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 Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 1:00 pm
What is the ultimate goal of life?
Some will argue that humans exist only to procreate.
Others (including myself) will argue that the ultimate goal of life is happiness.
Maybe life has no goal.
According to the ideals of philosophy there must be a truth.
The goal here is to discover that truth, and then prove it.
-Alezunde
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 6:49 pm
The 'answer' I usually settle on is to acheive perfection, whatever that personal vision of perfection might be. Perfection might be simply reproducing, it might be happiness... it's whatever the person wants to define it as. There's no universal meaning or perfection that holds true for everyone. We all have to find our own goal.
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:45 pm
As far as I can tell, few people place much importance on absolute perfection.
In any case, for some people perfection might make them happy.
For others, reproducing makes them happy.
We each have our individual goals, but each one is in the pursuit of happiness.
-Alezunde
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 6:22 pm
Alezunde As far as I can tell, few people place much importance on absolute perfection. In any case, for some people perfection might make them happy. For others, reproducing makes them happy. We each have our individual goals, but each one is in the pursuit of happiness. -Alezunde True, people should not set up images of themselves that they cannot acheive... that is a form of neuroticism according to some psychological theorists. By perfection, I guess I didn't mean what people commonly think of as perfection. It is not a perfection without flaws, but rather it contains the flaws as part of itself. The perfection is whatever self-expectations you put on yourself, be it happiness, absolute happiness, or happiness just SOME of the time.
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 7:46 pm
I believe that as part of nature our goal in life is to reproduce and insure the survival of our species. This is what every other species does, and I don’t think humans are exempt from that.
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Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 1:23 pm
True - but unless life had some other point to it, why would reproduction matter?
-Alezunde
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Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 2:11 pm
There are some who would argue that life's purpose is to help one's fellow man... of course, that seems almost self contradictory; there needs to be a reason to help others, or else it wouldn't matter.
Others would argue for their religion, that we are here to serve a purpose decided by a god of some kind. However, that suggests that humanity is here for a diety's amusement, and I just don't like that idea. xd
Personally, I'm not sure yet. Perhaps the greatest purpose in life is to be happy, but what makes you happy may be morally wrong. I believe in morals, and in good and evil, (though I don't believe in pure good or pure evil) so I can't believe that self gratification is the purpose of life.
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Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 2:36 pm
First thing that came to my mind (I don't know why):
I think the ultimate goal in lifeis to gain as much knowledge and wisdom as possible.
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Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 2:41 pm
But then, what is the point of becoming wise and knowledgeable? Is it just to collect knowlege for its own sake?
(That's my ultimate goal, though.)
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 12:08 am
The collection of knowledge and wisdom will in turn produce your happiness.
I believe that the more you know about life, the easier it is to live a good and happy life.
"Life is a festival only to the wise." - Ralph Emerson
If something that is morally wrong makes you happy, then in the end I think it will not make you happy.
For one: I have heard many times over that the energy you put into the universe (good or bad) will multiply when it returns to you.
I have no solid argument to back this up, however.
Two: The sources I refer to suggest that if the point of life is happiness, then it is not only your happiness that matters, but that of others.
Of course, if you were the type of person who enjoyed killing people, then perhaps this detail would matter little.
I think that the ultimate goal in life would probably be desirable no matter who you were.
According to these last two lines of thought, then the ultimate goal must somehow be appealing to even the sadistic killer types.
This seems to be delving deeply into the realm of psychology, of which I am not as knowledgeable.
Wow... I'm tired and I can't go on about this any longer. (My thoughts are beginning to fragment!)
This warrants further discussion and thought.
-Alezunde
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 10:06 am
Wait -- I understand now...
We can only theroize about what the ultamite goal of life is during our time on earth, because we still don't understand what happens after death, and death is a part of life.
Anyone else follow me on this? sweatdrop
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 11:26 am
Alezunde True - but unless life had some other point to it, why would reproduction matter? -Alezunde Well their are other personal goals like, happyness, wealth, or knowlede. But it my belief that the main goal is insuring the fate of our species. We live in the future, making sure the next generation has every acomidation it needs to help the generation that will come after it.
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 12:05 pm
Alezunde Two: The sources I refer to suggest that if the point of life is happiness, then it is not only your happiness that matters, but that of others. Of course, if you were the type of person who enjoyed killing people, then perhaps this detail would matter little. That's mostly what I meant when I said that the purpose of life is not simply self-gratification. I don't know for sure whether there are human beings who enjoy killing others, or enjoy making others miserable, but if there are, happiness isn't neccesarily good.
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 1:37 pm
Then you have to wonder if what they're feeling is truly happiness?
-Alezunde
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 6:13 pm
I used to thing there was no purpose in life, but after reading the Jehovah Witness book Is There a Creator Who Cares About You?, I know think there has to be a purpose. The purpose of life is happiness, and the pursuit of Paradise. (I am not a Jehovah Witness, that was just a really, really good book)
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