what makes life worth living?

8/3/2019 What Makes Life Worth Living?

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Bu t against the palpably sophistical pro ofs of Leibniz that this is thebest of all possible w orlds, we may even oppose seriously andhonestly the proof that it is the w o r s t of all possible w orlds. ArthurSchopenhauer

I see many people die because they judgethat life is not worth living. I see othersparadoxically gettin killed for the ideas orillusions that give them a reason for living(what is called reason for living is also anexcellent reason for dying). I thereforeconclude that the meaning of life is themost urgent of questions. The Myth of Sisyphus

What makes life worthliving?

Ill just say this right at the outset. This will not be the feel good lecture of the year. Its not one youre probably going to want to bring up at the dinnertable, or on date night while waiting to catch a movie. Its going to shake tothe core, some of your most treasured values and ideals. Keep in mind, Imnot in the business of bringing cheer; this is the truth business and I cometo you with the truth, or at least, what I find to be true. I wish I could havepackaged it, wrapped it in fancy paper, and put a nice bow around it, but Icome to you with nothing but words, experiences, and ideas.

Now, if these werent lived ideas, then I wouldnt have come before you togive this lecture. Youll see in the end that what I bring you is not an easypill to swallow. My guess is that some of you, if not most, will have an
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allergic reaction to what I have to say, and you will reject my words, and seethem as nothing more than the dark mind of a pessimistic philosopher. (And,you might be right!) However, I ask you respectfully to suspend yourprejudices until the end, and only until youve given some thought to what Ihave to say. Let it ruminate in your mind. Give it some time.

One of the most important questions of philosophy in general, practicalphilosophy, philosophy as lived ideas, philosophy outside of academia,and, ultimately, philosophy in the world is, what makes life worth living? Wesee this question arise in ancient Greek philosophy, the age of enlightenment, existentialism, and most eloquently by the great Americanphilosopher, William James in, What Makes a Life Significant. Ill get backto James later on in the lecture.

We dont ask ourselves this question anymore. Philosophers seem to havemoved beyond this central question. My guess is they feel it was answeredin the past and now it is old news. The new school philosophy has become apursuit to know things, as in the mind, consciousness, and in this shift,theyve left practical wisdom behind. The old school philosophy was moreconcerned with what we cant know, and now its all about what we couldknow, setting aside the age old (unanswerable?) questions. Keep in mind,the same questions that keep the wheels of philosophy moving around.

The new school philosophers rather dally with questions about whether acomputer will ever be able to replace a human. What I say is that thequestion, whether a computer will replace a human has no meaning, if wecant answer the question, as my friend John McDermott likes to put it, whatgets you out of bed in the morning?

Why is it that we lose our children, our parents, our friends, and sometimes,lose ourselves, and yet, for the most part KEEP GOING? We all share thesame fate and it is spelled D E A T H. Why do we keep pushing that rockup the hill only to have it roll back down the hill? What gets us out of bed in

the morning? What gets YOU out of bed in the morning?

What makes life so significant that a woman like Bonnie Hoagland couldsend her three sons and husband off to fight in Afghanistan not knowing if theyll ever return? Clearly in this case it is hope, but is hope enough? Now,consider this: What makes life significant for the mother that LOSES threesons and a husband in battle? What gets her out of bed? What keeps hergoing as she walks past those bedrooms, with those all too perfectly made


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beds; the same beds she knows will never have to be made again? Whatmakes HER life significant? Cognitive science and philosophy of mind cantanswer these questions. What makes life significant for the young Japaneseman that lost his whole family and watched everything they owned getwashed away like a stain on the counter? Why? Whats the deal? What is it

about life that could make somebody push through these darkest of times?

There are many ways we could approach this question. The 19th centuryGerman philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer would answer, Its the will-to-live, a blind and relentless force, even in the face of the greatest struggles.All matter, Schopenhauer says, is nothing more than the objectification of

the will-to-live, the struggle for existence. Quite simply, were not gearedfor shutting down the machine. It keeps going by design and stops when itruns out of fuel, or at the hand of the individual as in suicide. This,however, is not the majority. In laymans terms, nature keeps us in thegame through trickery and cunning. Even in the darkest nights of the soul,nature sheds a glimmer of light, saying stick around, itll get better. Manytimes it does not get better it gets worse.

