The question “What is a Meaningful Life?” is very complex and every person has a different answer for it. For some it is just plain being well off in life and others it is being surrounded by those they love. The ideas I have towards the meaning of life could be totally separate from the ideas of another. With that thought process I wanted to see the perspective of someone of an older generation that being my mother Teresa. A little back ground her is that as of this year she will be 42, she grew up moving a lot never really settling, and finally she was raised a Christian but later converted to Islam. What I heard from her really opened my eyes, I saw that she had ideas similar to mine and ideas that were the polar opposite. I found that …show more content…
My mother at the age of 17 ended up leaving home and going into the world without a purpose and no direction she told me that is why purpose is the biggest factor for her because until she found her purpose in life she had no meaning. The second thing is god my mother being raised in a strict Catholic house hold and having it forced upon her lead to her resenting religion until she found Islam. She stated that without some sort of belief system no matter what it is a human cannot have some type of overall meaning, what is done here on earth will all become meaningless without something to follow. My mother also put a heavy emphasis on community or what she called “family” she believes that blood does not make family that everyone who is close to you is family, my mother grew up with loose connections with her blood family everyone split or fighting so she created her own family of those she cared about the most. She found meaning in taking care of these people, and eventually came to the ideology that one has to take care of those who are close to them and give everything they can to making their life better and in the process making …show more content…
At first people look at these questions like what does it mean to live a meaningful like and look down upon it thinking it is a stupid and simple question, I know I did. But when you take a second and look closer at these questions they are a lot more complex then they look. They don’t have a “correct” answer and every single person will answer it differently. Just that part alone is enough to make it very interesting the fact that even my mother who I receive a lot of my views from will have very different answers to these questions is mind blowing. Through sitting down and thinking about it I have gained a whole new level of respect for these questions like this and have gained a new way to view
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.
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.
"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.
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,
Life is not merely something that we experience outwardly. It can be an awakening to imagination, emotion, and true virtue. As we experience feelings in the way Puddleglum lived, believing in something so profound and so realistic that no apathy or emptiness could ever dissuade him, we can learn to live a life worth continuing. Keeping our eyes on that which is not fleeting or passing away, we can learn to feel more and with purpose. As 1 John 2:17 declares, “And the world is passing away with all its desires, but the person who does the will of God remains
For majority of life I’ve gone through the motions and have done as I have been told to do. Naïve and ignorant to how amazing life really is and refusing to question how things work or what my true purpose is other then surviving. For centuries there have been numerous philosophers to question what our purpose is and have developed different theories to help us get as close as we possibly can to finding the meaning of life. One thing I’ve learned since opening my eyes to the reality of the world is that in our lifetime the closest thing we will have is theories and ideas but we will never know the true meaning of life.
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. Everyone wants to find their meaning in life but its not something that you can search for. Some think that making money to support a family or being successful will make your life meaningful. But why can’t you just enjoy your life and let the meaning
Many individuals wonder what is the meaning of life, and if the life that they are living has some sort of meaning to it. Before determining what the meaning of life is one has to know what the meaning of meaning is. Meaning has to do with how a word represents something or communicates something. Life is not the kind of thing that that can just represent or communicate, and so it doesn’t make sense to ask about the meaning of life, but what if the question to ask about the meaning of life does have an answer? Most things have a clear definition, but is life that simple to have a definition that all individuals will accept?
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
With all aspects of relating the meaning of life to ones personal setting, one can find themselves still with more questions then answers. This is one aspect all discussed situations have in common. We may have found a true meaning, but it always becomes questionable as to if the right decisions were made and the right paths taken base on the outcomes that follow. Although one may never find themselves with a true understanding for the biggest ‘why’ question of them all, the pursuit is always life changing. Life has, for most, always been a choice of free will, to do with what you please. Some choose to embrace this fact and pursue meaning never once imagined, and some choose the more comfortable, yet unsatisfying one of someone already travelled.
Human life is full of meaning. As humans, we assign value to many things. However, what happens when we assign a specific value to a human life? This is the issue being presented in the article, “What is a Life Worth,” by Amanda Ripley. The government is determining a monetary value to a human life, and it does not appeal to the masses. There are many problems with the cold calculation, and most people cannot see the other side of the numbers. The economic value of a human life is calculated based on the income the person was receiving, but when the check is given to a loved one of a small amount, the compensation is misinterpreted as an overall value of the human life. The true value of a human life should not be combined with the monetary value that is determined by the government, or the value of life would be worth very little.
Explain the six propositions of this theory and give your opinion of each proposition and for the theory in general.
Daisy Grewal, who holds a BA in psychology from UCLA and PhD in social psychology from Yale University, put an article on scientificamerican on February 18, 2014 —“A happy life may not be a meaningful life.” This essay points out that happiness and meaning do not always go together.
Everyone 's goal in life is to make sure they live a meaningful life, it 's what makes people motivated and how they rate themselves. We all run into this quandary which has challenged philosophers, scientists, and a numerous amount of other people. ‘How do we live a full and meaningful life?’ No one has entirely figured out how to live a meaningful life, but there are several key points researchers have found that help people find their meaning and satisfaction in life. We need to know what 's important to us, pursue our passion, discover our life 's purpose, spend more on people than things, express ourselves and have courage, prioritize human connection with others, and know meaning and happiness
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.