Skipping ahead a few centuries in epistemology we find ourselves in an existential loop trying to find meaning within ourselves. Regardless of whether you are an unrelenting realist or a pragmatist, we must accept that what we perceive is the starting point of all interpretations of reality. If we are willing to forgo the dizzying logical loops of solipsism, we accept that there is a real world outside of ourselves and it is impacted by things outside ourselves. "This is the world we live in" (Alcazar) and we must (re)act to it.
Therefore, our philosophy should properly describe reality and prescribe a standard of behavior in this reality. Without accuracy in our description of reality our behavior is without context. Without a standard of behavior our reality is without meaning. Meaning is subsumed by all manner of inquiry by the question, is meaning important? In pure mathematics, meaning is mutually exclusive from the formula, however consciousness begs for meaning. It is ubiquitous to the human experience.
This short discourse is meant to resolve the problem of a poor philosophy, but not to recommend any solutions.
