Overall, they justify their behavior simply by saying they have the right to happiness. Even though Lewis presented them very badly in his story, I’m not in a position to judge others’ actions. However, I’m not totally convinced that these are the people to leave their spouses. So no matter where they go, they may still find the same situation. Because that is life, and life can change any time.
Being on the right path in his lifetime would ensure he would not spend eternity in such a miserable place. I believe the whole purpose of this journey into hell was to let Dante see the anguish there and choose. Perhaps this was a divine warning. In Canto 2, Beatrice, the symbol of Divine Love, an angelic spirit was sent to help aid Dante from his error and help him return back. This is purely love and compassion at its best.
The greatest comfort that people may have is knowing that there is no higher form of happiness, and by refusing to pursue it, they acquire a deeper understanding and contentment of themselves. Happiness cannot be eternally defined, because the idea of what happiness is would change with the ideas of people. It may not be possible to ever truly understand what happiness really is, or if there is some higher form of happiness. If there is a higher idea of happiness, then this is what all people are striving for, but failing because it is impossible to reach the idea of happiness, just the representation of the idea of happiness. Whether or not happiness can be achieved or pursued, it is the attempt to understand more about happiness that brings the idea of happiness closer to possibility.
Why does it matter if you have a meaningful life or a meaningless life? Why can’t we just be happy, enjoy our life and accept who we are? Classifying ourselfs for having a meaningful life or a meaningless life does not solve any problem and causes confusion and frustration. You will never be happy if all you do is search for what your meaning in life contains and you will never live if all you do is search for the answer because the answer that you are looking for is not easily found. You cannot find the answer to what makes a life meaningful or meaningless because it is something that truly does not matter.
Happiness, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder. If you ask anyone, what is their ultimate goal in life; the majority may say it is to find happiness. This may appear to be simple enough, yet it seems to be quite complex and elusive to most. This pursuit is seldom, if ever, achieved in one’s lifetime. While it is difficult to answer the question as to whether it is selfish to pursue happiness for oneself, it would be practical to say that it is not.
This type of philosophy is based on the Endowment Thesis that states “Nothing has meaning unless it is endowed with meaning (purpose, value, or importance) by an intelligent agent” but Morris challenges that thesis by applying it to the overall phenomenon of our lives. He suggests that we can not apply this do birth, suffering, death and other features of his life because he cannot endow something he does not have control over. An extended example he uses is how he could not choose factors that shaped his personality and his life. He speaks of how he could not choose what neighborhood he grew up in. That he has not selection over teachers that would influence him and the people he would meet are beyond his control.
Otherwise, our lives may become meaningless. I believe the meaning of life is to find what is true to you using your own personal experiences and philosophies. Without reason, there is no meaning. Living a meaningless life would be depressing, difficult and dangerous. Nihilists believe life has no meaning because life does not have cosmic significance.
In The Matrix, Neo does not believe in the concept of fate, as he believes he is in control of his own life. In contrast, if one is not capable of changing their own fate, then the search for an authentic or meaningful life could remain fruitless. The fruitless search for a meaningful life is an alternate image of how Neo would have failed as the One to save his comrades if he had not come to believe in his capability of changing the prophecy that he was not actually the One. If one’s fate is not to find the meaning of life, then they most likely never will. This could be the reason for the fantasy life Žižek details, as the meaning of life could be manifested as a desire, only to be found through the comprehension of fantasy (Žižek
However, Evans and Manis suggest there are beings in this world that are unaware of how they came to exist. These beings are often contingent on another being. Th... ... middle of paper ... ...were made to always do what is right then free will would truly not exist. It is evident that McCloskey’s arguments in an attempt to disprove the existence of God lacks evidence. He disputes the existence of God based on a lack of undisputable evidence, but he provides no undisputable evidence to counter this existence.
The flaw within his argument lies in his premise that we are not responsible for who we are in any given respect. He has already dismissed the need for determinism, and as such, has dismissed the thought of spontaneous action. Spontaneous action is neither predicted nor caused, but purely a matter of chance or random behavior. I will assume that there are only two categories of our actions: spontaneous and predetermined or deterministic. In either case, we do not have free will and hence should not be held morally responsible for our actions.