What is the purpose of nostalgia?

[hypatia]

Do you remember the good ole' days before nostalgia?

Garth

Yes Garth, I do.

 

[svastikajla]

I see your point and agree with you, although we'd have to know the purpose of nostalgia to determine whether it was a neccessity or advantage, if it is resultant of evolution. I believe the strong, confident language used (must, have, etc) in the argument for it being a result of evolution prompted me to use neccessity over advantage.

I think it's a flawed approach to even speak of 'purpose' when debating evolutionary progression. The traits gained don't really have a 'purpose' to a specific goal. They simply get there by randomness and if the individual that has them gets more children than others, then they persist. They don't really have a 'purpose' to work for a certain goal. A lot of traits we have are also simply by-products of other traits that only in the modern society begin to surface. Like the fact that our teeth rot away without dental care before we turn ten, one can imagine that cavemen had no dental care, this is because this is due to our recent habit of sugar-overconsumption because we tend to like things sweet, even though it's advised against to eat it?

The answer is that sweet stuff used to be hard to come by and the brain works on it, having über-strøng teeth when we evolved would result into less offspring because it costs energy which was costly.

As a last cryptic note, ask yourself why a lot of people with a chronic chemical depression have said the feeling is akin to nostalgia and in no small terms is it known that 'cured' people often express a strange ambivalent state of the desire to go back to the feeling they describe as unbearable but also strangely beautiful and nostalgic?

 

[Loren Booda]

For us to forget how bad things really were.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I see your point and agree with you, although we'd have to know the purpose of nostalgia to determine whether it was a neccessity or advantage, if it is resultant of evolution. I believe the strong, confident language used (must, have, etc) in the argument for it being a result of evolution prompted me to use neccessity over advantage.

Clearly you're more conversant with the subject and terminology than me. Is there ever a case where a trait is properly spoken of as an "evolutionary necessity"?

 

[Brilliant!]

That's it! From this point forward, I'm referring to human traits as "evolutionary coincidences", and there is nothing anyone can do to stop me!

MuahahahahahahahahHAHAHAHAHAHA.

 

[Redbelly98]

That's it! From this point forward, I'm referring to human traits as "evolutionary coincidences", and there is nothing anyone can do to stop me!

Why, that's . . .

 

[Brilliant!]

That's exactly the way I was hoping people would hear my name in their head.