Every spring I find pleasure in the floral profusions in various open spaces via foot or bicycle with my photographic phone in my pocket. On my many viewing trips I have noticed two related but very different types of pleasure. What I will call the primary pleasure is simply enjoying the beautiful colors and forms. Another quite different, secondary pleasure is the self-satisfaction of capturing a complete set of their photographs. The problem, if you will call it that, is that the latter sometimes overshadows the former because I am more focused on my effort of photographing as many different varieties as possible than on enjoying the beauty of each. My mitigation is that I frequently, consciously, stop, after taking my photographs, to notice the delicate constructions and colorations of the individual blossoms and also the whole gestalt of their proliferation in the local landscape.
This article is appearing under the heading of Philosophical Audiophilia. Possibly indeed I am a strange loop because I so thoroughly enjoy working my way through Douglas Hofstadter’s I Am a Strange Loop [1]. His forward posits that “virtually every thought in this book (or in any book) is an analogy, as it involves recognizing something as being a variety of something else.” Immersed in this milieu, I recognized an analogy between my two types of enjoyment of flowers and two types of enjoyment I have as an audiophile.
For me, the primary pleasure of audiophilia is actually rather broad and multidimensional, as is its object: music. I often wonder why I enjoy melody so much and what it is about melodies that makes them pleasurable to me. However, regardless of the reasons, I enjoy hearing melodies even if they are just in plainsong. Recognizing polyphony, the composers’ weaving of harmonious but possibly different melodies, adds to my pleasure and benefits from my conscious effort to notice what is going on in the composition. From there, I am able to perceive, recognize and enjoy the conscious, nuanced efforts of the performers to elucidate the composition. So, the primary pleasure that I am separating out here is enjoyment of the music itself in its multitude of dimensions.
A secondary and quite different pleasure is derived from improving the fidelity of my setup. Phonograph setups are actually quite complex and just knowing that you have realized Baerwald’s [2] ideals can be rewarding. However, beyond that, realizing that manufacturers have not been holding up their end of the bargain because they can produce, e.g. five-figure phonograph cartridges with improperly aligned styli, one can take real pleasure in optimizing one’s own setup to compensate for their shortcomings. Just like one can take pleasure in finishing a crossword puzzle. Pride of ownership is a closely related pleasure, e.g., having picked the right components in the right combination. 'Speaker placement. 'Tweaks like application of ferrites and other improvements to power delivery. 'Component support. 'Cables. Cable support! 'Contact cleanliness. 'Media cleanliness... The list of where we can take pleasure in the pride of our having done something goes on, and on, and on… Thus, I am denoting as secondary the pleasure from maximizing fidelity in opposition to the primary pleasure of hearing the music.
These two domains of pleasure, while quite different, are clearly reciprocally related. As I improve my setup, I am more able to hear subtle dimensions of the compositions and performances. I.e., the secondary helps enable the primary. Once I realize there are more subtleties to the compositions and their nuanced performances, I have access to more criteria to use in improving the fidelity of my setup. I.e., the primary helps enable the secondary.
This observation is parallel to, but different than, those made by Jancee Dunn in the New York Times article "An Ancient Key to Happiness" [3] writing "It turns out that happiness can be grouped into two main categories, and the concept goes back to ancient Greece. One kind is called eudaemonic well-being, which you might think of as having meaning and purpose in your life. The other is called hedonic well-being, which means feeling pleasure and avoiding pain." Happiness and pleasure are not quite the same thing, but are closely related. Pleasure is one avenue to happiness. Dunn's analysis of happiness in terms of eudaemonic and hedonic is from a different point of view than that of the primary and secondary pleasures discussed here. Their relation is analogous (again!) to that of the Cartesian system of coordinates in terms of X and Y bases and the polar system of coordinates in terms of radius and angle bases: both systems fully describe the whole "space" (on a plane, in this case) but in terms of different bases. However, Dunn's bottom line that "Both [bases] are important in order to thrive" is applicable to both systems.
I have found it beneficial to consciously balance my awareness and effort in (at least) two domains, for both flowers and music. Thus, in this final rather strange loop, I will add to the considerations of music and flowers the consideration of self by adding to this blog the words of Hofstadter, “It is this ‘I’, a coherent collection of desires and beliefs, that sets everything in motion” where I am taking his “desires” to include "wanting things that give me pleasure".
- Hofstadter, Douglas R. (2007). I am a strange loop, ISBN-13: 978-0-465-03079-8.
- Baerwald, H. G., "Analytic Treatment of Tracking Error and Notes on Pick Up Design," J. Soc. Mot. Pic. Engrs., 37:591, Dec., 1941.
- Dunn, Jancee. How to Achieve the Two Types of Happiness - The New York Times, Published May 2, 2025Updated May 5, 2025.