The Meaning Of Life By Julian Baggini

In Larry Lankton’s text, “Beyond the Boundaries” we gradually enter an unknown world that is frightening yet filled with immense beauty for miles. Due to the copper mining industry, a gradual increase of working class men and their families start to migrate to the unknown world with unsteady emotion, yet hope for a prosperous new life. In “Beyond the Boundaries”, Lankton takes us on a journey on how the “world below” transformed the upper peninsula into a functional and accepted new part of the world.

Annie Dillard’s “This is the Life”, an addition to the publication of “A Journal of Art and Religion”, Dillard persuades the readers to ponder the purpose of their lives. Dillard provokes self-contemplation through asking and repeating rhetorical questions and phrases, illusions that support her point, and an inspirational didactic tone.

A powerful quote said by pre-socratic philosopher named Democritus says “Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul”. In other words, happiness does not come from materialism but instead from the things money can’t buy. In the article The Secret of Happiness the author David Myers writes directly to Americans about how he believes we need to obtain a new “American Dream” that emphasizes personal happiness instead of materialistic happiness. Myers also believes happiness resides in the soul and he says people that think money is the key to happiness are actually less content with themselves and he uses various ways to prove this point. With that being said materialistic happiness vs personal happiness is an important issue, and Myers made a strong use of Logos by showing surveys and studies, Ethos by showing credibility in his argument but he could have used more Pathos by using more emotion and enthusiasm in his argument.

Anthropology and genetics are two fields that, when put together, discover some amazing things. Most of these amazing things are written in the book The Journey of Man, by Spencer Wells. In it, he explains where humans originated from, and how we came to populate the entire globe. It is both humbling and riveting, and a great start to understanding how much work truly goes in to studying our past.

In society there are still differences in classes such as higher class, middle class, and lower class. In sociology, we observed a film called The Pursuit Happyness, where we witnessed the struggles a father went through to succeed. Chris Gardner, who was played by Will Smith, is living in his apartment with his wife and his son. Due to their struggles, the mother walks out on and leaves Chris struggling alone with his son. In the film Chris Gardner applies for an unpaid internship for a competitive stockbroker company where out of twenty men, only one gets the job. While he is on his internship, we see the hardships of getting kicked out of his apartment to staying at a shelter home to then sleeping in a subway bathroom with his son. Viewing the movie through a sociological lens, The Pursuit of Happyness will be analyzed according to the major three sociological paradigms: structural functionalism, social conflict theory, and symbolic interactionalism.

The novel, “Afterlife” by Gary Soto was mostly about how this guy named Chuy who was killed in a Club, Club Estrella to be specific. He was killed in the men’s bathroom for complimenting someone else’s shoes, which were yellow. He got stabbed 3 times, and was left there till dying. He then became a ghost, a ghost who couldn’t be heard, seen or touched. He could see everything that was going on, but couldn’t do anything about it. After the ambulance had taken him away, he was already dead, or i mean the body was already dead. When his parents got the news Chuy went to visit them to say one last goodbye, he also visited his school, and the girl he used to like for a long time. He then found this girl named Crystal, who had killed herself taking

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

Society tends to live day to day without much question of their own existence. Humans are born into the world and without second thought begin to live their lives, but there comes a time when individuals begin to question the reason for their being. In Richard Taylor’s, “The Meaning of Life”, Taylor explores the thought that our existence, when viewed externally without our prejudices, is fundamentally pointless. A thorough analysis of Taylor’s ideas will be given to understand the reasoning behind his thoughts, his argument will then be defended from counter arguments that state that the meaning behind any entity’s life could have any alternative meaning.

After reading “The Gospel of Life”, JP II touches on a number of issues concerning the value of human life. The five most important elements concerning a complete vision of human dignity would be:

In Richard Taylor’s chapter “Meaning of Life”, he concluded that objectively, life is meaningless. He stressed his opinion by arguing that life tends to be a cycle of goals that cumulate to nothing. These goals require sequences of exhausting work and attempt that will continue throughout the rest of life but will have no meaning. As one goal is reached, the next is sought out for, forgetting the one that was just achieved. I do not support Taylor on his objective meaningless of life. Life has a meaning, even if it is just being alive, we were created by God and he has a plan for us. Goals help us become better people and they are important to us. Taylor explained that we can find meaning in our lives when a will is put behind our actions. This means that meaningfulness can be found within the veins of anyone. I agree with Taylor, that our actions should be of interest to us, yet his account fails to show that they will make our lives have a meaning. There is no validation, that a change of the state of mind will cause our lives to achieve meaning.

In the article, “The Experience of a Lifetime” by Anthony Ianni, he talks about his experience with having autism and playing sports. At the age of five, Ianni was diagnosed with autism. Doctors and specialist told him that he would barely graduated high school, wouldn't go to college, and wouldn't be a skilled athlete. After graduating high school, Ianni continued his education at Michigan State University(MSU) and even played on the basketball team. He explains how he was nervous for college because he always had a difficult time in school.

This final line again builds up on the concept throughout the play that being a “man” has certain qualities such as courage, determination and the willingness to act upon words. The protagonists viewed Young Siward as a true gallant, due to his bravery in fighting Macbeth and his strong commitment to his values even if he had been just a young man. Since Young Siward is just a child, he has not yet developed the complex levels of understanding held by Malcolm and Macduff that having too much self confidence can be the downfall of any man, no matter the age. The use of “man in this scene signifies wisdom, strength, and acting as an adult

From his book "Man's Search for Meaning", Victor Frankl has proven from overcoming one of the most daunting, horrendous human experiences that he is not only very intelligent, but has one of the strongest sets of a heart and mind this world has ever seen. What's most incredible to me is that he not only made it through the center of the deadliest world war and endured the highest form of human mental and physical suffering, he had the strength and will to write about it. What I really enjoyed the most about Frankl in his story was his unique, first person view of the world around him and his efforts to relay the realities of that world in the most objective way possible. It's as if he knew he would one day have to deliver his experience to the world so he made a choice to use his intellect and imagination from the start of his experiences. I can't even begin to imagine what he and other holocaust survivors endured, even more so choosing to re-live every second of those memories after the experience by writing a book about them. It seems, from his writings, he made the difficult decision to write the book because of his concluding that having an account to his experiences for the people of the world to look upon and learn from was more important than the intense mental strife the process of writing the book would have on him. For that I greatly respect this author and educator for if it weren't for his strength we would not have the great, positive and

Bernard Roth, a Professor at the d. school in California, has an impressively valid outlook as to why all reasons given are bullshit. Roth provides numerous examples of people who use regularly use excuses to manage everyday life; however, he also plays the devil’s advocate when stating that excuses may help you in the current situation but will it assist you at all in the long run? In the second chapter of his book, Roth classifies the use of excuses into several categories; ethically, logically, and emotionally. Although I understand Roth’s beliefs, there are multiple areas I fundamentally disagree with. Such as, some excuses must be explained no matter what the circumstances were since the reasoning is important.

Everyone in the universe needs to know the secret of life which is mystery for all. Many theories came on the surface telling us about the purpose of life or the secret. One of theories said that the secret of life inside the brain because human the only creature who has the ability of perception. On the other hands, the secret of life inside the heart because when the heart beat stopped the creature will die.