MAJOR QUESTIONS IN PHILOSOPHY

Discuss the meaning of life & happiness. Discuss (1) the 3 views on whether there is meaning to life, (2) what human beings ultimately aim for (the ultimate goal for human beings) according to Aristotelian tradition, (3) the three views on happiness, and (4) whether you agree that the meaning of life is the same for all human beings in general.

Minimum 300+ words.

MEANING & PURPOSE

“Is There Meaning to Life?”

Introduction: Is there meaning to life?
Impossibility of living without meaning/purpose
Three views
No meaning at all
Different meaning for each
One meaning for all

I Nihilism: No Meaning at All
Friedrich Nietzsche: “God’ is dead”
Naturalism: materialism-physicalism
The world
Man’s origin, destiny & purpose
Bertrand Russell
“That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his love and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocation of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the devotions, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins….”
Peter Singer
“Life as a whole had no meaning. Life began, as the best available theories tell us, in a chance combination of molecules; it then evolved through random mutations and natural selection. All this just happened; it did not happen for any purpose.”
Albert Camus: Myth of Sissypus
Consistency & test of livability

II Relativism: Make One’s Own Meaning
“Do-it-yourself” approach
Inconsistency (e.g. psychologist discussing Woody Allen’s films)
LD Rue: “Noble Lie

III Objectivism: One Meaning for All
An Aristotelian approach
One objective meaning for all
Based on common human nature
Different ways to achieve the one common goal

MEANING & PURPOSE
“What is the Meaning of Life?”

Introduction
The human quest
What do you really want?
The ultimate end
Eudaimonia—“Happiness”
The essential connection: the meaning and want
3 views on happiness

I Happiness as Pleasure
Popular modern notion
Necessity of pleasure—contribution to happiness
Insufficiency of pleasure—fit for cattle

II Happiness as Personal Inner Peace
Stoic & Eastern philosophy
Need for more peace
Too passive
Need to be more active
Victor Frankl
“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the struggling and striving for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.”

III Happiness as Living a Flourishing Life
Not
Passive
Depend on hap
Momentary
The ultimate end
Becoming a strong person
Excellent, fulfilling & flourishing life
Happiness as: Living a Good Life
Living—active
Good—all manner of goodness
Life—entire lifetime
How can one achieve happiness?