Why are we Alive?

Any man has the capacity to end his life. Yet few do. So the answer to "why are we alive?" is relatively simple: because we choose to live. Explaining why we choose to live is more complicated. In Thoughts on the Nature of Intelligence, I suggested that the universe is guiding us towards a certain direction. The rules of survival of the fittest favor the strong over weak, the intelligent over stupid. But even more dramatically, survival of the fittest favors beings that want to survive over suicidal ones.

The continuation of life is in some respects inevitable. Even if a species decided that life was miserable and devoid of meaning and chose to kill itself, it would be replaced by a species that did not feel that way (or was incapable of suicide). Our predisposition to prefer life over death is something of a biological illusion, a necessary corollary of the rules of nature. Nature does not fill our lives with joy or meaning, it only provides a biological command to stay alive. It does not give us a purpose but instructs us to survive without one.

Most creatures lack the intelligence to meaningfully consider the point of their existences. Mice scurry about, satisfying one hunger after another--never contemplating why they do what they do. Socrates wrote, "the unexamined life is not worth living.” I do not know if he is right. I refrain from passing judgment on the quality of life of your average field mouse. I only know that nature does not distinguish between the unexamined and examined life as sharply as Socrates.

Perspectives on the Meaning of Life: Existentialism

This is a part of the Perspectives on the Meaning of Life series.

Existentialism says each man and each woman creates the meaning of his and her life; meaning cannot be determined by a supernatural god or an earthly authority. Existentialism says meaning must be created not discovered. Thus one is free to define meaning on an individual level. In seeking meaning to life, the existentialist looks to where people find meaning in life, in course of which using only reason as a source of meaning is insufficient.

To the existentialist, existence precedes essence; the (essence) of one's life arises only after one comes to existence. Kierkegaard coined the term "leap of faith", arguing that life is full of absurdity, and one must make his and her own values in an indifferent world. This interpretation of the concept is often related to the insistence on the absurdity of the world and the assumption that there exist no relevant or absolutely good or bad values. However, that there are no values to be found in the world in-itselfdoes not mean that there are no values: We are usually brought up with certain values, and even though we cannot justify them ultimately, they will be "our" values. One can live meaningfully (free of despair and anxiety) in an unconditional commitment to something finite, and devotes that meaningful life to the commitment.

Albert Camus explores the implications of Existentialism in The Myth of Sisyphus. In the essay, Camus introduces his philosophy of the absurd: man's futile search for meaning, unity and clarity in the face of an unintelligible world devoid of God and eternal truths or values. Camus compares the absurdity of man's life with the situation of Sisyphus, a figure of Greek mythology who was condemned to repeat forever the same meaningless task of pushing a boulder up a mountain, only to see it roll down again. The essay concludes, "The struggle itself...is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

Perspectives on the Meaning of Life: Nihilism

This is a part of the Perspectives on the Meaning of Life series.

Nihilism rejects any authority's claims to knowledge and truth, and so explores the significance of existence without knowable truth. Rather than insisting that values are subjective, and might be warrantless, the nihilist says: Nothing is of value, morals are valueless, they only serve as society's false ideals. Albert Camus asserts that the absurdity of the human condition is that we search for external values and meaning in a world which has none, and is indifferent to us.

Much of Nihilisms fame comes from Nietzsche's famous proclamation that "God is dead." But what Nietzsche was really eulogizing was morality. "God is dead" wasn't about an actual God who first existed and then died in a literal sense. It may be more appropriate to consider it Nietzsche's way of saying that the Gods of religion are no longer a viable source of any moral code. When one gives up faith, one pulls the right to morality out from under one's feet. The problem is retaining any system of values in the absence of a divine order.

Nietzsche asserts that nihilism is a result of valuing "higher", "divine" or "meta-physical" things (such as God), that do not in turn value "base", "human" or "earthly" things. But a person who rejects God and the divine may still retain the belief that all "base", "earthly", or "human" ideas are still valueless because they were considered so in the previous belief system (such as a Christian who becomes a communist and believes fully in the party structure and leader). In this interpretation, any form of idealism, after being rejected by the idealist, leads to nihilism. Moreover, this is the source of "inconsistency on the part of the nihilists". The nihilist continues to believe that only "higher" values and truths are worthy of being called such, but rejects the idea that they exist. Because of this rejection, all ideas described as true or valuable are rejected by the nihilist as impossible because they do not meet the previously established standards.

Perspectives on the Meaning of Life: Utilitarianism

This is a follow up to PotMoL: Hedonism

Utilitarianism is an ethical system posited as: the good is whatever brings the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people. Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is determined solely by its contribution to overall utility: that is, its contribution to happiness or pleasure as summed among all people, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome. Utility, the good to be maximized, has been defined by various thinkers as happiness or pleasure (versus suffering or pain) thus incorporating a simliar measure as hedonism.

Utilitarianism's connection with hedonism was not lost on its founder, Jeremy Bentham. Bentham, an ethical hedonist, believed the moral rightness or wrongness of an action to be a function of the amount of pleasure or pain that it produced. The calculus could, in principle at least, determine the moral status of any considered act. The algorithm is also known as the hedonistic calculus and the hedonic calculus.

Utilitarianism is an ethical system, and therefore posits man lives for something outside himself. It can be seen as expanding hedonism's values to a community. Whereas hedonism only considers one person's pleasure, Utilitarnism considers the aggregate. Although there are many different ethical systems that people adhere to, almost all incorporate some degree of utilitarian principles.

Perspectives on the Meaning of Life: Hedonism

The meaning of life constitutes a philosophical question concerning the purpose and significance of human existence. It has been the subject of much philosophical, scientific, and theological speculation throughout history. Even phrasing the question is as difficult as attempting to answer it. For the sake of simplificaiton, however the question will be expressed as "why are we here?" and in light of that, how we should live our lives.

Hedonism is a school of philosophy which argues that pleasure has an ultimate importance and is the most important pursuit of humanity. The basic idea behind hedonistic thought is that pleasure is the only thing that is good for a person. This is often used as a justification for evaluating actions in terms of how much pleasure and how little pain (i.e. suffering) they produce. In very simple terms, a hedonist strives to maximize this net pleasure (pleasure minus pain).

Hedonism emphasizes pursuit of earthly pleasures by eating, drinking, merryment, etc. Hedonism is frequently a selfish philosophy because it only accounts for the individual's pleasure. Hedonism repudiates the idea that there are any higher values than immeadiate pleasures and suggests that man's only purpose on earth is to entertain the faculties that nature has given him. Despite its apparent shallowness, hedonism is an incredibly enduring ethical system.