Chapter 9 Does Life Have Meaning?

Name: Chapter 9 Does Life Have Meaning?
Uploaded: 2017-08-26T20:05:15+00:00
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Description: Chapter 9 Does Life Have Meaning?

Chapter 9 Does Life Have Meaning?
Ethics Chapter 9 Does Life Have Meaning?

Does Life Have Meaning? Tolstoy The traveler is fleeing a wild animal
To escape the traveler climbs down into a well As the traveler climbs downward, he becomes aware of a dragon at the bottom of the well ready to devour him He grabs onto a branch that supports him The branch, however is being undermined by mice

Does Life Have Meaning? Tolstoy
As the traveler is contemplating his end he looks up and notices some drops of honey hanging on the leaves of the branch so he sticks out his tongue and licks the leaves

Does Life Have Meaning? So What is Life?
The traveler is you and I and this is out plight in life. There is danger of our death everywhere Inevitably it will be over, and what will we have to show for it? Will the brief taste of honey be all we get out of life? Is this all there is to life? What gives life importance?

Does Life Have Meaning? The Good Brahmin by Voltaire The Brahmin
He was very learned, wise, and intelligent He was also very rich and lacked nothing The Old Woman She was a simpleton and narrow minded She was rather poor Who was more at peace with their life?

Stated that he wished he had never been born He didn’t know why he existed He became depressed when he thought of all the time he spent seeking and still didn’t know where he came from, where he was going or what he would become

Does Life Have Meaning? The Good Brahmin by Voltaire The Old Woman
Had never been troubled by these ???’s She didn’t ask these questions, nor understood that she might ask these questions Never in her life did she ponder the questions that tormented Brahmin She saw herself as the happiest woman

Tried to tell himself that he should be happy as the old woman, but wouldn’t want to be happy if it meant he had to be a simpleton like the old woman He also never found anyone who was willing to be a simpleton to be happy So he was back to the original question, “How to be happy”

Does Life Have Meaning? Hedonism by Epicurus
Epicureanism is a hedonistic theory wherein good is identified with pleasure and evil with pain Epicurus believed that the good life consisted in simple but deep pleasures and the absence of pain, in an attitude of calm emotional tranquility

We should seek pleasure in conversation, friendship, a good but simple diet, and a prudent life Only good and bad sensations should concern us Since death is not a sensation, we should not fear death

There is nothing terrible in not living Man does not fear death, because death is not painful when it comes Rather, man fears death because there is pain in the anticipation of death

The wise man neither seeks to escape life nor fears the cessation of life Life doesn’t offend him nor does the absence of life seem any evil He doesn’t seek the larger share, but rather the most pleasant He doesn’t seek to enjoy the longest period of time (life), but the most pleasant

The right understanding of these facts enables us to refer all choice and avoidance to the health of the body and the soul’s freedom from disturbance, since this is the aim of the life of blessedness To obtain this end we always act to avoid pain and fear In this way we fulfill the good of the soul and the good of the body

A greater pleasure comes to use when we have endured pains for a long time To grow accustom to a simple, not luxurious diet gives us health to the full, and makes a man alert for the needful employments of life Pleasures, such as freedom from pain in the body and from trouble in the mind

It is not continuous drinking and revellings, nor the satisfactions of lusts, nor the enjoyment of fish and other luxuries of the wealthy table But sober reasoning, searching out the motives for all choice and avoidance and banishing mere opinions to which are due the greatest disturbance of the spirit

When an individual understands that the limit of good things is easy to fulfill and easy to attain The individual understands that within us all lies the chief power in determining events

Is Epicureanism a shallow, gluttonous life of undifferentiated pleasure? Is it a “Pig Philosophy?” Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die! Should we not fear death, because it never really touches you?

Does Life Have Meaning? Life is Absurd by Camus
Camus‘s overall assessment is that life is absurd and meaningless The only important philosophical question is, why not commit suicide? Our only decision is, whether life is or is not worth living? Killing yourself amounts to confessing that life is too much for you or that you don’t understand it

Life is never easy, dying voluntarily implies that you have recognized the ridiculous character of that habit, the absence of any profound reason of living. The insane character of that daily agitation and the uselessness of suffering

Camus’s description of life Rising, streetcar, four hours in the office, lunch, four more hours of work This is our routine Monday thru Friday We follow this week after week, but one day we ask ourselves, “Why?” This questioning of the mechanical life awakes the individual to a recovery or suicide

Camus’s “Myth of Sisyphus” Sisyphus had offended the gods and the gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly roll a rock to the top of a mountain, then the stone would fall back down the mountain The gods thought that there was no greater punishment than futile and hopeless labor accomplishing nothing

Does Life Have Meaning? Religion Gives Meaning to Life by Walker
Some “Atheists” have argued that: Religion keeps humans from growing up We don’t need a big daddy in the sky What we need is to grow up and become our own parents