The 20th century philosopher and author, Albert Camus says, Man MUSTlive and create. Live to the point of tears. For Camus, this is not a questionof should or maybe, its a MUST. We MUST live and we MUST create. Itswho we are, and part of the fabric of our being. To live is our lot even if this

living seems more like a death sentence, than a week on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro.

It might be a stretch to go from Albert Camus to Richard Dawkins, thecelebrated scientist, and dare I say, philosopher, yet, Dawkins was ontosomething when he said:

We are survival machines robot vehicles blindly programmed to preservethe selfish molecules known as genes. This is a truth which still fills me withastonishment.

For Dawkins, its the invisible hand of natural selection that pushes us alongthis bumpy and uncertain road. Theres a scene in my all time favoritemovie, Manhattan, by Woody Allen, and in this scene, Woody Allenscharacter Isaac, is lying on his couch, and in an attempt to mend his brokenheart, he just parted from his young but very wise girlfriend, Tracy. He askshimself the question, while speaking into a tape recorder, why is life worthliving?


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He continues:

Why is life worth living? Its a very good question. Um Well, There are

certain things I guess that make it worthwhile. uh Like what okay umFor me, uh ooh I would say what, Groucho Marx, to name one thinguh um and Willie Mays and um the 2nd movement of the JupiterSymphony and um Louis Armstrong, recording of Potato Head Bluesum Swedish movies, naturally Sentimental Education by Flaubert uhMarlon Brando, Frank Sinatra um those incredible Apples and Pears byCezanne uh the crabs at Sam Wos uh Tracys face

Isaac answers the question why is life worth living, by citing things thatmake HIS life worth living, not life-in-itself, and the list ultimately culminates

in Tracys face. It would appear from this list that there is nothingintrinsically valuable to life. I agree. Its my contention that life has nointrinsic value. Life is MEANINGLESS, in and by itself. The reality is that weare being pushed by the blind hand of natural selection, or will-to-live asSchopenhauer describes it, and it is absurd to keep going as Camus says,because there is no end game, no goal, no light at the end of the tunnel, nogreener pastures, no right hand of the father, no vestal virgins. Nothing.Nada. Zero. Yet, we keep on truckin

Life has no meaning until we bring meaning to life. WE are the creators of

meaning and value. Its the role of the individual to find what feds themontologically, and to find what others are fed by ontologically. Life in-itself isa cold and brutal bitch right through to the core, as in aint that a bitch,and, it is a bitch. Time robs us of all things memories, experiences, life,love, friendship, and most tragically our own person. Theres nothingscripted into life that says Hey, you! Come have some fun. Life is work andmuch of it is often all in vain, and bears the mark of something better not tohave happened in the first place. Schopenhauer says (and Imparaphrasing) if you go to a cemetery and knock on the graves and ask thedeceased if theyd like to do it all over again, 9 out of 10 times, theyd say

no.

After all, consider this we didnt choose this life. We were thrown intoexistence, given a name, most of us a religion, coddled for a number of years, then booted out into the real world, and told to deal with it.


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I f w e w e r e a b l e t o s ee a t r a i le r o f t h e f il m c a l le d l i f e , h o w m a n y o f u s w o u l d h a v e op t e d t o s t i l l b u y a t i c k e t t o t h e p er f o r m a n ce ?

Its my contention that the question, what makes a life significant? restson the assumption that life has inherit meaning or value. The questionproper is Is life-in-itself significant? of which, Id answer with a resounding

No. Life has no inherit meaning except from the biological perspectivewhich is to pass on our genes. Nothing more. Nothing less. Biology doesnttell us that we must go to college, buy the house with the white picket fence,marry our one true love, buy the new car, or the summer retreat. Thereality is that biology doesnt say much of anything, it guides like I said, withan invisible hand. It works from behind the scenes. Its the silent partner.

