week of Nov 18: Read one of the assigned articles regarding the meaning of life. What do you take away from the article? Does this give you any meaningful guidance or information to assist you personally in finding meaning in life?
while reading Richard Taylors meaning of life i began to ponder my own meaning of life. he gives the example of Sisyphus and how he was condemned by the gods to forever roll a stone up a hill...forever. this may seem like meaningless, endless toil, but he never gave up in hopes that maybe he could succeed in rolling the stone up the hill, successfully. this reminds e of myself and maybe others, is that we never give up just because life is hard and we get back up in hopes we will succeed. some people make what they can of life and some may not always make it. i believe that suicide is often a quick way to end pain, but what doesnt kill you makes you stronger.
I too mentioned in my blog about how Taylor used the example of Sisyphus endlessly and pointlessly rolling the stone up the hill. It sounds like you and I have the same idea, that it should be an example to us that we should never give up just because life gets hard. Look at our lives right now as college students. Extremely stressful and frustrating when we aren't acquiring the grades that we hope to receive. No one likes disappointment, but we should use it as "fuel for our fire" and let it make us stronger people in the future. Life is never easy, but we need to find ways to help us through the bad times and become our best selves. Taking the easy way out is never in the best interest of the person or the people around them.
I think Sisyphus wasn't doing a meaningless task. He was gaining strength from rolling the stone. He was also learning a technique to roll the stone. Life is an opportunity to gain knowledge and mastery even for the most meaningless tasks. Sisyphus didn't give up and he strived to achieve excellence even after he failed time after time.
I think God has a purpose for everyone in life so rolling the stone up the hill did have a purpose and was not meaningless. Maybe there were things that Sisyphus wasn't thankful for and that's why he had to roll he stone. This task gave him the drive to get things done to the fullest and with the greatest potential.
I read The Absurd by Thomas Nagel. In this article Nagel addresses the argument that life is absurd. The most common forms that such argument takes are that what we do now will not matter in a million years, that we are insignificant and fleeting on the cosmological scale, and that we are all just going to die anyway. Nagel address these three points in reasonable ways. While I am not necessarily the type of person that needs an explanation or meaning to life, I certainly don't think that it is absurd. What this article taught me was that while we do all die and what we do may not be remembered in a million years that does not mean that our life is absurd. Even if we never answer the question of the meaning of life that still does not mean that our existence is absurd.
I agree with you Laura! I feel that life is what you make out of it, that it is not absurd! I also think that what we do now will in fact matter and have an impact on the future of this planet. I think Thomas Nagel was thinking as an existentionalist when he wrote the essay! That what is the use of our undless toil is not going to matter because we all die anyway. But even when we die, life goes on!
I am also one of those people that don't feel the need to have an explanation or meaning to life. I do however believe that we were put here on earth by our father in heaven, but regardless, life's what you make it. If you're leading a miserable life, then you should look at yourself and try to figure out what kind of person you are. I went through a depression in my life after my boyfriend passed away, but recovered through the help of grief counseling, exercising, and figuring out who I am and what makes me "tick". I've learned to look for a positive in every negative situation. While this is certainly hard and nearly impossible to find a positive out of losing my boyfriend, I look at it as I got to know and love a wonderful person. I am now able to appreciate things when they are right. I am currently dating someone and it means that much more knowing I can love someone again and appreciate them on a different kind of level that someone who hasn't lost a boyfriend to death could. Anyway, life is all about taking chances and making goals for yourself. The sky's the limit! :)
I also don't need to have an explanation of the meaning of life. I think the meaning of life is different for each person. I don't think that life is absurd either! If life was absurd then I don't think we would be seeing all of the things we as humanity have accomplished. I think that people sets goals to try to make the future better for everyone, even if that future is thousands or millions of years away. Even though we eventually die, we'll have people continue on what we started.
Read one of the assigned articles regarding the meaning of life. What do you take away from the article? Does this give you any meaningful guidance or information to assist you personally in finding meaning in life?
