A fellow philosopher once told me "Expectations are the only thing that will ever lead us to any kind of disappointment. Without any expectations there’s no comparison to how things are and and so there can be no way to conceive something that is better." To which I replied to him, "I agree and disagree with you."
I disagree because I believe there is nothing we haven't already conceived. Aristotle believed that there is nothing in the mind that does not first come in from the external world. If humans don’t have anything to compare our lives to why do I crave to discover something better than this life.
If what my friend believed was true does that lead us to the conclusion that we have lived different lives and therefore have something to compare this one to?