Theres a voice inside that says, There must be something else. What aboutTracys face or the crabs at Sam Wos, or better yet, a babys smile? Allthose things are beautiful and stand to give meaning, but they are not partof life, they are part of the individuals life. Some people never see Tracyssmile, or eat the crabs at Sam Wos, or get to take in a babys smile. Whatabout those people? Is life NOT worth living? Perhaps, but that could be saidfor any of us. The point is that the purpose of life, the meaning behind itssignificance comes at an incredible cost. The individual has soleresponsibility to find their own significance, make a life, and as Camus said,

live to the point of tears.

This is our story, right? The main theme that runs through Sartresexistentialism, is that, we have no design, no set meaning, everything is forthe making, and its only the individual that could add this meaning andcreate. There is a twist. The choices we make, which make up who we are,are also choices that define the collective group, society as a whole, in otherwords, mankind. Thats the burden of existence. Its almost enough to keepus from acting, and rendering us perpetual spectators.

So, we have a dilemma The American writer and journalist, HunterThompson says, Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of

life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? Thats the question. Now that we got past the grim reality that life-in-itself has no intrinsic meaning and value, and its only the individual that is able tocreate meaning, were confronted with having to ask whether were up forthe task of sucking the marrow of life, or do we just sit by the shore andwatch? It is a gamble. The only certainty in life, is death, and everythingelse is up in the air. You just dont know what tomorrow will bring.


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Kierkegaard touches on this dilemma. Weve made a commitment to life andlife as a pursuit for the truth involves a leap of faith. There are manydifferent interpretations, and this is only one of them. Are you going to livethe triumphant life of a Nick Vujicic, otherwise known as the man withoutlimbs, or peer at life through a mousehole, as in, the unnamed character in

Dostoevskys Notes from Underground?, or will we sound more like,Prufrock:

For I have known them all already, known them all: /Have known theevenings, mornings, afternoons / I have measured out my life with coffeespoons..

Theres a moral question that arises out of our own existential dilemma.Theres a lesson in how to treat others, and to respect that which anotherperson finds significant, whether that significance be another person, or a

thing, which is never just a thing to the person that finds it significant.

William James says in What Makes a Life Significant:

In my previous talk, On a Certain Blindness, I tried to make you feel howsoaked and shot-through life is with values and meanings which we fail torealize because of our external and insensible point of view. The meaningsare there for the others, but they are not there for us. There lies more thana mere interest of curious speculation in understanding this. It has the mosttremendous practical importanceIt is the basis of all our tolerance, social,

religious, and political The first thing to learn in intercourse with others isnon-interference with their own peculiar ways of being happy, providedthose ways do not assume to interfere by violence with ours.

What James is highlighting is the fact that our significance(s) are on aperson to person basis. What makes my life significance, does justthatmakes MY life significant, not yours, however if youre somebody thatcan gain nutrition from what I find significant, then pull up a chair, andenjoy the meal. That which we find significant is person based, its not up toany one individual to judge or devalue that which anybody else findssignificant.

It was brought to my attention not too long ago by a friend that my interestin Woody Allen seems more like an obsession, and from the outside, I cansee how it would appear that way. However, as I see it, life-in-itself has novalue or meaning, and our own personal existence within life-in-itself isoften so difficult to feed ontologically and spiritually that when we do find


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something where we grow and develop, but more importantly, gives usmeaning and makes us happy, then I say run with it, take it as far as youcan, because Time doesnt discriminate on what it steals, our interests andenjoyments are often on Times list of things to destroy.

In closing, life-in-itself may have no meaning outside the blind biologicalforce pushing us along, but our own personal existence bears the potentialto create boundless significance. We have the potential to turn a bankruptexistence into a rich personal life. The follow up question to this and I willaddress it in the 2nd and 3rd lectures, is whether or not, this technologicalshift that is speeding up messaging and disconnecting us from the real fleshand bones of society is playing any role in shaping what we find significant.

what makes life worth living?

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