Life is living itself. That is a hard concept for me to understand, but the text explained it. It's not what you will be remembered for because we all have the same ending to our lives(death). Life is about waking up every day and trying to make a better life for oneself. You are the only person that will be satisfied or dissatisfied about how your life turns out. I personally think the meaning of life is so we have a greater appreciation for heaven. Life has its ups and downs, but the bible says heaven has all ups. It is like a comparison(Discord in music heightens the pleasure of the overall song) We are all wired differently and if rolling a large stone up a hill makes us feel satiated then so be it. Sisyphus isn't rolling the stone and not receiving anything out of it. He is gaining strength and learning a technique to get the stone up the hill. Life is a learning experience and everything in life is a chance to learn something new and build off of it. I believe that no one has a meaningless life. We all have a chance to learn and grow.
Good points, Gage! I too believe that life is what you make of it, that there is meaning and purpose in everything that we do. I think what we do now will have an impact on our future even when we're dead and gone, because life goes on. We as humans it is only human nature to improve and make life better. In the case of Sisyphus, we may think life is meaningless due to endless toil and unsatisfaction, but yet we move on, always striving to be the best!
What is the meaning of life? Richard Taylor brings up the example of an ancient myth where a man named Sisyphus is forever expected roll a stone up a hill, and then it immediately rolls back down. Sisyphus rolls the stone back up again, only for the stone to roll back down again. He does this forever and it shows what a meaningless, pointless life he has. This myth is interpreted and compared to the rising and setting of the sun; the waves crashing upon the shore. Man's eternal struggle to try again and again, but always ends up in discouragement. By bringing up this myth, I don't think I agree with Richard Taylor's views. I believe that life's what you make it. If it seems pointless to you and you feel like you don't have anything to life for, that's your own fault. I personally believe that we were put on this earth by God for a reason. Now I won't go into religion here, but our life here on earth is limited and even though 80 or 90 years seems like a long time, it really isn't. We should fulfill our lives by finding what makes us "tick". Make goals for yourself and make your dreams reality! If your life seems boring and meaningless, like your endlessly rolling a stone up a hill only for it to roll back down, then something needs to change and you should find a way to make your life seem less routine.
I agree that life is what you make of it, and if you're not happy with your life then you should find a positive way to enrich it. I think that life is all about setting goals and accomplishing them and having fun doing it. I have a lot of goals in my lifetime, and even though I would like to accomplish them all in just a few years, I know that is impossible. To keep myself from taking on a lot in just a little time I keep telling myself that I have many years ahead of me to get things done. That's one of the reasons I'm in college, though right now I'm torn between wanting to learn Japanese and Korean and becoming an interpreter or wanting to work with birds of prey as my future career.
I, too, agree life is what you make of it. however, I think that people have to understand that if their life wasn't meaningful God would not have put them on Earth. If everybody took a minute out of their day to tell someone, especially someone who is having a bad day, how much they appreciate them and how they are thankful for them to be in their lives it would help. Everybody helps someone else out in someway which means everybody has purpose. We just do not see it when other people make difference in our lives because we are too caught up in our own lives.
After reading Richard Taylor's Meaning of Life, I took more than one thing from it. I realize that I don't want to have a meaningless existence and that I would like to contribute to the world more than I take from it. I never really think about how important it is to make sure I make everyday count. Everyone's meaning of life is different solely because we all different DNA and a different fate. We cannot go by a constitution for the meaning of life because no one can tell me mine is the same as theirs. To sum things up, once I have found my own meaning of life I will have a better idea about others.
I really like that you mentioned that you would like to contribute more to the world than you take away from it. I think that this is an excellent view to have on life and the more people that adopt this viewpoint the better the world will be. If we selfishly take and take and don't give will back or attempt to take care of our world we will end up destroying it.
I enjoyed your post Darrell. I think the majority of people don't know what the meaning of life is. People have different fates and we are all brought up differently. It is impossible to think that the meaning of life means the same thing for everyone. Different circumstances result in different ouctomes.
