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Are comparisons and expectations necessary in our life? Not in the scientific sense, where comparisons of data from various sources are important, and expecting a certain result which turns out to be totally different is always a possibility. But in the sense of living a good life, where these factors can lead to disharmony, conflicts, and disagreement, leading to breaking of relationships etc.

Are we really entitled— from a philosophical standpoint— to compare and expect, or is it a general rule to "Expect Nothing" and "Compare No one"?

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    I struggle to give an answer. As intelligent beings how can we have no expectations or make no comparisons? We need not judge but we must discriminate, and try as I might I go on expecting the sun to rise tomorrow. . ,
    – user20253
    Commented Dec 22, 2017 at 13:41
  • @Suddhasattwa Ghosh. You have an answer to your question.
    – Geoffrey Thomas ♦
    Commented Jan 14, 2018 at 0:45

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Try a thought experiment. Imagine what your life would be like if it were informed by no comparisons and no expectations. No expectations : a sugar cube might turn into an ice cube. A dropped plate might rise to the ceiling rather than drop to the floor or might remain suspended in space in the exact position in which it slipped from your hand.

You could not compare the size of a table with the size of a car, because comparisons have been eliminated. Nor the size of your clothes with the size of your body. Nor the size of your body with the aperture of a letter box. The experiences of Alice in Wonderland would hardly bear - excuse the word - comparison.

In practical terms life would be unrecognisably different from your present or past experience. The future would be an absolute unknown since no inference from comparison or expectation could provide even the limited use it now has.

I like your question. I have answered with light examples but only to make the serious point that, whatever Hume may have said with urbane and devastating philosophical scepticism about expectation and comparison, he never advised us to abandon either in everyday life. Sensibly enough, I think.

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