“The whole point of knowledge is to produce both meaning and purpose in our personal lives. To what extend do you agree with this statement?” To effectively answer that question, we must first differentiate between meaning and purpose in life and define knowledge. Firstly, knowledge is justified true belief (Organization, 2013). The meaning of life can be defined as the reason for the creation of one’s life, whereas the purpose of life can be defined as an individual’s mission during their life. One’s purpose and meaning in life may be mainly based on personal knowledge, the gained knowledge through experience and personal involvement (Organization, 2013). By examining the human sciences and religious knowledge systems, knowledge might …show more content…
The knowledge and belief that there is no immortality frees us from the fear of death, frees us from the fear of eternal punishment in places such as Hell or the Underworld and lets us live for the physical and emotional pleasures in life. For example, Epicureanism denies the existence of eternal life and states that the soul lives only as long as the physical body (Russell, 1946). Therefore, since there is no life after death, there is no need to fear death. Epicureans have a “carpe diem” approach to life since they do not believe in the afterlife and must live in the moment. Although they only believe there is no afterlife and do not know if it exists or not, they are still able to create meaning and purpose in their lives despite their lack of certainty of the existence of the afterlife, which is one way meaning and purpose in life can be determined but is not limited to it. Their purpose and meaning in life is to seize the day because they will not have the chance after death. This example shows that when we believe that something does not exist, but do not know whether or not it does or does not actually exist we can still have meaning and purpose in our personal lives. In the case of Epicureanism, it is more the lack of knowledge of the existence of the afterlife that motivates them to live in the moment, giving them purpose and meaning in their
Thus, Epicurus regards death as the end of our existence because we cannot feel anything after the death. But, it is not a bad thing as we cannot judge whether the end of our existence is good or bad because of the privation of sense experience. And, it is not rational to fear a not-bad thing. Hence, our fear of death is irrational.
“Accustom yourself to believe that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply awareness, and death is the privation of all awareness; therefore, a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life an unlimited time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality.” (p.103)
We leave you now with this final word: Seek to know all that you can, but seek mostly to know and understand yourselves. Self-knowledge is the most valuable knowledge to each of you. Be a soldier of the seeking of self-knowledge.
Terror management theory (TMT) asserts that human beings have natural tendency for self-preservation if there is threat to one’s well–being (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997). It notes that we are the cultural animals that pose self-awareness on the concept of past and future, as well as the understanding that one day we will die. We concern about our life and death but aware that it is unexpected by everything. The worse matter is that we become aware of our vulnerability and helplessness when facing death-related thoughts and ultimate demise (Pyszczynski & Greenberg, 1992). The inevitable death awareness or mortality salience provides a ground for experiencing the existential terror, which is the overwhelming concern of people’s mortality and existence. In order to avoid the continued existence of threats, people need faith in a relatively affirmative and plausive cultural worldview and meaning of life (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1995). Cultural worldview is a perceptual construction in the society which explaining the origins of life and the existence of afterlife. We have to invest a set of cultural worldviews by ourselves that are able to provide meaning, stability and order to our lives and to offer the promise of death transcendence (Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 2004). On the other hand, we hold a belief that one is living up to the standards of value prescribed by that worldview and social norm shared by a group of people. This belief is derived by self-esteem of individual. We maintain the perception and confident that we are fulfilling the cultural prescriptions for value in the society and are thus eligible for some form of personal immortality (Landau & Greenberg, 2006). We Together with the assump...
When we are alive we ought not fear death since we are not encountering it. When we kick the bucket, we ought not fear death, since we are dead, and we know no better. A definitive objective, he accepted, was a body that was not encountering torment, and a brain that was not consumed by fear and stress. Notwithstanding this, Epicurus trusted that sensation is imperative to enhanced happiness, and death itself is the suspension of sensation. Accordingly, it ought not engross
Due to the circumstance that the soul does not exist without the presence of the body to reside in, the soul will die along with the body. Since Epicurus says that this is true, he also is able to conclude that there is also no afterlife. By abiding by Epicurus’ optimistic out-look on the present life, people can have a sense of liberation. They can begin to devote themselves to developing the best life possible, discharging any fears of an afterlife, and as an end result, reaching the ultimate goal of happiness, which Epicurus describes as ataraxia.
People argue about the value of a human life almost everyday whether it be divided
Lonegran states that being human means having an unlimited number of questions regarding life and the universe; in order to answer these questions many turn to religion. Religion has traditionally been a major force in humanity’s search for meaning. Religi...
Religion is an organized collection of beliefs and cultural systems that entail the worship of a supernatural and metaphysical being. “Religion just like other belief systems, when held onto so much, can stop one from making significant progress in life”. Together with religion come traditions that provide the people with ways to tackle life’s complexities. A subscription to the school of thought of great scholars
In the book, The Meaning of Things, the authors say in the preface “The study that follows is an attempt to understand how and why people in contemporary urbanized America relate to things in their immediate environment. We wanted to examine the role of objects in people 's definition of who they are, of who they have been, and who they wish to become” (pg. x) Objects are what make us human, we create them and in return they teach us about ourselves, the world and they give us goals. The authors of The Meaning of Things explain to us how humans interact with items and why we interact with items. The authors in the text study families to see how they value their household objects and why.
The continuity of life is the tread of descents that connects all life- arguably- that all life comes from life itself. A succession of parts intimately united, the continuity of life provides answers to all organisms that are produced by their parents and how genetic information is transferred from parents to offspring through DNA via gametes. This DNA is responsible for genetic continuity.
The abstract idea of life cannot be explained by such simple ideas as being animated, breathing, or speaking. Ordinary machines in this century can perform all of these basic functions. The quandary with defining death is not as abstract and elusive as that of life. The problem of defining life and death has plagued philosophers and the religious bodies for thousands of years for one reason; each philosophy or religion has tried to define the meaning of life and death from only their certain perspective. The seemingly appropriate approach to this problem would be to understand the ideas presented in various philosophies and religions and through this knowledge create a new definition for each idea of life and death. The movie Blade Runner has taken this exact approach in its attempt to finally define life and death in a logical and un-spiritual manner. By taking the position that death is a concrete idea that can be explained, Blade Runner accomplishes the task of interpreting the idea of life in terms death. Through this approach, the meaning of life is redefined to accommodate for the existence of the replicants. Also, as a result of this novel notion of life, it is apparent that humans and replicants never actually live, even though they are alive.
What makes a meaningful life? It varies for each person as we are all very unique and different from one another. Even the definition of what is meaningful will vary as it may be making an imprint/significance in their lifetime or a happy life is enough to be meaningful. Though there is so much variation among the definition, there are some essentials that could relate across the board. The recipe to having a meaningful life may contain the ingredients of: happiness, fulfillment, authenticity, living more fully in the present and having a sense of purpose.
Existentialism is not a method but a vision, a perceptual resolution of the human world into raw essentials.
I have always been to asking myself what is meaning of life? or what I supposed to do ? or what I have to achieve? . Meaning of life what 's you have been given? what you have given by different kind of human? Or what I believe or what I do not believe in life .Everybody have Meaning of life it depends between person to person, I found myself when I was young because my parents always talk about experience in their life.Throughout my entire life ,I have wondered about the significance meaning of life that has beneficial for the people, because the life is beginning odds and ending odds .Even though struggle of life, I believe meaning of life are ,regional ,ambition, participate ,achievement ,and happiness .Due to this, I