I read the Meaning of Life by Taylor and one thought I had during reading kept going back to a couple class periods ago when we talked about no wasting our talents. I think that if you have a talent you were meant to use it, if its selling cars, or writing laws, don't let your talent go to waste. Your individual talent gives you your meaning in life, its the things that make you unique. So my combination of class content and what the article meant kind of sum together and say to me, find what you're good at and do it, don't let it go to waste. Thats the meaning of life.
Yes, I also believe we are meant to use the talent we have. Since we are all unique in our own ways it is sometimes tough to have a teacher judge you on something that you are particularly great at nor do you have the talent to remember everything. I like how simple you kept the meaning of life to be because you at it from an individual perspective. Great post.
I read "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. This article is basically about absolute government control. The people are brainwashed so they have no control over themselves. The government controls their thoughts, emotions (which are controlled by drugs), actions, and everything about their lives. They live in ignorant bliss (not even fearing death or feeling love for others), believing themselves to be happy. They are taught that happiness is to be under somebody else's control, and if someone starts getting out of control they are given the drug soma. In the article there is a character called the Savage because he is a free-thinker, doesn't agree with the government control, and therefore he is considered dangerous. From this article, I have taken away that we are very fortunate to live in a democratic free society. Yes, there are laws, but we still have the freedom to have our own thoughts and emotions and do what we want to do with our lives. This article basically tells me to continue to be a free-thinker and not be afraid about it, to embrace it and encourage it. The article doesn't really give any guidance, but it shows you what you don't want your government to be. The article encourages me to run away screaming if our government turns to this kind of model. I think that I would be considered the Savage if this scenario were to become a reality in this country.
I love Brave New World! The book is so far ahead of it's time and you don't really put that together unless you look farther into it. I feel as if some students are brainwashed today to go to college because that gets you where you're supposed to be. However, today is a different day and college degrees don't get you as far. Obviously their ideas are a little far fetched because it still is a novel. The book has so much meaning in between the lines. Great post.
I agree that we must be free-thinkers and I feel that goes hand in hand with tolerance as well. In order to be free of thought we must realize that others, whether it be individuals or even whole societies, have good ideas as well. Just because we don't agree with someone doesn't make us right and them wrong. True free thought comes in the ability to accept and understand others without passing judgement while maintaining your own personal beliefs.
I think many years ago a young gentleman named Hitler tried something like this before by creating a super race of blonde hair blue eyed babies. Like in The Brave New World they talked about the gestation period the embryos travel in bottles along a conveyor belt through a factorylike building, and are conditioned to belong to one of five castes: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, or Epsilon. The Alpha embryos are destined to become the leaders and thinkers of the World State. Good thing we tend to learn from others and our mistakes.
In reading Letter to Menoeceus I think Epicurus was saying, the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by serene calmness, peace and freedom from fear and the absence of pain and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that pleasure and pain are the measures of what is good and evil; death is the end of both body and soul and should therefore not be feared; the gods do not reward or punish humans; the universe is infinite and eternal. I don’t get a real meaning of guidance but more of a matter of one person’s opinion, but interesting to read.
I must say I like this philosophers theory! What page was this article in the book? I wouldn't mind reading it, it sounds interesting and intriguing! When reading your post yoga and meditation came to mind. I believe that everyone needs a way to unwind after a stressful day including myself! Words like peace, happy, and tranquility are all positive energies to brighten ones day! Sounds like a good read! Good job :)
Life is absurd! Nagel suggests we think of it this way: What matters now isn't going to matter years from now. For example looking back when the laws of the seatbelts first came about. People thought (ironically) that the new rule was absurd! Some people even denied to follow the law. However now people don't even think twice about buckling up for safety. It has saved many lives and we don't hear about people making a fuss over seatbelts any more. He also discusses that as individuals we are that important. When looking at the big picture one person doesn't have a huge impact on the world. As we become to realize growing up "Life goes on". After we have passed away earth and human life still remains, it does not end when we do. Like I've said before I believe everything happens for a reason. There fore I believe that our life is not so much absurd but a journey with many options. Or an unfinished story with many possible endings. :)
while reading Richard Taylors meaning of life i began to ponder my own meaning of life. he gives the example of Sisyphus and how he was condemned by the gods to forever roll a stone up a hill...forever. this may seem like meaningless, endless toil, but he never gave up in hopes that maybe he could succeed in rolling the stone up the hill, successfully. this reminds e of myself and maybe others, is that we never give up just because life is hard and we get back up in hopes we will succeed. some people make what they can of life and some may not always make it. i believe that suicide is often a quick way to end pain, but what doesnt kill you makes you stronger.
