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Meaning of life philosophy essay
Philosophy of life
Meaning of life philosophy essay
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When reading over both Ayer and Nagel pieces addressing the meaning of life it was clear to see some similarity’s and some differences in-between the two. As I was addressing the question of what is the meaning of life, I would argue that saying there is a meaning of life is bizarre. I would argue that there is no real cause and effect on life, if the action didn’t affect anyone in the first place there is no reason it will affect anyone later in life. A question that could be made up to better understand the answer would be, “what do we mean when we say life is absurd and how can we change that?”
Thomas Nagel’s whole article spoke about life being absurd, which is basically the same thing as bizarre or meaningless. Absurdity is also very similar to irony in the sense that a moment in your mind plays out differently in life. In Nagel’s article a focus of his is, what we think of life being absurd. To
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However, there are three possible solutions that Nagel mentioned could take the absurdity away from us. Them being having a surgery, trying to reach a higher level or committing suicide (Nagel doesn’t recommend this option however). To go back to the point of there being no real cause and effect to life, this idea would go hand in hand with Nagel’s thought of after time we will all be dead and something won’t matter. Although by Nagel this would be considered a bad reason I would defiantly agree with this because in 1000 years’ time our small actions of mistakes that we make will not be remembered. If one were to take 50 people and them a questioner to fill out in regarded to how they see life, each and everyone would come back different. Everyone is unique in the world meaning each of them would have a different idea of what life means. But if I had to pick one adjective to best described the meaning of life I would agree with Thomas Nagel and go with
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.
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."
... things that one intentionally sets out to achieve or obtain. Life is not an ultimate value, but yet a basic value. The conclusion can then be drawn that while life must exist for value to exist, the purpose in living is not the continuation of physical biological mechanisms. The purpose in living then becomes the way in which one lives and achieves one’s values. In essence, the purpose in life becomes the pursuit of values. The ultimate value of maximizing quantity of life should be balanced with maximizing quality of life.
Thomas Nagel’s discussion about death is very intriguing and contemplative. In trying to prod for answers, Nagel began his essay, by writing about common views of death held by different people. His main purpose of writing this paper is to incisively and contemplatively discuss if death is a bad or evil thing. Nagel discusses the some people’s thought about death being evil. They say this because it denies us of living “more life”. He noted that most people are of the view that life is good, despite the fact that some life experiences are unpleasant and tragic. He then adds that when these unpleasant experiences of life are set aside, life is positive, and not just simply "neutral" (10).
Before diving into the questions that arise with meaningfulness of life, it is helpful to examine two extreme views on the meaning of life, namely, the religious view and the pessimistic view. The religious view holds that life is meaningful because it is related to some transcendent purpose, which varies depending on religious affiliations. Take theistic religions for example, life is created by deity for
In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.” Frankl conveys his feelings toward the thought of people questioning what the meaning of life is. He comments that one should not question this, but realize that they are the ones being questioned on the topic. He wants the reader to understand that life itself challenges each person in life and they must answer by doing the tasks that are responsible and necessary. It seems that this topic is important to Frankl’s life. Also, it appears that he may have questioned what the meaning of life is and he realized how to answer that question correctly
Nagel suggests that Death can be the greatest of all losses or not be a great loss at all depending on the position we take. The deprivation of life would make it the greatest of all losses when he states, “on the one hand it can be said that life is all we have and the loss of it is the greatest loss we can sustain” (Nagel, 769). But Nagel shifts his position by also stating that “on the other hand it may be objected that death deprives this supposed loss of its subjects, and that if we realize that that is not an unimaginable condition…we will see that it can have no value whatever, positive or negative” (Nagel, 769). He suggests that if death is the end of a life, it would not be a great loss, but just the removal o...
Furthermore, one philosophy that could be rejected because of my view on the meaning of life was the view of life being the absurd. Looking at life as the absurd means that we have an awareness of existing in a meaningless or irrational world. Camus shows us that we have one side of humans who are trying to find the meaning of life and on the other side you have those who think life is meaningless. This means that if people find life meaningless per the view of the absurd that suicide becomes to loom as a solution. Once they point out that their life has no meaning and possibly have proven to themselves that they have no answers for any of life’s meaning, combined with the inability of human need to want to solve them, they would choose death
My few years on this planet have been a bit confusing. I have learned of many aspects of life from which one can draw meaning, if indeed such meaning can be drawn. I have also learned that there can be no singular meaning of life to stand for us all, or even any one of us. What I have learned above all is that trying to put words to the meaning of life is a task of absolute absurdity. This is not to be confused with the idea that life has no meaning, for life certainly has meaning. However, there is no single meaning of life to be defined - life is different for us all. Therefore, rather than define life for an entire planet, I shall try to explain what life means as I perceive it, and why it means so.
The meaning of life is a very confusing question but to be able to answer it you must realize that it differs for everyone. There is never only one real answer. Everyday it can change for each individual. Everyone has their own way of living; they have their own thoughts and beliefs so therefore each persons answer to the meaning of life will be their own private version.
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
To keep the absurd alive, you only have to live the absurd. Life will be more fully lived in so far as it has no meaning. is a quote from Camus that shows this. Camus shows that you can “hope” for the best without hope. The “Hope” is not the same as hope.
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.
Almost everyone wants to understand the meaning of the life, why we’re here and how we get here, what is the basis of existence of life on the planet Earth? But first we have to understand what life it is. For this we have to start from the beginning, Big Bang or almighty God. We need to clearly understand the initial stages of life weather it starts from Adam and Eve or a single cell formation, to reach the current state, meaning changed in the great length. More and more people often say life has no meaning. But then there is some distinct differences made between two reasons: Life had clear meaning given us by God, as a story goes, it was about worshiping him. Then science changed the altered it entirely that life emerged random chemicals, gasses and it states that for all living organism the meaning of life is survival, passing down the genetic materials. Life does have substantial meaning, simultaneously they both holding truth value, even if they both seem pointless. As a
What life means to me? I have two thoughts about it, the first is that when we consciously faced the world, we slowly grew up with our family.We rarely meet difficulties and dangers because our families protect us very well.During this period, life means growth for us. We need to learn some skills, whether it is life skills or people-to-people skills. We get the knowledge we need from family, friends and even books.We don't need to make a living. All we need to do is to make ourselves strong and prepare for life alone. The second thought of the meaning of life is that when we become an adult, We began to have the right to autonomy and choice in our lives. Life gives us countless choices. What we need to do is to exercise these multiple choice questions cautiously under conditions that we can survive in the world.In these short decades, we have worked hard for life most of the time. Many times we forget to think about the meaning of life. While time flies quickly, many people have not even thought about it and become old.So don’t stop the pace