1 Ethics Chapter 9 Does Life Have Meaning?. 2 Tolstoy The traveler is fleeing a wild animal To...

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Ethics

Chapter 9

Does Life Have Meaning?

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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?

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• 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?

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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”

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• 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

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• Hedonism by Epicurus• 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

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• Hedonism by Epicurus• 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

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• Hedonism by Epicurus• 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

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• Hedonism by Epicurus• 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

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• Hedonism by Epicurus• 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

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• Hedonism by Epicurus• 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

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• Hedonism by Epicurus• 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

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• Hedonism by Epicurus• 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?

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• 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

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• Life is Absurd by Camus• 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

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• Life is Absurd by Camus• 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

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• Life is Absurd by Camus• 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

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• 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

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• Religion Gives Meaning to Life by Walker• 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

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• “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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• Religion Gives Meaning to Life by Walker• 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

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• Religion Gives Meaning to Life by Walker• 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

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• Religion Gives Meaning to Life by Walker• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• Religion Gives Meaning to Life by Walker• 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

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• Religion Gives Meaning to Life by Walker• 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

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• 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”

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• The Human Search for Meaning by Frankl• 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

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• The Human Search for Meaning by Frankl• 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

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• The Human Search for Meaning by Frankl• 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

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• The Human Search for Meaning by Frankl• 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

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• The Human Search for Meaning by Frankl• 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

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• The Human Search for Meaning by Frankl• 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)

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• The Four Noble Truths• Buddha

• Life is suffering• Suffering involves a chain of causes• Suffering can cease• There is a path to such cessation

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• The Noble Path has eight paths• Right views• Right motive• Right speech• Right action• Right livelihood• Right effort• Right mindfulness• Right contemplation

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• 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

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• 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

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