Comparing Nietzsche 's ' Vision Of Geothe

How many times have you contemplated your purpose? Whether it be in life, in school, or in the universe as a whole. Human beings roam this planet in search of their meaning in life. They go on wild soul-searching adventures, take time off to rediscover themselves, or try to make a change in the world in hopes of finding their lives purpose. In chapter six of Daniel H. Pinks non-fiction book; “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us,” Pink discusses how people who do something in the service of some greater objective can achieve more in life than those who don't.

Throughout generations in literature, “to live deliberately” has been the goal and purpose of life. As Alexander Supertramp (aka Chris McCandless) said, “The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun” (57).

Susan R. Wolf (born 1952) is a moral philosopher who works extensively on the meaning of human life and is the Edna J. Koury Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Wolf addresses the questions of the meaning of life in hope to distinguish the characteristics and reasoning that gives meaning to life. According to Susan Wolf view about the meaning in life, “I would say that meaningful life are lives of active engagement in projects of worth… two key phrases, ‘active engagement’ and ‘projects of worth’” (Wolf, 205). However, I believe that her proposal leaves out our basic motives and reasoning that’s

"People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive...." Joseph Campbell made this comment on the search for meaning common to every man's life. His statement implies that what we seem bent on finding is that higher spark for which we would all be willing to live or die; we look for some key equation through which we might tie all of the experiences of our life and feel the satisfaction of action toward a goal, rather than the emptiness which sometimes consumes the activities of our existence. He states, however, that we will never find some great

He said people are happier if they live in wealthy than poor nations. However, when people have enough money to pay for their basic need of food, shelter, etc., money does relatively little to improve happiness. He said people today are twice as rich as people in the late 1960s, but they were less happy than people in the 1960s. In the article “Spending Become You” the author Juliet Schor argues that Americans are looking for happiness, so that lead them to continuously buy so much and overspend without even realizing that they are spending more than they make. David G Myers, in the article “ The Funds, and Faith of Happy people” he argues that it is impossible what these people are doing, because money can’t buy happiness. This shows that, the American habit of overspending is unnecessary. Myers’ article enables us to understand why Schor said, all that Americans do is spend, spend and spend as if they can’t have fun without spending

Personal Viewpoint of Chapter One of ‘Born To Be Good – The science of a meaningful life,’ by Dacher Keltner

Many people consider their lives to be a quest for purpose. They search through vocations, relationships, hobbies, and religions to find meaning. Some find it in power. Others find it in money. Some think that they have found it when, in reality, it could not be further from them.

Americans live in an era of out of control spending that is driven by materialism. Children at a young age become well acquainted with the idea that owning the newest and best puts a greater amount of value into one’s life. Unfortunately, for many, this negatively translates into adulthood. Materialism is the root of millions of American citizen’s insurmountable amounts of debt. People have the desire to appear to their family and friends as though they are living lifestyles of luxury, when in reality, they are simply digging themselves a hole of debt they will never escape. But not only is trying to keep up a wealthy persona costly, it also entails a vicious, draining cycle that constantly leaves the consumer

The “I want it now” tendency causes individuals to think solely about what will make them happy in the moment, versus what will bring them true happiness in the future. Unfortunately, a majority of this thinking is influenced by the massive pressures associated with keeping up with consumer trends (Holland, 2015). Ultimately, materialism is responsible for a truly startling statistic; nearly eight in every ten Americans face insurmountable debts they will be unable to pay off within the course of their lifetime (Holland, 2015). In the 21st century, people are no longer willing to take time and save adequate amounts of money in order to entirely afford their purchases. The American Dream today is greatly associated with the material items one has, compared to what will be essential later in life; enough money to retire comfortably, possibly even the opportunity to fully pay off a mortgage or college loans. Overall, the American Dream has negatively shifted because of the desire for material items, and individuals have a significantly smaller focus on the effects of copious spending on their future

Aristotle believed that we find the good when we find our purpose we will also find “the good.”

As Austrian writer Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach wrote,“To be content with little is difficult; to be content with much, impossible.” History and literature have established that the ideal goal every American has wanted is for his thirst for material possessions to be reached, but even then, the individual isn’t truly happy. Money, and the things it can get you, have long been a part of American culture and the materialist culture of society have been examined in numerous ways from novels to the art of those like Andy Warhol. A life free from the economic woes that plague almost everyone seems like the quintessential existence, but material wealth is not a way to mend issues.

We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering. The first, the way of achievement or accomplishment, is quite obvious. The second way of finding a meaning in life is by experiencing something – such as goodness, truth and beauty- by experiencing nature and culture or, last but not least, by experiencing another human being in his very uniqueness by loving him.

Presumably, since the beginning of time, we, as human beings, have tirelessly sought out answers toward a greater, predetermined and/or significant purpose in our lives. The question is still unanswered, but the desire remains—what is the point? The contradiction between searching for order, reason or existential purpose and the inability to find any type of purpose in an essentially meaningless and indifferent universe is what French philosopher, Albert Camus, considered “Absurd.” Any hopeful searching for concrete meanings is met with the discouraging and disheartening realization that there are no true meanings. For many of us, the idea of the world being made with no fated purpose or that any individual effort made toward changing the

What is the reason for our remaining alive? For what have we come here? Day after day we are being asked about the sense and purpose of our lives. And many of us keep on searching for answers. Will we be able to achieve happiness? That is also a question that forces us every day to find out its answer. What happens if the answer to those queries is quite uncomplicated? What if it is all about ONE thing? Bonding. The secret of happiness is explained perfectly in the stimulating voice of Masami Sato in the excerpt of her book, ONE.

The purpose or meaning of life is ‘What you make of it’ for yourself. It is a set of values and associated goals that give life shape and direction (162) suggesting that life is a journey or a process in which we continue to grow to. This journey is different for each individual as everyone has different experiences but it does not mean that not everyone will share similar experiences. In living our own ‘good life’, it means we have bypassed conventional values and have freedom to think for ourselves and be responsible for our own choices. By following another person 's meaning of life we are dishonouring ourselves because we are living out someone else good life and not ours. It means that we are not capable of thinking for ourselves and are bounded by a set of values we do not truly believe. Thus, we never truly flourish or have a meaningful life.