The Meaning of Life - Essay Example

? Henry Nabea # Philosophy # 07/ 05/ The Meaning of Life What is the meaning of life? Does life have any meaning at all or is life meaningless? This philosophical question is one of the most intractable questions in Philosophy. It is difficult to give a universal definition of life because different people have different conceptions of life. The problem of defining the meaning of life is further compounded by the fact that it is difficult to pin-point the referent of the term life; what does the term life refer to? (Solomon, 44). While contemplating on the meaning of life in his confessions, Leo Tolstoy concluded that life is evil and meaningless (28-29). Tolstoy saw life as something that ought to be avoided, rather than sought or wished for. But a critical analysis of Tolstoy’s view on life shows that his view on life is flawed and untrue. Tolstoy’s view of life is false, first and foremost, on logical grounds. To lay bare the logical weaknesses of Tolstoy’s anti-life argument, it is necessary to first analyze his argument logically, and then point out its weaknesses. Tolstoy’s nihilistic attitude to life was informed by his experiences in life which made him to conclude that life is utterly meaningless. Tolstoy was brought up in a Christian Orthodoxy family and he was taught catechism, but later in life, he lost his faith and stopped going to church. Prior to developing this anti-life attitude, Tolstoy had attempted many things in life in an effort to become wealthy and famous. He had committed all sorts of evils to achieve this goal (Tolstoy, 18). Tolstoy, also, tried very hard to be perfect in whatever he did, so as to become a respected and a famous person. Eventually, Tolstoy’s efforts paid off and he achieved his objectives of becoming wealthy and famous; Tolstoy had stable family, his businesses were doing well, and he was a respected and a well known person. But despite these achievements, Tolstoy wasn’t a happy person; he became deeply distressed in life. At one point he contemplated committing suicide (Tolstoy, 29). Amidst this emotional torture, it dawned on Tolstoy that despite all his achievements in life, death was the inevitable eventuality awaiting him. Tolstoy realized that soon or later, he would die, decompose, and all his efforts and achievements in life would be all in vain. Tolstoy, therefore, conceived life as one big evil that ought to be avoided. He saw the whole of life as being useless since no matter how much we struggle to be successful, we will ultimately die and leave everything that we have worked for.Tolstoy’s argument of life as being meaningless can be logically expressed as follows: First premise, it is meaningless to live and eventually die Second Premise, in human life death is inevitable Conclusion, human life, is therefore, meaningless A critical and logical analysis of this argument shows that the argument is indeed valid, for the conclusion follows necessarily from the premises, but the argument is, however, unsound. While the second premise is true, that death is an inevitable eventuality to all human beings, the first premise, however, is false because the meaning of life doesn’t lie in whether or not human life is mortal or immortal. A critical analysis of this proposition that, it is meaningless to live and die, shows that Tolstoy is wrong in this claim. The main reason that Tolstoy would use to counter my thesis and to support his claim that it is meaningless to live and eventually die, is that after death, we will not be able to enjoy the fruits of our labour and all our fame and our knowledge/learning in life will become of no more use to us. So on this basis, Tolstoy concludes that life is meaningless. Tolstoy was influenced to make this conclusion by the fact that, even while we are alive, despite our outstanding achievements in life, life is full of misery and, therefore, there is no point of living in perpetual struggle and misery, and eventually we die. Tolstoy, therefore, argues that life would only be meaningful if people don’t die; if human beings are immortal. But this claim is false because the meaning of life doesn’t lie in how long one will live, but rather in how one conceives their purpose of life to be (Solomon, 46). But a critical look at the argument that Tolstoy would use to refute my thesis shows that Tolstoy is wrong on this issue. First, Tolstoy did not qualify his claim why he thinks that if human life were immortal, then human life would have meaning. What if human life was endless, but full of misery, would human beings still find meaning is such kind of life? The fact that many people in the world find life meaningful, despite the fact that they know that eventually they will die, shows that the meaning of life cannot possibly lie in the length of life. Tolstoy’s argument seems to suggest that the longer one lives, the happier they will be. But from our experiences in life we know that some people grow to very old age and yet they are unhappy throughout their lives, while there are some people who live for a relatively short time, but they find meaning in life and they live happily for the short time that they live. Secondly, Tolstoy’s claim that when we die we lose everything that we have worked for in life is not true. It all depends on our view of life. For the people who view their life as a mission, fulfilling their mission in life is the meaning of their lives and once they have fulfilled that mission, they wouldn’t count death as a loss of any kind since whatever they did in life was with the aim of accomplishing their mission in life. And once that mission is accomplished, they don’t see their efforts in life as meaningless at the time of their death. Again, for the parents whose sole objective and meaning of life is their children, bequeathing their wealth in life to their children is all they want in life. Such parents do everything in their lives for the sake of their children. For such parents, they don’t consider their efforts in life as meaningless once they have bequeathed upon their children