To this post I have collected some various opinions about the meaning of life that I received due to my last post. They are from my friends and apparently are quite deep thinkers :).
THE VIEWS:
General purpose of living is to get pleasure while treating nature and other people (and species) as good as I would want them to treat me.
In other words, to live in harmony with environment and tend to get pleasure. This requires practical skills/ academic education/ experience & wisdom.
(1) Only getting pleasure won't make me happy. Because only getting pleasure I stop appreciating it.
(2) Only getting wisdom, knowledge, practical skills working hard day by day also isn't the right way to live, to happiness. Body wants to get awarded for its effort.
-----------
Human beings are not subject to any given end(purpose/mission), we serve our own purposes and are free to live any life we choose. An external purpose would debase us to mere instruments for whatever presses the purpose upon us.
Don't get me wrong. Precisely because we are free(self-serving) and accountable for our own deeds, we are capable of virtue and love, which I think are what being a human being is about.
Put it in a nutshell: you don't need any meaning if you serve your own purpose.
In fact, if you begin to wonder what's the point of all of this, it's a pretty good indication that you are serving an external purpose instead of an internal one, you are living somebody else's life instead of your own.
MORE ACCURATELY:
Virtue is the intrinsic good. "if you need a reason to be good, you haven't yet understood what is good (Immanuel Kant)".
I agree with the Ancient Greeks: we are gods trapped in mortality. In spite of being pressed by physical needs and suffering from various physical limitations, we share with gods the capacity of virtue. "What would Jesus do?" is a good motto, even for non-Christians.
In platonic sense (since I'm talking Greek), love is the recognition and appreciation of the "divinity"(virtues) manifested by a person. But love can mean more than that.
-----------
For a long time the meaning of life is to meet with new and different people and to see different places and replace the good way of lives or positive aspects of their character to myself. I want to see different thinkings so that I can find the one which I'm the happiest with it.
-----------
END OF VIEWS
So here we have them. What do YOU think?
Have a relaxing day!
-Junnu
Tilaa:
Lähetä kommentteja (Atom)
Tekstit
I'm drawing mostly on a deontological ground. But utilitarianism/hedonism are not to be dismissed all together, we are not gods after all and consequentialist values must be counted in.
VastaaPoistaOne has every right to be selfish, forcing people against their self-interest is not only immoral but actually impossible: they in response just adds coercion into the calculation of their self-interest.
The initiation of force never brings any good, because it only affects action, not intention, in most cases it turns one's intention even further away from the desired direction. Good can only be achieved voluntarily.
I realized it's not directly related to your topic :P
I read these two topics and somethings popped in to my mind...thought i would share them with you. Just a food for a thought.
VastaaPoistaAt first the thing that really stuck out was this classification into two way of living life.. I mean of course people can be divided by their action roughly, but i wouldn´t say it has something to do with "meaning of life". I dont know the meaning of life exceopt that i fell it is supposed to move forward = "breed", which then would refer to this man and woman thing. Anyway if one looks "life" from the objective point of view i would think that people need to do their own thing. (Which obviously requires one to find their own thing(s))
I think this sums up part of this topic
Quoted:
"In fact, if you begin to wonder what's the point of all of this, it's a pretty good indication that you are serving an external purpose instead of an internal one, you are living somebody else's life instead of your own."
So in a way when someone comes to me and somehow refers to the problem of life, I usually try to convince them not to think it like one big mystery (Because I dont think anyone can answer that), but instead of many small choices that will inevitably route one to a certain way.
Another quote:
"For a long time the meaning of life is to meet with new and different people and to see different places and replace the good way of lives or positive aspects of their character to myself. I want to see different thinkings so that I can find the one which I'm the happiest with it."
I like this above mentioned interpretation, i would use a saying: "Self development/evolution" (in finnish itsensä kehittäminen) dont know which would be a better word. Meaning that one can (and must) develop oneself in every way. Then this will allow meet new people in progress and lead ones way to a result that can be liked and satisfied every day.
Sorry for the long writing. Anyway not saying that someone wrote something is wrong. Just taking part in to a conversation...cause i like deep conversations. I would like to remind that I myself tend to forget to enjoy the present day and complain about things that are not even important.
Who might you be, my dear friend? :)
VastaaPoistaOf small choices.. I just yesterday finished watching a movie called Mr. Nobody. It was very..thought-provoking and I recommend it warmly for ppl thinking what small things ultimately decide our path in life.
Self-development, as I see it, is yes one of the most important aspects of existing. That's the way one learns to understand oneself and this way become honest to the world by reflecting the trueness within oneself everywhere.