”I see many people die because they judge that life is not worth living. I see others paradoxically killed for the ideas and illusions that give them a reason for living. I therefore conclude that the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions”
-Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus French existentialist author & philosopher
The Meaning of Life
What is life? Why do we live? Almost everyone will question themselves at some point in their lives about their meaning or purpose in life. For some, life without meaning is equivalent to death, that is if life has no meaning, why bother living when eventually, you know you are going to die?
Over the years, philosophers have been preoccupied with finding an answer to the meaning of life. I shall focus on three major philosophical views in my essay – Theism, Nihilism and Existentialism. I will also discuss my personal opinions on the meaning of life.
Theism is the belief, in one or more gods as the creator(s) and ruler(s) of the universe, without rejection of revelation. Some examples of theism include religions like Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Islam. In Theism, it is believed that God, an omnipotent and omniscient entity, gives meaning to man, his creation. God is the creator of the universe and has control over our destiny in life. Believers of theism require strong faith. For example, in Christianity, no one has ever seen God before and people can only rely on the bible and other testaments as proof of God’s existence.
Another important aspect of Theism is that there is existence of a spiritual and physical world. We are currently in the physical world, when we die, we will transcend to the spiritual world and live our afterlife. In most religions, there is a concept of heaven and hell whereby those who do good deeds will proceed to heaven whilst those who commit evil will go to hell when they die. This view satisfied the question of the meaning of life as people who believe in this, have a purpose, that is to do as what God wills them to do, and to go to heaven. In other words, Theism is the belief in an afterlife where one shall find eternal satisfaction.
Nihilism, founded by Friedrich Nietzsche who lived in the 19th century, is the view that there is no God or afterlife. He believed that people should live their lives fully in the world, and figure out how best to live their lives in a Godless, meaningless world. Nietzsche believed that one should create his own individual values as there are no definite values put in place by some higher order in life. In a meaningless world, one would be happy and find fulfillment in the creation of his values, reaching his full potential and reach the status of a “superman”. Therefore, Nihilism is about creating one’s own values and achieving one’s full potential in life in a meaningless world.
Likewise, Existentialism is similar to Nihilism as it “claims that individual human beings create the meanings and essence of their own lives.”[1] Existentialism is founded by Martin Heidegger, an influential 20th century philosopher, who latched onto Nihilism. In Existentialism, the individual is the unique and creates his own meaning in life as he is free to do as he chooses. In Existentialism, “existence precedes essence”[2], one provides the answer to the meaning of his own life.
Theism is the view that a supreme higher order gives meaning to our lives. Nihilism is the view that life has no meaning and we should just live whichever way we want our lives to be. Existentialism is the view that life has meaning and we create the meaning of our lives.
I do not subscribe to Theism even though I once believed in God. Somehow, I think that the idea of an afterlife is a way people use to delude themselves about the meaning of their lives. I think that it is the refusal to believe life ceases the moment one dies that leads to the concept of an afterlife. As I delved more, I think that believing in a higher entity and afterlife is just an avenue for not realizing the truth that there is no life beyond death.
I also do not subscribe to Nihilism either as I believe life has a meaning. If life had no meaning in the first place, how did the human race advanced so far? I believe that it is because of life that we are here, doing the things we want to do. According to the nihilistic view, life has no purpose either. However, if life has no purpose, why are we still living when life is the same as death?
I seem to frequently question myself, is life a job? When we grow up from young, we all have responsibilities to fulfill. As a child, I am to study well. As an adult, I am to earn money to support my family. As a parent, I have to take care of my children and make sure they do not learn the wrong values. At any stage in our life, we always have responsibilities to fulfill and work to do. Why are we going through all these stages in life for? Sometimes, I wish I could just abandon all my responsibilities and just quit the long job of life, staying at home and relaxing. However, this will not work. Despite the suffering that we have to go through in our lives, it is the overcoming of our difficulties that bring us happiness. We are not just living our lives for ourselves, but for the sake of others as well.
I feel that we should live life to the fullest. I do not think that spending time praying to God is a good use of time. Imagine if a person who is very devoted spends one to two hours of his time every day on his religion, it will accumulate up to days in a year that that person has spent when he could be using those time to do other worthwhile things. I suppose it’s a way of viewing which things are important in our lives. I feel that we have only one life and there is no such thing as an afterlife. We should not spend time trying to delude ourselves that there is a life beyond death that is eternal. I remember a popular saying, “One life, live it!” and I think that this shows how important life is and that we should treasure it. It then comes to the question of what is considered living life to the fullest? I think life should be a balance of duties and enjoyment. Only in this way can we satisfy both ourselves and the people around us. Living our lives for the people around us and ourselves are interconnected as seeing the people around us happy would bring happiness to ourselves too. For example, the sole breadwinner of a family has been retrenched and is contemplating suicide. However, for the sake of his family, he cannot even though he feels his life is not worth living anymore. As time goes on, if he does find another job to support his family, he will have happiness as he fulfills his responsibility to his family. Therefore, I think that living for others is the same as living for ourselves.