Atheists Tenants: It is more important to be free than to have a grand meaning or purpose to life Religion provides a grand meaning or purpose to life, but it does not allow humans to be free or autonomous

Atheists Tenants: “Autonomy” means self governing, the ability to make choices on the basis of good reasons rather than being coerced by threats of forces from without “Meaning” in life means that life has a purpose and there is some intrinsic (built in) rationale or plan to it

Atheists Tenants: If an Atheist had to choose whether to have free will or to live in a world that had a governing providential hand, they would choose to have free will

Atheists Tenants: Situation A You are totally free, but you are in a room that is slowly filling with a poisonous gas and will be dead in five minutes So, your free for five more minutes

Atheists Tenants: Situation B You are not totally free, there is only a few things that you can not do, murder and adultery The room is being filled with fresh air and sunshine Choice… Situation A or B? I think we would all choose to give up some freedoms

Our autonomy is actually heightened in having the truth about the purpose of life If we know why we are here and what the options in our destiny really are, we will be able to choose more intelligently than the blind who lead the blind in ignorance

If theism is true and there is a benevolent supreme being governing the universe, the following are true: We have a satisfying explanation of the origins and sustenance of the universe We aren’t a product of chance and necessity, as the big bang theory would suggest, but a product of a heavenly being who cares about us

Theism: The universe is suffused in goodness and that good will win out over evil We are not fighting a desperate battle alone, but rather God is on our side This gives us the confidence to carry on the fight against injustice, cruelty and hatred when the deck is stacked against us

Theism: God loves us, and this gives us the motive to moral actions including altruism We live our lives morally, not out of fear of hell, but out of deep gratitude to the one who loves us and whom we love God has our best interests in mind and is powerful enough to ensure that we are happy as we are good

Theism: Theists have an answer to the question of “Why be Moral?” Because of the love of Good and because that love guarantees justice, so that you will get what you deserve Good for good and bad for bad You reap what you sow

Theism: All persons are of equal worth Since we have all been created in the image of God and are his children, we are all brothers and sisters We are family and ought to treat each other benevolently as we would family members of equal worth

Theism: Grace and forgiveness and there is a happy ending for everyone The moral guilt which we experience, even for the most heinous acts, can be removed, and we can be redeemed and given a new start

Theism: There is life after death Death is not the end of the matter, but we shall live on, recognizing each other in a better world

Theism does not deprive us of any autonomy that we have in non-theistic systems We are equally free to choose that good or the evil whether or not God exists It is clear that the world of the theist is far better and more satisfying to us than one in which God does not exist

We should live in such a way as to allow the virtues of theism to inspire our lives and our culture The theists world is far superior to the secular that, even though we might be agnostic, it is in our interest to live as though it were true It is a good gamble on God Religion gives us a purpose to life and basis for morality

Does Life Have Meaning? The Human Search for Meaning by Frankl
Logotherapy is the psychological therapy based on the idea that human beings must find a meaning to their lives in order to function “He who has a why to live for, can bear with almost any how”

Think of the prisoners in Auschwitz Did the prisoners have a choice of action in their circumstances? Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom of independence of mind even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of human freedoms, to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way Conditions such as lack of sleep, sufficient food and mental stress may suggest that inmates were bound to react in certain ways

In the end, it became clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not the result of camp influences alone The prison was able to retain their human dignity even in a concentration camp

The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity even under the most difficult circumstances to add a deeper meaning to his life Not all prisoners retained their dignity, but the ones that did were an example of man’s inner strength

A man who let himself decline because he could not see any future goal found himself occupied with retrospective thoughts It was easy for this man to overlook the opportunities to make something positive When the prisoners to lost their hold on life, then everything became pointless

What happened when “F” thought the war would end on March 13th? On March 29th he became ill By March 31st he was dead The sudden loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect The death rate was highest between Christmas and New Years (prisoners lost hope they would be home for the holidays)

Does Life Have Meaning? The Four Noble Truths Buddha Life is suffering
Suffering involves a chain of causes Suffering can cease There is a path to such cessation

Does Life Have Meaning? The Noble Path has eight paths Right views
Right motive Right speech Right action Right livelihood Right effort Right mindfulness Right contemplation

Does Life Have Meaning? The Noble Truth
I will not lead the religious life under the Blessed One until the Blessed One shall explain to me either that the world is eternal or that the world is not eternal Blessed are those who believe but have not seen

Does Life Have Meaning? The Experience Machine by Nozick
Why not just plug into an Experience Machine? We want to do certain things, and not just have the experience of doing them We want to be a certain way, to be a certain sort of person We would be limited to a man made reality

Chapter 9 Does Life Have Meaning?

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