In dealing with the matter of the meaning of life, Richard Taylor does not really go ahead and give a clear example of what he thinks makes a meaningful life, instead he suggests us to think of an example case of a meaningless life. He fixes on the example of Sisyphus, sentenced to push a large boulder up a hill for the rest of time. Each time he go to the top, the boulder would roll back down and his task would begin again. This stands out and a very meaninglessness life. Taylor then suggests ways that could make the life of Sisyphus meaningful. In this way Taylor will show the conditions that are perfect for meaning. Applying this process, Taylor says that only giving Sisyphus’s actions an objectively good or valuable end won’t magically …show more content…
In other words, that we give him a very large desire to roll boulders up a hill. This, Taylor says, will give the life of Sisyphus true meaning. It will give his life fulfillment and meaning to Sisyphus in a way that giving his actions some objectively valuable or desriable end will not. Susan Wolf tries to show the exact character of the motives and reasons that give meaning to our lives, she claims that meaningfulness is an attribute that cannot be lessened or included under either happiness or morality. According to modern philosophical accounts of meaning of life, personal happiness is the motivation on why people do or should act. Wolf rebukes these theories. Instead she provides sort of a wider understanding of what adds to the aspect of our lives. When meaning is seen as a third sort of value, our understanding of happiness and morality also changes. Susan Wolf claims that meaning comes from loving things that are worthy of love and interacting with them in a positive way. It includes both subjective and objective elements, suitably connected as it comes up when subjective appeal meets objective appeal. Moreover, a simple passive understanding and a positive attitude toward something’s value do not really bring out a meaningful life. In Wolf’s opinion, you have to actively engage with the worthy object of …show more content…
There is no real sense of accomplishment going on in playing this game, the player is not really part of anything huge, and this game does not necessarily deserve all the attention he pays it. According to Wolf this would make his life rather meaningless. In respect to Taylor’s views though his life can have meaning because he enjoys playing the game. It doesn’t matter if Carson gets the highest score possible in this game, because at some point the game is going to disappear and it will not matter what score there is, but if Carson truly enjoyed playing the game non-stop every day then his life will be seen as
In the Hero’s journey, The Odyssey, the main protagonist, Odysseus, changes in a way which helps him gain self-knowledge. Odysseus ' experiences transformed his personality from how he was in the beginning to the end, by leading him through a heroic journey, also known as a quest. The real reason for a quest never involves the stated reason, and this is no different with Odysseus. As the story developed, many of Odysseus’ sides were exposed through the challenges he faced. Out of the countless dangers and obstacles every step back home, him and his crew have only acquired minimal character changes. Even though they are minimal, they are those which take many decades to achieve.
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.
“Our life’s journey of self-discovery is not a straight-line rise from one level of consciousness to another. Instead, it is a series of steep climbs, and flat plateaus, then further climbs. Even though we all approach the journey from different directions, certain of the journey’s characteristics are common for all of us.” Author Stuart Wilde’s impression of journeys and their shared commonalities supports the claim that all journeys have a motive and an outcome. In the epic poem, The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus sets off to defeat Troy, leaving his wife and child behind. After accomplishing his goal, Odysseus faces many problems while trying to return him and his crew back home to Ithaca. Similar to Odysseus’s physical journey, the goal in
In the essay Why Happiness, Why Now? Sara Ahmed talks about how one’s goal in life is to find happiness. Ahmed begins her essay with skepticism and her disbeliefs in happiness. She shows her interest in how happiness is linked to a person’s life choices. Ahmed also tries to dig deeper, and instead of asking an unanswerable question, “what is Happiness?” she asks questions about the role of happiness in one’s life.
Reading the Odyssey, a reader will marvel at the wonderful feats Odysseus accomplishes. But behind all of these astounding adventures is the presence of the Gods of Olympus who either assist Odysseus in his journey to return to Ithaca or do their best to deter him from his mission. From the powerful gods of Mount Olympus to lesser-known gods, Odysseus seems to attract the attention of many powerful immortal beings. Odysseus is gifted with the ability to recognize the effect the gods have on his journey to get home, and thus, his life. It is said that Odysseus represents all people who live, because they are on their own journeys of life. The impact that the gods have on Odysseus’ life can be related to the effect religion has on people living in today’s world. The gods and goddesses of Odysseus’ time went out of their way to change his life. Whether Odysseus deserved this special attention or not, the truth is that Odysseus’ story would not be the epic it is without the presence of the Greek gods. Athena, Odysseus’ protector, Poseidon, who holds a grudge against Odysseus, and Calypso, who dearly loves Odysseus, each affect Odysseus’ life in such a way that without their presence, the Odyssey would not be the same.
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.
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).
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.
Such when Camus writes, “All Sisyphus’ silent joy is contained therein. His fate belongs to him.”, but also contends that “Likewise, the absurd man, when he contemplates his torment, silences all the idols.” Within these quotes, I find a distinction between the acceptance of fate and the acquisition of circumstance which in both cases of Sisyphus and the absurd man, contends a claim of conflict between what we want from the universe, whether this is meaning, order, or reasons, and what we find in the universe which tends to be the uncertainty that is distinguished by
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
On our journeys we all must resist, or give into, temptations that may hinder our ascent to our goal. All people give into temptation at least once in their lives. One time that Odysseus gave into temptation was when he listened to the Sirens’ songs. We don’t always collapse into temptation, like when Odysseus wanted so badly to kill the suitors but forced himself to wait for the right time. Another time Odysseus defied temptation was when he refused to reveal himself to the people but ceased expose himself until he felt it was the right time. Temptation is not the only thing to obstruct our expedition.
Camus believes that Sisyphus’s fortune is similar to human life. Through all the activities and events people do throughout life, simply nothing is accomplished in the end. Sisyphus is a direct ...
who achieve sense of meaning in their lives are happier than those who live from one pleasure to another.
Camus concludes, however, that like Oedipus, Sisyphus must feel that `all is well'. He has dictated his own fate, he has overcome the gods even in the throes of his punishment, and his entire existence is now focused on an exercise which, by its very futility, has become an end in itself and a demonstration of his own independence of awareness and consciousness. This is, he asserts, the only successful way of perceiving the human condition: to pass through the elements of unconscious absurdity, conscious tragedy and conscious absurdity, and finally arrive at the point where one understands that despite the punishments handed out by the gods, one can still retain the mastery of one's own fate, even while suffering those punishments.
...old age or barriers, he will always strive to fulfill his goals. The experiences of Odysseus and Ulysses are tributes to the power of the human spirit; one can achieve much if they are determined.