I think that enjoyment is a form of rewarding ourselves for fulfilling our responsibilities to others. I often find that completing a job that others are relying on me to do provides more satisfaction than enjoying sensual pleasures. I often hear others say how much they feel like not working and just staying at home to relax. However, when they retire, they starter saying how much they feel like doing something meaningful in their lives. True enjoyment can only be found when we fulfill our duties to others as it is equivalent to fulfilling them for ourselves.
In conclusion, I think life should be lived to the fullest. We live not just for ourselves but for others as well. Different people have different interpretations of their ideal life and there is no fixed set of values that we should follow. Everyone starts their life when they are born and it is up to them to get the most out of it and make their lives meaningful. Thus, I feel it is up to us to decide what our ideal life is and find our own meaning of life. I believe in Existentialism as I think our actions are responsible for what we turn out to be and what our meaning of life is. In my opinion, we provide the meaning to our own lives.
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I may sound brutal, but that's because I thought you hadn't submitted the paper yet. Then I reread your intro and now I think you might have already submitted it. So keep in mind that the following comments were written as if you still had the opportunity to correct your paper.
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You shouldn't capitalize theism, nihilism, or existentialism.
This:
>> In Theism, it is believed that God, an omnipotent and omniscient entity, gives meaning to man, his creation.
should be more like this:
>> In theism, it is believed that one or more gods, powerful and mysterious entities, give meaning to man through direct or indirect interaction.
This:
>> For example, in Christianity, no one has ever seen God before and people can only rely on the bible and other testaments as proof of God’s existence.
should be more like this:
>> For example, in Christianity, no one today has directly seen God and people can only rely on apparent religious experience, the Bible and other testaments as evidence of God’s existence.
You describe theism as intrinsically bound to a belief in the afterlife, and that's not the case ("In other words, Theism is the belief in an afterlife where one shall find eternal satisfaction."). Even if that were true, you also describe it as intrinsically bound to a belief in multiple afterlife states (heaven/hell), which is also not the case. You should have used more nuanced descriptions here ("In many cases," "In several theistic religions," etc.).
Nihilism wasn't founded by Nietzsche.
1. Nihilism isn't a systemic foundation.
2. He didn't popularize the term.
3. He wasn't the first to use the term.
Nihilism wasn't founded by Nietzsche.
1. Nihilism isn't a systemic foundation.
2. He didn't popularize the term.
3. He wasn't the first to use the term.
4. He may not even be a proper nihilist.
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Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
In other words, Theism is the belief in an afterlife where one shall find eternal satisfaction.
Not really, those two things can be exclusive.
extremestan adequately addresses the other points in the theism section, so I might as well address the nihilism and existentialism sections.
Nietzsche believed that one should create his own individual values as there are no definite values put in place by some higher order in life.
As unconventional as they may be, I'm pretty sure that he believed in some sort of universal value system in regards to human behavior, otherwise he wouldn't have criticized the Church so heavily.
I do not subscribe to Theism even though I once believed in God. Somehow, I think that the idea
of an afterlife is a way people use to delude themselves about the meaning of their lives. I think that it is the refusal to believe life ceases the moment one dies that leads to the concept of an afterlife. As I delved more, I think that believing in a higher entity and afterlife is just an avenue for not realizing the truth that there is no life beyond death.
A little redundant, and also, deals with only one aspect of theism.
I also do not subscribe to Nihilism either as I believe life has a meaning. If life had no meaning in the first place, how did the human race advanced so far? I believe that it is because of life that we are here, doing the things we want to do. According to the nihilistic view, life has no purpose either. However, if life has no purpose, why are we still living when life is the same as death?
but didn't you just say that existence precedes essence?
I have a lot of issues with the paper, but most of them can be summed up with this one question:
What is the difference between saying "life has no objective meaning; meaning is just something we instinctually ascribe to our lives" and "life doesn't have some sort of meaning set in stone; people need to create their own meaning for life" besides a difference of mood?
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Originally Posted by Green Arrow Yes I did, I wouldn't fully disagree with chronoplasam. Perhaps I do deserve toture. But who amongst us besides myself has what it takes to toture me?
Originally Posted by Highroller
Compared to what? I think compared to chocolate ice cream, women, unicorns, and kung fu, the state pretty much sucks.
