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. Taylor starts his argument off with analogies and similes to represent …show more content…
Wampole talks about society today being very ironic, I agree. In my everyday life I see how this is implemented. It ties in very well with Taylors argument as well. Being sincere in life is meaningful, but many people don’t follow these standards because it makes people vulnerable to getting judged. Meaningfulness comes from being genuine and being yourself. Without using your own thought, people are becoming unimaginative and having less creative thoughts. To be meaningful you must be creative, as Taylor has mentioned. Being ironic isn’t allowing people to be who they really are and what they actually think. Having thoughts controlled but something else is very meaningless. “Moving away from the ironic involves saying what you mean, meaning what you say and considering seriousness and forthrightness as expressive possibilities, despite the inherent risks” (Wampole 1). Wampole gives an example of todays technology being apart of the meaningless society. In order to live a meaningful life, you must live it sincerely. Moving away from being ironic helps create your own purpose without doing something molded by judgment. As Taylors says, in order to have a meaningful life it must be “and finally, it must be our own rather than just something imbibed” (Taylor 835). To me, this is a very relevant topic when talking about the meaning of life. Not living the way, you want due to others opinions is the most meaningless way that someone can live in my
Richard Taylor, an American philosopher and author of, “The Meaning of Life” believes you can live a meaningful life as long as you realize your will and are completely involved in it and enjoy it, then you are no longer needed and your life was a successful one. “This is surely the way to look at all of life- at one’s own life, and each day and moment it contains; of the life of a nation; of the species; of the life of the world; and of everything that breathes” (Taylor p 27). He proves this through the ancient myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus was sentenced by the Gods to spend an eternity rolling a stone repeatedly to the top of a hill and once it reached the top, it would roll right back down once again. Taylor calls Sisyphus’ life as an “endless pointlessness.” Taylor relates human life to Sisyphus’ life. He believes that both of our lives can have meaning. Taylor asks us to look at Sisyphus’ story in a different way. For example, while the Gods sentenced him to rolling this stone up a hill for an eternity, what if they gave him a “strange and irrational impulse” to roll the stone repeatedly. Now, according to Richard Taylor, Sisyphus’ life would now have meaning and if we were to be as invested as Sisyphus in rolling the stone, then our lives have meaning as well.
: In reading How to Be an Undividual, it is clear that the author David Koloff is a full-fledged nonconformist, although, believes in the natural order of finding yourself; even if it involves being an intentional conformist in the beginning. He quickly lets the reader know his stance on conformity in the first paragraph, that illustrates the isolated feeling that children feel as they’re thrown from institution to institution as they grow up. However, how is Koloff himself a conformist? Well, Koloff is obviously a very successful writer. He seems to follow a trend in one of the aspects of his writing. Koloff uses satire, wit and irony as devises. Although, considering he was inspired to write this piece because of the conformity he sees in
"The Logic of Stupid Poor People" is the idea of purchasing high dollar items to make them feel like they are a part of the higher class. Tressie McMillan Cottom, the author of this blog post, feels that most of the lower class is stupid because they make bad financial decisions. In Cottom's essay, she discusses how she grew up with a family that was poor and it was difficult to "make ends meet"; moreover, helping others. Cottom's thesis says, "If you are poor, why do you spend money on useless luxuries rather than trying to survive". The argument that she is trying to get across is that the more responsible way to spend your money could be towards the next electric bill, groceries, or even into the bank in case of an emergency. Cottom mentions that her mother used to spend her money on clothing and accessories for herself as "investments", but it was for her mother's way to show others that she has extra cash to blow, even though she does not. Cottom has the evidence from her own personal experiences; ways that her family made money was taking advantage of welfare, collecting from insurance policies, and extra military payments. The author is making a point why the act of spending
Like salt and pepper to beef, irony adds “flavor” to some of the greatest works of literature. No matter if readers look at old pieces of work like Romeo and Juliet or more modern novels like To Kill a Mockingbird, irony’s presence serve as the soul fuel that pushes stories forward. By definition, irony occurs when writers of books, plays, or movies destine for one event or choice to occur when the audiences expects the opposite; like Tom Robinson being found guilty after all evidences point other ways in To Kill a Mockingbird. These unique plot twists add mystery and enjoyability to hundreds of books. From the very beginning of The Chosen, a novel written by Chaim Potok, to the very end, irony’s presences does not leave the reader at any
People push being happy on society as a total must in life; sadness is not an option. However, the research that has conducted to the study of happiness speaks otherwise. In this essay Sharon Begley's article "Happiness: Enough Already" critiques and analyzes societies need to be happy and the motivational affects it has on life. Begley believes that individuals do not always have to be happy, and being sad is okay and even good for us. She brings in the research of other professionals to build her claim that extreme constant happiness is not good for people. I strongly agree that we need to experience sadness to build motivation in life and character all around.