ReplyDeleteI too mentioned in my blog about how Taylor used the example of Sisyphus endlessly and pointlessly rolling the stone up the hill. It sounds like you and I have the same idea, that it should be an example to us that we should never give up just because life gets hard. Look at our lives right now as college students. Extremely stressful and frustrating when we aren't acquiring the grades that we hope to receive. No one likes disappointment, but we should use it as "fuel for our fire" and let it make us stronger people in the future. Life is never easy, but we need to find ways to help us through the bad times and become our best selves. Taking the easy way out is never in the best interest of the person or the people around them.
DeleteI think Sisyphus wasn't doing a meaningless task. He was gaining strength from rolling the stone. He was also learning a technique to roll the stone. Life is an opportunity to gain knowledge and mastery even for the most meaningless tasks. Sisyphus didn't give up and he strived to achieve excellence even after he failed time after time.
DeleteI think God has a purpose for everyone in life so rolling the stone up the hill did have a purpose and was not meaningless. Maybe there were things that Sisyphus wasn't thankful for and that's why he had to roll he stone. This task gave him the drive to get things done to the fullest and with the greatest potential.
DeleteI read The Absurd by Thomas Nagel. In this article Nagel addresses the argument that life is absurd. The most common forms that such argument takes are that what we do now will not matter in a million years, that we are insignificant and fleeting on the cosmological scale, and that we are all just going to die anyway. Nagel address these three points in reasonable ways. While I am not necessarily the type of person that needs an explanation or meaning to life, I certainly don't think that it is absurd. What this article taught me was that while we do all die and what we do may not be remembered in a million years that does not mean that our life is absurd. Even if we never answer the question of the meaning of life that still does not mean that our existence is absurd.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Laura! I feel that life is what you make out of it, that it is not absurd! I also think that what we do now will in fact matter and have an impact on the future of this planet. I think Thomas Nagel was thinking as an existentionalist when he wrote the essay! That what is the use of our undless toil is not going to matter because we all die anyway. But even when we die, life goes on!
DeleteI am also one of those people that don't feel the need to have an explanation or meaning to life. I do however believe that we were put here on earth by our father in heaven, but regardless, life's what you make it. If you're leading a miserable life, then you should look at yourself and try to figure out what kind of person you are. I went through a depression in my life after my boyfriend passed away, but recovered through the help of grief counseling, exercising, and figuring out who I am and what makes me "tick". I've learned to look for a positive in every negative situation. While this is certainly hard and nearly impossible to find a positive out of losing my boyfriend, I look at it as I got to know and love a wonderful person. I am now able to appreciate things when they are right. I am currently dating someone and it means that much more knowing I can love someone again and appreciate them on a different kind of level that someone who hasn't lost a boyfriend to death could. Anyway, life is all about taking chances and making goals for yourself. The sky's the limit! :)
DeleteI also don't need to have an explanation of the meaning of life. I think the meaning of life is different for each person. I don't think that life is absurd either! If life was absurd then I don't think we would be seeing all of the things we as humanity have accomplished. I think that people sets goals to try to make the future better for everyone, even if that future is thousands or millions of years away. Even though we eventually die, we'll have people continue on what we started.
DeleteRead one of the assigned articles regarding the meaning of life. What do you take away from the article? Does this give you any meaningful guidance or information to assist you personally in finding meaning in life?
ReplyDeleteLife is living itself. That is a hard concept for me to understand, but the text explained it. It's not what you will be remembered for because we all have the same ending to our lives(death). Life is about waking up every day and trying to make a better life for oneself. You are the only person that will be satisfied or dissatisfied about how your life turns out.
