The idea that pleasure is merely the absence of pain makes half-sense, but not completely. For example, I don't believe for a second that people desire sex because it eases suffering.
I think of pleasure / suffering as adaptations that help us survive and procreate. I wrote that I thought the philosophers of old did not really understand human nature. I believe that in order to really understand it, you have to know our evolutionary history. When you do, you can start to explain why you may feel sorry for a starving child on your television or why we may become jealous when we see our partners with someone else. A lot of philosophy on topics like morale or social politics, without this knowledge at it's base, often seem to me like buildings without foundations.
I can only voice an opinion and I'll state again that to me, it seems like a lot of people are not being critical with what they believe in. As you know very well by now, I believe in a lot of science .. But one of the things about science is that you don't have to accept everything it says. The scientific "truth" emerges from questioning everything and that includes already established scientific ideas.
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