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In “Meaning of Life”, Richard Taylor begins with questioning the meaning of life. He mentions this is rather hard to do and decides to define what meaninglessness is in order to understand the exact opposite: meaningfulness. Taylor asks the reader to recall the famous myth of Sisyphus to come about the definition of meaninglessness. He states that Sisyphus was condemned to roll a large boulder up a hill, only to have that boulder roll back down the hill, forcing him to repeat the task forever. Despite all his efforts, his existence amounts to nothing more than endlessly repeating the same task, which itself contributes to no greater goal or purpose. This, Taylor suggests, is the very image of meaninglessness. He defines meaninglessness as the following: “Meaninglessness is essentially endless pointlessness, and meaningfulness is therefore the opposite” (270). Taylor is careful to identify exactly which features of Sisyphus predicament account for the lack of meaning. He argues that the facts that Sisyphus task is both difficult and endless are irrelevant to its meaninglessness. What explains the meaninglessness of Sisyphus’s life is that all of his work amounts to nothing. One way that Sisyphus’s life could have meaning, Taylor proposes, is if something was produced of his struggles. For example, if the stone that he rolls were used to create something that would last forever then Sisyphus would have a meaningful life. Another separate way in which meaning might be made present is if Sisyphus had a strong compulsion for rolling the stone up the hill. Taylor points out, though, that even given this last option, Sisyphus’s life has not acquired an objectives meaning of life; there is still nothing gained besides the fact he just ... ... middle of paper ... ...y people have relied upon and benefited from his existence. Therefore, George lacked a sense of meaning in his life even though numerous people perceived his life as meaningful. Again, I believe Taylor is missing some important feature to his theory. It seems he is correct in stating one should have their own sense of meaning to their life not just others’ perception that one’s life is meaningful. However, there is still the problem of giving equal meaning to everyone life that is doing what they love to do. As a result, to answer this problem one could suggest in order for one to have a meaningful life a person must be subjectively fulfilled by pursuing objectively valuable ends. This way it ensures the person must find meaning in their own lives as well as creating something that benefits many that will give others the perception the person has a meaningful life.
In Christy Wampole’s “How to Live Without Irony” and Richard Taylor’s “The Meaning of Human Existence” both authors argue how humans ought to live a meaningful life. Wampole tackles the argument in a different way than Taylor but they both have similar positions on the meaning. I agree with both authors in some of the ways that we should dictate our lives to justify meaningfulness but I also believe that meaningfulness can differ from person to person. Life is very precious to us; since humans have had the ability to consciously think, we have always questioning our existence. No other animal on the planet has had the luxury of pondering whether or not their life is meaningful.
Escher’s Moebius Ring With Ants and the Greek Myth of Sisyphus both share the same theme: the meaning of life or the “futility and greatness of human existence“. In Camus’ tale, Sisyphus was sentenced to an eternity of rolling a rock uphill just for the weight of the rock to pull it back down. This redundant task was symbolic to Sisyphus’ many attempts to return back to earth. No matter how many times Sisyphus was forced back to the underworld, he relentlessly came up with a plan to escape again. Sisyphus’ “images of earth [clung] too tightly to memory” and caused him to be oblivious to his surroundings. Not in the sense that Sisyphus was unaware of where he was but in the sense that his “objective perspective” became more important and apparent
The meaning of life is to find the meaning of life. Is it not? We all go through each day trying to figure out which road out the infinite amount of paths will lead us in a better direction where happiness is prominent and society is flawless. However, not every single human being is going to fit on that narrow, one-lane highway to success. Bad choices, accidents, fate, family matters, society, temptation, anger, rage, addiction, and loss of hope can all be deciding factors in opting to choose that wrong path to self-destruction. The adverse thing is, once you've traveled so far down the road, you get so discouraged that you feel like you can never turn back or make up for the "lost time."
On p. 53 of the Myth of Sisyphus, Camus maintains that "[life] will be lived all the better if it has no meaning". Explain what you think Camus means by this claim by discussing it in light of relevant aspects of his broader philosophy.
The question of life's meaning is not simply an exercise in intellectual curiosity; it arises when life is seen as a problem, and it is one that it is imperative to solve. For example, Albert Camus, in his `The Myth of Sisyphus', sees the question as linked closely to the problem of suicide: Why commit suicide? Why not, if life has no meaning?
In The Myth of Sisyphus Camus establishes the epistemology on which he bases all his works. Ant it's a very simple epistemology. He says: "This heart within me I feel and I judge that I exist. This world I can touch and likewise judge that it exists. There ends all my knowledge and the rest is construction. Between the certainty I have of my existence and the content I try to give to that assurance the gap will never be filled." So for Camus one finds that life has value but no meaning. Meaning implies some sort of goal, some teleological approach, and, for Camus, there is no goal. Life is not a pilgrimage, death is not an open door, but it is a closed and blank wall which functions finally, of course, to force us to concentrate on life.