It kind of follows naturally, but quoting Wikipedia is a no-no. If you're looking for resources, try internet philosophy encyclopedias, like the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. For example, this is their article on Sartre.
Also, be careful about how you word things, as you seem to suggest that Nihilism and Existentialism are very similar in concept, when in reality, they're similar more in origin than ideas (as you establish).
It kind of follows naturally, but quoting Wikipedia is a no-no.
Truth.
Even if your teacher/professor is enamored with the idea of Web 2.0 and user-submitted content and all that jazz and lets you use Wikipedia, you really shouldn't.
I did this for a school essay project.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
”I see many people die because they judge that life is not worth living. I see others paradoxically killed for the ideas and illusions that give them a reason for living. I therefore conclude that the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions”
-Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
French existentialist author & philosopher
What is life? Why do we live? Almost everyone will question themselves at some point in their lives about their meaning or purpose in life. For some, life without meaning is equivalent to death, that is if life has no meaning, why bother living when eventually, you know you are going to die?
Over the years, philosophers have been preoccupied with finding an answer to the meaning of life. I shall focus on three major philosophical views in my essay – Theism, Nihilism and Existentialism. I will also discuss my personal opinions on the meaning of life.
Theism is the belief, in one or more gods as the creator(s) and ruler(s) of the universe, without rejection of revelation. Some examples of theism include religions like Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Islam. In Theism, it is believed that God, an omnipotent and omniscient entity, gives meaning to man, his creation. God is the creator of the universe and has control over our destiny in life. Believers of theism require strong faith. For example, in Christianity, no one has ever seen God before and people can only rely on the bible and other testaments as proof of God’s existence.
Another important aspect of Theism is that there is existence of a spiritual and physical world. We are currently in the physical world, when we die, we will transcend to the spiritual world and live our afterlife. In most religions, there is a concept of heaven and hell whereby those who do good deeds will proceed to heaven whilst those who commit evil will go to hell when they die. This view satisfied the question of the meaning of life as people who believe in this, have a purpose, that is to do as what God wills them to do, and to go to heaven. In other words, Theism is the belief in an afterlife where one shall find eternal satisfaction.
Nihilism, founded by Friedrich Nietzsche who lived in the 19th century, is the view that there is no God or afterlife. He believed that people should live their lives fully in the world, and figure out how best to live their lives in a Godless, meaningless world. Nietzsche believed that one should create his own individual values as there are no definite values put in place by some higher order in life. In a meaningless world, one would be happy and find fulfillment in the creation of his values, reaching his full potential and reach the status of a “superman”. Therefore, Nihilism is about creating one’s own values and achieving one’s full potential in life in a meaningless world.
Likewise, Existentialism is similar to Nihilism as it “claims that individual human beings create the meanings and essence of their own lives.”[1] Existentialism is founded by Martin Heidegger, an influential 20th century philosopher, who latched onto Nihilism. In Existentialism, the individual is the unique and creates his own meaning in life as he is free to do as he chooses. In Existentialism, “existence precedes essence”[2], one provides the answer to the meaning of his own life.
Theism is the view that a supreme higher order gives meaning to our lives. Nihilism is the view that life has no meaning and we should just live whichever way we want our lives to be. Existentialism is the view that life has meaning and we create the meaning of our lives.
I do not subscribe to Theism even though I once believed in God. Somehow, I think that the idea of an afterlife is a way people use to delude themselves about the meaning of their lives. I think that it is the refusal to believe life ceases the moment one dies that leads to the concept of an afterlife. As I delved more, I think that believing in a higher entity and afterlife is just an avenue for not realizing the truth that there is no life beyond death.
I also do not subscribe to Nihilism either as I believe life has a meaning. If life had no meaning in the first place, how did the human race advanced so far? I believe that it is because of life that we are here, doing the things we want to do. According to the nihilistic view, life has no purpose either. However, if life has no purpose, why are we still living when life is the same as death?
I seem to frequently question myself, is life a job? When we grow up from young, we all have responsibilities to fulfill. As a child, I am to study well. As an adult, I am to earn money to support my family. As a parent, I have to take care of my children and make sure they do not learn the wrong values. At any stage in our life, we always have responsibilities to fulfill and work to do. Why are we going through all these stages in life for? Sometimes, I wish I could just abandon all my responsibilities and just quit the long job of life, staying at home and relaxing. However, this will not work. Despite the suffering that we have to go through in our lives, it is the overcoming of our difficulties that bring us happiness. We are not just living our lives for ourselves, but for the sake of others as well.
