The meaning of life
Sorry for being away for so long. All this working and schooling has killed what little time I had free for blogging. Now, however, I have learned how to fit it into my schedule.
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In the school of philosophy I tend to side with what is known as "Analytic Philosophy". While the name is certainly ambiguous, I generally take it to mean that I believe Philosophy is a branch of inquiry, similar to other sciences. It is a search for truth that just deals with a different subject matter than the natural sciences.
The other day I was feeling vaguely unhappy about my life. I felt that I had no purpose. So, I decided to be a bit philosophical about it. I examined my problem (the meaning of life) from various points of view: I was raised in a true western tradition. Born into a Catholic-Military family, my childhood was dominated with the concept that the meaning of life are abstracts. Concepts like Duty and Honor. That's what you live for. As I grew older though, I tended to break away from that strict pseudo-Deonotological Kantian-esque train of thought.
I also looked at it from the angle of the ancient Greeks. Aristotle said that the purpose to life is the eudaimonia. Which, while normally translated as "happiness", is actually closer to "human full-filledness". It means being a good human. We're then supposed to strive towards being a good human just as dogs and cats try to be good dogs and cats. Next up: Feminism.... They emphasize relationships as the end-all-be-all. Rather than abstract concepts, we should focus on our relationships with our loved ones. Or, since we're drifting onto the edges of philosophy, Existensial philosophy. Ergo, there is no point to it. We are born, we live in a miserable world, and then we die.
After going through all these and a few more, I realized none of them really solved my problem. It's not all about Duty or Honor, I don't think working on my "humanness" is going to get me what I want, I do worry about relationships, but that ain't the fucking answer, and if there's absolutely no point to life, I might just as well jump off a 50-story building or blow my head off.
Then it dawned on my that most of these systems it seems are ways to leave something behind. They are ways of making sure we'll be remembered after we're gone. Hidden beneath the veneer of a purpose is the ugly partial-truth that none of us want to die and be forgotten. We'd all like to think that someone, somewhere remembers us and cares for us. Maybe we can get that by dying heroically like the Spartans at Thermopyle, maybe we can befriend people left and right and have hundreds to mourn us when we're gone...I dunno. I think the best answer is to use a little bit from them all. I used to think I could get by on just one. I think now I've realized that's not the answer.
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In the school of philosophy I tend to side with what is known as "Analytic Philosophy". While the name is certainly ambiguous, I generally take it to mean that I believe Philosophy is a branch of inquiry, similar to other sciences. It is a search for truth that just deals with a different subject matter than the natural sciences.
The other day I was feeling vaguely unhappy about my life. I felt that I had no purpose. So, I decided to be a bit philosophical about it. I examined my problem (the meaning of life) from various points of view: I was raised in a true western tradition. Born into a Catholic-Military family, my childhood was dominated with the concept that the meaning of life are abstracts. Concepts like Duty and Honor. That's what you live for. As I grew older though, I tended to break away from that strict pseudo-Deonotological Kantian-esque train of thought.
I also looked at it from the angle of the ancient Greeks. Aristotle said that the purpose to life is the eudaimonia. Which, while normally translated as "happiness", is actually closer to "human full-filledness". It means being a good human. We're then supposed to strive towards being a good human just as dogs and cats try to be good dogs and cats. Next up: Feminism.... They emphasize relationships as the end-all-be-all. Rather than abstract concepts, we should focus on our relationships with our loved ones. Or, since we're drifting onto the edges of philosophy, Existensial philosophy. Ergo, there is no point to it. We are born, we live in a miserable world, and then we die.
After going through all these and a few more, I realized none of them really solved my problem. It's not all about Duty or Honor, I don't think working on my "humanness" is going to get me what I want, I do worry about relationships, but that ain't the fucking answer, and if there's absolutely no point to life, I might just as well jump off a 50-story building or blow my head off.
Then it dawned on my that most of these systems it seems are ways to leave something behind. They are ways of making sure we'll be remembered after we're gone. Hidden beneath the veneer of a purpose is the ugly partial-truth that none of us want to die and be forgotten. We'd all like to think that someone, somewhere remembers us and cares for us. Maybe we can get that by dying heroically like the Spartans at Thermopyle, maybe we can befriend people left and right and have hundreds to mourn us when we're gone...I dunno. I think the best answer is to use a little bit from them all. I used to think I could get by on just one. I think now I've realized that's not the answer.