I personally think the meaning of life is so we have a greater appreciation for heaven. Life has its ups and downs, but the bible says heaven has all ups. It is like a comparison(Discord in music heightens the pleasure of the overall song) We are all wired differently and if rolling a large stone up a hill makes us feel satiated then so be it. Sisyphus isn't rolling the stone and not receiving anything out of it. He is gaining strength and learning a technique to get the stone up the hill. Life is a learning experience and everything in life is a chance to learn something new and build off of it.
I believe that no one has a meaningless life. We all have a chance to learn and grow.
Good points, Gage! I too believe that life is what you make of it, that there is meaning and purpose in everything that we do. I think what we do now will have an impact on our future even when we're dead and gone, because life goes on. We as humans it is only human nature to improve and make life better. In the case of Sisyphus, we may think life is meaningless due to endless toil and unsatisfaction, but yet we move on, always striving to be the best!
DeleteWhat is the meaning of life? Richard Taylor brings up the example of an ancient myth where a man named Sisyphus is forever expected roll a stone up a hill, and then it immediately rolls back down. Sisyphus rolls the stone back up again, only for the stone to roll back down again. He does this forever and it shows what a meaningless, pointless life he has. This myth is interpreted and compared to the rising and setting of the sun; the waves crashing upon the shore. Man's eternal struggle to try again and again, but always ends up in discouragement. By bringing up this myth, I don't think I agree with Richard Taylor's views. I believe that life's what you make it. If it seems pointless to you and you feel like you don't have anything to life for, that's your own fault. I personally believe that we were put on this earth by God for a reason. Now I won't go into religion here, but our life here on earth is limited and even though 80 or 90 years seems like a long time, it really isn't. We should fulfill our lives by finding what makes us "tick". Make goals for yourself and make your dreams reality! If your life seems boring and meaningless, like your endlessly rolling a stone up a hill only for it to roll back down, then something needs to change and you should find a way to make your life seem less routine.
ReplyDeleteI agree that life is what you make of it, and if you're not happy with your life then you should find a positive way to enrich it. I think that life is all about setting goals and accomplishing them and having fun doing it. I have a lot of goals in my lifetime, and even though I would like to accomplish them all in just a few years, I know that is impossible. To keep myself from taking on a lot in just a little time I keep telling myself that I have many years ahead of me to get things done. That's one of the reasons I'm in college, though right now I'm torn between wanting to learn Japanese and Korean and becoming an interpreter or wanting to work with birds of prey as my future career.
DeleteI, too, agree life is what you make of it. however, I think that people have to understand that if their life wasn't meaningful God would not have put them on Earth. If everybody took a minute out of their day to tell someone, especially someone who is having a bad day, how much they appreciate them and how they are thankful for them to be in their lives it would help. Everybody helps someone else out in someway which means everybody has purpose. We just do not see it when other people make difference in our lives because we are too caught up in our own lives.
DeleteAfter reading Richard Taylor's Meaning of Life, I took more than one thing from it. I realize that I don't want to have a meaningless existence and that I would like to contribute to the world more than I take from it. I never really think about how important it is to make sure I make everyday count. Everyone's meaning of life is different solely because we all different DNA and a different fate. We cannot go by a constitution for the meaning of life because no one can tell me mine is the same as theirs. To sum things up, once I have found my own meaning of life I will have a better idea about others.
ReplyDeleteI really like that you mentioned that you would like to contribute more to the world than you take away from it. I think that this is an excellent view to have on life and the more people that adopt this viewpoint the better the world will be. If we selfishly take and take and don't give will back or attempt to take care of our world we will end up destroying it.
DeleteI enjoyed your post Darrell. I think the majority of people don't know what the meaning of life is. People have different fates and we are all brought up differently. It is impossible to think that the meaning of life means the same thing for everyone. Different circumstances result in different ouctomes.
Deleteoutcomes
DeleteI read the Meaning of Life by Taylor and one thought I had during reading kept going back to a couple class periods ago when we talked about no wasting our talents. I think that if you have a talent you were meant to use it, if its selling cars, or writing laws, don't let your talent go to waste. Your individual talent gives you your meaning in life, its the things that make you unique. So my combination of class content and what the article meant kind of sum together and say to me, find what you're good at and do it, don't let it go to waste. Thats the meaning of life.