all the fruits of their efforts. Tolstoy’s nihilistic view of life, therefore, seems to have been driven by some egocentric attitude of life that, all what matters in life is what one puts into personal use. This position is untrue and untenable. Further critical analysis of Tolstoy’s anti-life attitude shows that his views on life were chiefly driven by the ‘’restlessness’’ and the discomfort that he experienced even after attaining what he held as the highest and the noblest goals in his life, i.e., becoming wealthy and famous. It is after this emotional turmoil that Tolstoy got into serious contemplation on the meaning o life. And the conclusion was that life is unworthy living. But as St. Augustine of Hippo argues, in his confessions (Pusey, 81), this restlessness can be overcome only in knowing and dedication one’s life to God. It is important to note that when Tolstoy was practising Christian before discarding the Christian beliefs, he did not have this emotional turmoil. His problems began when he lost his faith and started looking for what he felt was the highest good in his life, but after achieving these goals, he remained restless and unhappy as before. But later when he started rethinking about the truth of Christianity, especially, surrendering one’s life to Jesus Christ, he temporarily regained peace in his heart, although he still held that the teachings of Christianity are false and meant to console the believers. But the fact that Tolstoy was able to regain some modicum of peace in his heart after rethinking about the truth of Christianity and the possibility of accepting Christian believes again shows that St. Augustine was indeed right in his claim that our hearts can find peace only in God. This fact is further corroborated by the fact that majority of the scholars who have nihilistic attitude towards life are atheistic scholars. Tolstoy’s claim that life is meaningless can also be refuted from a linguistic point of view. Scholars in Philosophy of language claim that a term can have meaning not only from its referent, but also from the context of the language in which it is used. We can therefore, by analogy, argue that the meaning of life can be found in the context of our life, the sense that the term life makes to us and the sense that we give to the term, rather than reference to anything outside life (Solomon, 5o). In this sense, the meaning of life is what we live for, or our chief objectives in life. For instance, for a person who lives for God, devotion to God is the meanings of their lives, while for a person who lives for their children, having children is the meaning of their lives (Solomon, 50). And to a person who has dedicated his life to the proposition that life is meaningless, then the life of such a person is the meaning of their lives. From a linguistic perspective, therefore, life indeed has a meaning. This point shows that Tolstoy’s view on life is false. Understanding life in Linguistic perspective, however, does not give us a universal meaning of life. The meaning of life in the linguistic perspective is relative and in this sense we have different meanings of life depending on how one conceives life. Some of the commonly conceptions of life are as follows. Life as a game (Solomon, 51) Some people view life as a game. Viewing life as a game means that we should not take life too seriously. But if you have a view of life as a game, it is important to know exactly what kind of game. Some games are played just for fun, while others are played to pass time; other games are played to prove superiority (like Wrestling), while others are played with the sole purpose of winning. So if you have the view of life as a game meant to win, you will then be very competitive in life since your goal in life will be to win. On the contrary, if your view of life is a game meant for fun, you will be less competitive in life. Life as a Mission (Solomon, 54) People who view life as being a mission have a particular goal that they would like to fulfil in their lives. Christianity teaches that human beings were created in the image and likeness of God, and as such, God has given each of them a mission to fulfil. So, for the Christians, life is all about fulfilling one’s mission in life. Apart from the Christians, different other people view their lives as being a mission. For instance, some politicians view their missions in live as liberating the oppressed and the lowly members of their societies. Other people view their lives mission as being study, while for others it is fight for justice. Life as Learning (Solomon, 59-60) Some people view life as an endless learning process. Many of these people dedicate the whole of their lives to study. People study for various purposes, some study to either discover something or to have knowledge to teach others, while other people, likes philosophers, learn for the sake of knowledge itself. Philosophy encourages contemplation as a way of life. Conclusion In conclusion, from the critical analysis that we have made on Tolstoy’s anti-life argument, it is clear that Tolstoy is wrong in his claim that life is meaningless. Tolstoy’s argument is based on the false assumption that life can have meaning only if it is immortal. But we have seen that the meaning of life doesn’t lie in whether life is immortal or not, but rather in the meaning that one attaches to their lives. Life, indeed, has meaning but the meaning of life is relative and depends on what one conceives as the purpose of their lives. My thesis in this paper is quite important because I have succeeded in refuting Tolstoy’s anti-life claim, and by that I have shown that life is meaningful, and not useless. Works Cited Pusey, E. (trans). The Confessions of St. Augustine.Web. Retrieved on, 07/05/2013. From: https://ww w.google.com/url?q=http://sparks.eserver.org/books/augustin> Solomon, R.C., Higgins, K.M. The Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy. (8th edt.). USA: Wadsworth, 2006. Web. Tolstoy, L. Confession.David Patterson (trans). USA, New York: Norton & Company, 1983.Web. Read More