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.
"Usually, the quest for the meaning finds expression in a commitment to action, and in one's personal relationships. The building up of a professional career, for example, demands that we identify an activity that suits us and in which we can flourish, and that we settle on a goal and objectives to be achieved. The same can be true of our personal relationships: if we decide to have a family and raise children, we organize our lives in accordance with this decision, and our family life gives meaning to our existence." (Lenoir 30)
"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.
Susan Wolf, born in 1952, is widely considered one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th and 21st century. One of Wolf’s most renowned works is The meanings of Lives, which drew a lot of attention in the philosophical world for a number of questions that arose from it. Arguably her most widely debated and questioned assertion in The meanings of Lives is “If you care about yourself you’re living as if you’re the center of the universe, which is false.” This however I don’t not believe to be true. Every human being, no matter how successful or unsuccessful, has the right to care for them sleeves and not believe they are the center of the universe while doing so.
There are many themes that occur and can be interpreted differently throughout the novel. The three main themes that stand out most are healing, communication, and relationships.
For thousands of years, humanity has searched for meaning in their lives, it is one of the strongest aspects that connects us, to our ancestors across history. Now, I want you all to think for a moment, what gives your life meaning? It could be anything such as educating others, fighting for social justice, exploring new cultures, or your religion. Whatever it is, no one could fault you for wanting your life to have meaning; a sense of meaning, is something everyones wants, or maybe even needs. As countries throughout the world are becoming increasingly secular, more and more individuals are looking towards spirituality,
In general, the discrepancy between appearances and reality is ironic. Irony is encountered throughout our daily activities and comes in many forms; verbal, situational. and the cosmic. Verbal irony is the most familiar kind, this occurs when we understand that.
In the article “What makes us moral” by Jeffrey Kluger, he describes how morality is defined and how the people follow rules. Kluger discusses about scientific research that has been done to point out the important reasons of morality. Kluger explains that a person’s decision to do something good or bad is based on empathy, that humans tend not to do bad to those they sympathize with. Kluger also compares humans with animals and thinks that morality is the only thing that separates us from animals. I do agree with Kluger that people are born with a sense of right and wrong, but we should be taught how to use it. We learned to be nicer to those around us because we already know the type of person they are, and the morality we learned as children
Nevertheless ,we just appreciate life The meaning of life is finding the meaning of life and meanwhile live the life enjoying everything you do, if you don 't like something just change it. Trial and error.if i can do it all time I do little time then it will be easy to do it because when I know what meaning of life puts me in power place in life if I know meaning of life I so Know should have high position because I knew what my captives because I like the job that I worked on it and it was interesting that helps me to make design in difficult. people should make contrast between difficult things and easy things meaning of life-like travel you should know what are going to travel you have to search and find a comfortable seat in the plant meaning dream what abilities what ideas in shudder what he did accomplish the people Being stratification about yourself for what have that a diomed of life things the money is the most important things that find meaning of life and this
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.