"People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive...." Joseph Campbell made this comment on the search for meaning common to every man's life. His statement implies that what we seem bent on finding is that higher spark for which we would all be willing to live or die; we look for some key equation through which we might tie all of the experiences of our life and feel the satisfaction of action toward a goal, rather than the emptiness which sometimes consumes the activities of our existence. He states, however, that we will never find some great pure meaning behind everything, because there is none. What there is to be found, however, is the life itself. We seek to find meaning so that emptiness will not pervade our every thought, our every deed, with the coldness of reality as the unemotional eye chooses to see it. Without color, without joy, without future, reality untouched by hope is an icy thing to view; we have no desire to see it that way. We forget, however, that the higher meaning might be found in existence itself. The joy of life and the experience of living are what make up true meaning, as the swirl of atoms guided by chaotic chance in which we find our existence has no meaning outside itself.
Burdens are bore by people within their everyday lives, and within even the simplest of lifestyles. The example made by Albert Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus uses Sisyphus to exemplify how life can be empty for some and viewed as futile and while this presents challenges, it is what one does with the difficulty that results in what the quality of life may be. Within this depiction, Camus presents the concept of absurdity, which can be viewed as a part of the essence in human existence and should be taken as a challenge to be continued. Sisyphus, although repeating an endless retribution, finds the ability to look past this punishment and forward towards a “silent joy” that allows him to live in an uncertain state. In defining the interest, which
Camus establishes in his argument that life is meaningless. He believes that people following the same regiment repeatedly for years will eventually ask themselves the point of this endless behavior. For Camus, there are two ways to approach this dilemma. People can either just ignore the thought continuing on the usual path, or they can encounter the definitive
The Myth of Sisyphus is the most revealing commentary on Albert Camus’ reasoning. Defining the absurd as arising from the meeting of two elements: the absence of meaning in the natural world, and mankind’s inherent desire to seek out meaning. The author projects his philosophy of devoid from religious belief and middle-class morality through an unremarkable protagonist throughout the novel. Sisyphus, an absurd hero due to embracing his ludicrous task and chooses to find meaning in rolling a huge stone uphill only to have it to roll back to be pushed up the hill. The face of the Absurd feels that the world becomes strange and inhuman. No longer recognizing the beauty in nature but instead, views the world for what it is – strange and incoherent.
Does life ever seem pointless and discouraging? In Albert Camus’s “The Myth of Sisyphus,” Camus describes the correlation between Sisyphus’s fate and the human condition. In the selection, everyday is the same for Sisyphus. Sisyphus is condemned to rolling a rock up a mountain for eternity. Camus’s “The Myth of Sisyphus” forces one to contemplate Sisyphus’s fate, how it relates to the human condition, and how it makes the writer feel about her part in life.
“What is the meaning of life?” This question is something that likely everyone has at least pondered. There is an abundance of theories about what the meaning of life is. Non- philosophers tend to consider it to be life’s greatest question. Philosophers, however, tend to stray from the question, as they believe that it is either not a clear enough question to be answered, or that it simply does not have an answer at all (Seachris). The meaning of life is different for everyone. Everyone has both a specific and a general purpose in life, given to them at the beginning of time by God, and the meaning of life is to fulfill those purposes. The specific purpose is personalized to each individual, and each person is liable to have multiple specific
When it comes to the meaning of life for Martin analyzes The Problem of the Meaning of Life vs. The Problems of Life. He distinguishes that there are three different barriers that challenge the meaning of life, which are death, bad times, and philosophical doubts. The problem of the meaning of life is just the life long question of whether or not our lives have any meaning to them. It brings up other speculations such as what is out there beyond my understanding or if there is even a higher power that wants me to serve a certain purpose. Since we are still searching for the answer to The Problem of the Meaning of Life we then try and solve The Problem of Life. The Problem of Life consist of questions about whether or not we are living our life in a way we believe is worth living. Both important questions but Martin is unfortunately stuck since he will never know the answer to The Problem to the Meaning of Life. In Martin’s pursuit to find the answer to The Problem of Life he begins by saying that if one is able to live one’s life so that it is worth living, as possible one will have meaning in one’s life. Martin believed that we could determine meaning in one’s life simply if one is doing something one
The tale doesn’t start off well, Sisyphus and his brother Salmoneus fight for their father’s throne, and when Salmoneus wins, Sisyphus is exiled. This left Sisyphus to harbor some deep family hatred. Yearning for power Sisyphus crosses the gods, and Zeus punishes him thusly, for he was condemned to the arduous task of ceaselessly rolling a rock up a mountain where the stone was to fall back every time he was close to reaching the top. However, each time he is near the top “he is superior to his fate” and “He is stronger than his rock.”. Even though he is doomed to eternal failure, Sisyphus didn’t view it as such. Every time he moved that stone an inch further up that mountain, he felt it was a slap in the face to the gods. A “Ha! I’ve made it this far!” moment. For “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”. Though Sisyphus is not a real man, I still believe this to be a great example of human perseverance. After all, sometimes all you need is a little
Human life is absurd and there is no universal meaning, but humanity suffers from this inevitable fact so they try to find meaning through various created purposes to feel significant in their life. The absurdity of life is one of the biggest issues of philosophy because of the consequences it can cause in peoples lives. As human beings we desire purpose, meaning and order in life. Without the content of a meaningful life we feel lost and strive to find something that gives us meaning. We are all suffering from this unattainable goal to find a meaningful life. Albert Camus and Thomas Nagel agree with the fact that life is absurd but disagree on the right approach to life after realizing that life is without meaning.