I feel that we should live life to the fullest. I do not think that spending time praying to God is a good use of time. Imagine if a person who is very devoted spends one to two hours of his time every day on his religion, it will accumulate up to days in a year that that person has spent when he could be using those time to do other worthwhile things. I suppose it’s a way of viewing which things are important in our lives. I feel that we have only one life and there is no such thing as an afterlife. We should not spend time trying to delude ourselves that there is a life beyond death that is eternal. I remember a popular saying, “One life, live it!” and I think that this shows how important life is and that we should treasure it. It then comes to the question of what is considered living life to the fullest? I think life should be a balance of duties and enjoyment. Only in this way can we satisfy both ourselves and the people around us. Living our lives for the people around us and ourselves are interconnected as seeing the people around us happy would bring happiness to ourselves too. For example, the sole breadwinner of a family has been retrenched and is contemplating suicide. However, for the sake of his family, he cannot even though he feels his life is not worth living anymore. As time goes on, if he does find another job to support his family, he will have happiness as he fulfills his responsibility to his family. Therefore, I think that living for others is the same as living for ourselves.
I think that enjoyment is a form of rewarding ourselves for fulfilling our responsibilities to others. I often find that completing a job that others are relying on me to do provides more satisfaction than enjoying sensual pleasures. I often hear others say how much they feel like not working and just staying at home to relax. However, when they retire, they starter saying how much they feel like doing something meaningful in their lives. True enjoyment can only be found when we fulfill our duties to others as it is equivalent to fulfilling them for ourselves.
In conclusion, I think life should be lived to the fullest. We live not just for ourselves but for others as well. Different people have different interpretations of their ideal life and there is no fixed set of values that we should follow. Everyone starts their life when they are born and it is up to them to get the most out of it and make their lives meaningful. Thus, I feel it is up to us to decide what our ideal life is and find our own meaning of life. I believe in Existentialism as I think our actions are responsible for what we turn out to be and what our meaning of life is. In my opinion, we provide the meaning to our own lives.
1404 words
Bibliography
1. http://members.bellatlantic.net/~samg2/sysiphus.html
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_of_life
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilism
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism
6. http://www.fpcjackson.org/resources/sermons/Worldviews 2004/3b_existent.htm
7. http://www.dictionary.com
8. Nausea by Jean Sartre
9. www.friesian.com/existent.htm
10. www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/sartreol.htm
11. www.geocities.com/worldview_3/theism.html
12. www.infidels.org/library/modern/jeff_lowder/kurtz-craig.html
13. http://www.counterbalance.net/theogloss/theism-body.html
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism
[2]Jean-Paul Sartre
Any comments?
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You shouldn't capitalize theism, nihilism, or existentialism.
This:
>> In Theism, it is believed that God, an omnipotent and omniscient entity, gives meaning to man, his creation.
should be more like this:
>> In theism, it is believed that one or more gods, powerful and mysterious entities, give meaning to man through direct or indirect interaction.
This:
>> For example, in Christianity, no one has ever seen God before and people can only rely on the bible and other testaments as proof of God’s existence.
should be more like this:
>> For example, in Christianity, no one today has directly seen God and people can only rely on apparent religious experience, the Bible and other testaments as evidence of God’s existence.
You describe theism as intrinsically bound to a belief in the afterlife, and that's not the case ("In other words, Theism is the belief in an afterlife where one shall find eternal satisfaction."). Even if that were true, you also describe it as intrinsically bound to a belief in multiple afterlife states (heaven/hell), which is also not the case. You should have used more nuanced descriptions here ("In many cases," "In several theistic religions," etc.).
Nihilism wasn't founded by Nietzsche.
1. Nihilism isn't a systemic foundation.
2. He didn't popularize the term.
3. He wasn't the first to use the term.
4. He may not even be a proper nihilist.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
Not really, those two things can be exclusive.
extremestan adequately addresses the other points in the theism section, so I might as well address the nihilism and existentialism sections.
As unconventional as they may be, I'm pretty sure that he believed in some sort of universal value system in regards to human behavior, otherwise he wouldn't have criticized the Church so heavily.
I do not subscribe to Theism even though I once believed in God. Somehow, I think that the idea
A little redundant, and also, deals with only one aspect of theism.
but didn't you just say that existence precedes essence?
I have a lot of issues with the paper, but most of them can be summed up with this one question:
What is the difference between saying "life has no objective meaning; meaning is just something we instinctually ascribe to our lives" and "life doesn't have some sort of meaning set in stone; people need to create their own meaning for life" besides a difference of mood?
now begins the thousand years of REIGN OF BLOOD!
Also, be careful about how you word things, as you seem to suggest that Nihilism and Existentialism are very similar in concept, when in reality, they're similar more in origin than ideas (as you establish).
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Truth.
Even if your teacher/professor is enamored with the idea of Web 2.0 and user-submitted content and all that jazz and lets you use Wikipedia, you really shouldn't.