ReplyDeleteYes, I also believe we are meant to use the talent we have. Since we are all unique in our own ways it is sometimes tough to have a teacher judge you on something that you are particularly great at nor do you have the talent to remember everything. I like how simple you kept the meaning of life to be because you at it from an individual perspective. Great post.
DeleteI read "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. This article is basically about absolute government control. The people are brainwashed so they have no control over themselves. The government controls their thoughts, emotions (which are controlled by drugs), actions, and everything about their lives. They live in ignorant bliss (not even fearing death or feeling love for others), believing themselves to be happy. They are taught that happiness is to be under somebody else's control, and if someone starts getting out of control they are given the drug soma. In the article there is a character called the Savage because he is a free-thinker, doesn't agree with the government control, and therefore he is considered dangerous. From this article, I have taken away that we are very fortunate to live in a democratic free society. Yes, there are laws, but we still have the freedom to have our own thoughts and emotions and do what we want to do with our lives. This article basically tells me to continue to be a free-thinker and not be afraid about it, to embrace it and encourage it. The article doesn't really give any guidance, but it shows you what you don't want your government to be. The article encourages me to run away screaming if our government turns to this kind of model. I think that I would be considered the Savage if this scenario were to become a reality in this country.
ReplyDeleteI love Brave New World! The book is so far ahead of it's time and you don't really put that together unless you look farther into it. I feel as if some students are brainwashed today to go to college because that gets you where you're supposed to be. However, today is a different day and college degrees don't get you as far. Obviously their ideas are a little far fetched because it still is a novel. The book has so much meaning in between the lines. Great post.
DeleteI agree that we must be free-thinkers and I feel that goes hand in hand with tolerance as well. In order to be free of thought we must realize that others, whether it be individuals or even whole societies, have good ideas as well. Just because we don't agree with someone doesn't make us right and them wrong. True free thought comes in the ability to accept and understand others without passing judgement while maintaining your own personal beliefs.
DeleteI think many years ago a young gentleman named Hitler tried something like this before by creating a super race of blonde hair blue eyed babies. Like in The Brave New World they talked about the gestation period the embryos travel in bottles along a conveyor belt through a factorylike building, and are conditioned to belong to one of five castes: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, or Epsilon. The Alpha embryos are destined to become the leaders and thinkers of the World State. Good thing we tend to learn from others and our mistakes.
DeleteIn reading Letter to Menoeceus I think Epicurus was saying, the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by serene calmness, peace and freedom from fear and the absence of pain and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that pleasure and pain are the measures of what is good and evil; death is the end of both body and soul and should therefore not be feared; the gods do not reward or punish humans; the universe is infinite and eternal. I don’t get a real meaning of guidance but more of a matter of one person’s opinion, but interesting to read.
ReplyDeleteI must say I like this philosophers theory! What page was this article in the book? I wouldn't mind reading it, it sounds interesting and intriguing! When reading your post yoga and meditation came to mind. I believe that everyone needs a way to unwind after a stressful day including myself! Words like peace, happy, and tranquility are all positive energies to brighten ones day! Sounds like a good read! Good job :)
DeleteIt starts on page 664 Letter to Menoeceus (Epicurus)
DeleteLife is absurd! Nagel suggests we think of it this way: What matters now isn't going to matter years from now. For example looking back when the laws of the seatbelts first came about. People thought (ironically) that the new rule was absurd! Some people even denied to follow the law. However now people don't even think twice about buckling up for safety. It has saved many lives and we don't hear about people making a fuss over seatbelts any more. He also discusses that as individuals we are that important. When looking at the big picture one person doesn't have a huge impact on the world. As we become to realize growing up "Life goes on". After we have passed away earth and human life still remains, it does not end when we do. Like I've said before I believe everything happens for a reason. There fore I believe that our life is not so much absurd but a journey with many options. Or an unfinished story with many possible endings.
ReplyDelete:)