Regret is usually defined as an emotion experienced by humans when they are unhappy with events that are beyond their control. This paper deals with man's ability to control his feelings of regret. Because of the complexity and irrationality of the human brain people often experience feelings of regret whether or not the situation they are regretting is beyond their control. Hence it is only proper that for the scope of this paper regret is defined as the feeling evoked by regret, regardless of what causes it.
Humans have the ability to put regret to extremely good use, but more often than not regret is allowed to brood and fester, causing endless trouble. Regret is a powerful emotion that is encountered by people when they dislike the way that events are turning out, but don't feel that they can control the situation. As such regret is the ultimate concession to futility. Personal power is the most important personality trait to have in that it is more likely than any other single factor to bring happiness into its possessor's reach.
Henry Link emphasizes that "Personal security comes from habits and beliefs which make [a person] self-reliant under almost any circumstances." The ability to control regret and redirect its energy toward productive ends is an important habit that will immediately make a person more self-reliant. Control over oneself is in itself a form of happiness in that freedom from doubt and anxiety will make anyone's life more livable.
A sound tenet of stoic philosophy is that one cannot experience the pleasures and rewards of external influences without leaving oneself open to the pain caused by the unpredictability of those same influences. However, complete freedom from external influences is very difficult to achieve and is likely to have a detrimental effect on one's ability to function in ordered society. The solution? Rational thought must be invoked in order to be able to accept that external influences do have the ability to affect people, while at the same time having the strength to limit the scope of the effects of regret and to be able to turn negative experiences into positive ones.
[...] Most everyone has probably experienced some degree of misplaced regret at one time or another, be it something as petty as a shopper regretting that they alerted the check out clerk in a store that he had forgotten to ring in an item, or something as serious as a stock broker regretting that he turned down an offer for insider trading information. At first glance it appears that misplaced regret deserves no special attention. After all it is just regret, regardless of what it says about the moral character of the regretted. [...]
[...] Link, The Way to Security (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1951) [2]Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The House of Life 101, The One Hope, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993) [3]John Carroll, Guilt: The grey eminence behind character, history and culture (Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985) [4]Associated Press, "Pilot has no regrets about dropping bomb," The Daily Free Press April [5]Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary by G.&C. Merriam Company (G.&C. Merriam Company, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1967), p [6]Janet Landman, Regret: The Persistence of the Possible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993) [7]Fathers and Sons, by Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992). [...]
[...] An important part of freeing oneself from regret is being able to redirect or dismiss one's destructive emotions by understanding that they are futile and by channeling the energy of the emotion in a more productive direction. That this is even possible is hard for some people to believe, others practice some form of this in their everyday lives and as such can't help but believe that it is possible. Ben Kimpel in Stoic Moral Philosophies: Their Counsel for Today talks about "conditions or circumstances [that] would completely impair human well-being if" no one were to do "what could be done to cope with them in a way that is beneficial to human life." He continues on the same subject saying that Epictitus claims that it is desirable for a person to do whatever he can to "reduce [these circumstances] adverse effects upon human life." Mr. [...]
[...] Henry Link emphasizes that "Personal security comes from habits and beliefs which make person] self-reliant under almost any circumstances."[1] The ability to control regret and redirect its energy toward productive ends is an important habit that will immediately make a person more self-reliant. Control over oneself is in itself a form of happiness in that freedom from doubt and anxiety will make anyone's life more livable. A sound tenet of stoic philosophy is that one cannot experience the pleasures and rewards of external influences without leaving oneself open to the pain caused by the unpredictability of those same influences. [...]
[...] Diametrically opposed to the American culture with respect to attitudes towards regret is the tradition of Taoism. Taoism teaches that a person who acts in accordance with the Tao will always act in the best possible manner for each given circumstance. If a person always acts rightly what do they have to regret? Accepting Taoist principles may be one path to power and happiness. Furthermore, once the Tao is achieved it may be easier to live and more effective than an intellectual stoicism. [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
