The Meaning of Life
One question many people inadvertently ask at one stage in their
lives, is what is the meaning of life? Each person is created
unique, hence different people have different answers. As Albert
Camus, a French philosopher, wrote: I see many people die because
they judge that life is not worth living. I see others
paradoxically getting killed for the ideas and illusions that give
them a reason for living. From this very true statement, we see
that different people have different reasons for living, and thus
the question about what the meaning of our lives is is a rather
important question.
Philosophers, being philosophers, have long debated on this topic
as well. In this essay I would like to cover two branches of
philosophical thought that talk about the meaning of life, and they
are existentialism and nihilism.
Existentialism is a philosophical thought that views the
individual, the self, the individual's experience, and the
uniqueness within a person as the basis for understanding the
nature of human existence, and it believes the person himself
defines the meaning of life. The French philosopher, Jean-Paul
Sartre, talked about the belief of the freedom of the individual,
in which we have no choice but to create our own values. By doing
so, we are hence laying down the basis of our life, the reason of
our existence. He also said that existence precedes essence, and
the essence of who we are is determined by our actions and
thoughts, rather than by our own existence. Hence the power to
choose is at the forefront of most existentialists beliefs, and
most do not believe in fate or destiny.
One of the most prominent concepts in Existentialism is individual
freedom. The main idea of existentialism depends on individual
freedom, and this concept forms the foundation of existentialism.
Only when we act on our own completely free will can we be held
responsible for our existence.
Nihilism is a philosophical view that the world, together with and
especially human existence, is without any meaning, purpose,
comprehensible truth, or essential value. Nihilism is most often
associated with Friedrich Nietzsche, due to the fact that he
mentioned that God is Dead. Nietzsche defined nihilism as any
philosophy that rejects the real world and our physical existence
and this would result in an apathy toward life. He describes it as
"the will to nothingness", the desire to destroy meaning,
knowledge, and value.
Nietzsche proposed a remedy to counter the destructive effects of
nihilism, and this is the ubermensch. To be an ubermensch, one must
give value to their existence by behaving as if one's very
existence were a work of art. Nietzsche believed that being
ubermensch would be a necessity for human survival in the
post-religious era, which he claimed we are living in right now,
when he said that God is Dead. Another way Nietzsche proposed to
remedy nihilism is that we go through a revaluation of our
morals.
Now it comes to the point where I have to give my personal views on
the topic. I probably can be said to have an existentialists stand
when I say that the meaning of a persons life is dictated by the
person himself/herself. As I wrote earlier, the French philosopher
Albus Camus saw many people dying because they themselves judge
that life is not worth living. He also said that he saw others
getting killed for the ideas and illusions that give them a reason
for living. What Camus observed are two extremes of a meaning of
life spectrum.
We as humans were created mostly alike, with slight differences in
build, intelligence, et cetera, we were mostly created equal.
However, people would be brought up in different environments, and
this would result in vast differences in thinking, and hence, their
perceptions of their meaning of life. The first group that Camus
talked about, are people who find no meaning in life, and are
similar to nihilists. These people can be loosely classified into
two groups, people who once had an earthly possession or dream that
they lost, hence they lose their meaning of life, and the other
group is the true nihilists, and people who have come to a
conclusion, logically, that life has no meaning.
On the other side of the meaning of life spectrum, lies the
successful existentialist. This group consists of idealists, rebels
with a cause, and people who live life to the fullest. Sometimes,
these people even give their lives for what they think their sole
purpose of existence is, people such as religious extremists,
martyrs, separatists or political activists with strong attachments
to their cause. In a way, these people let their meaning of life
dictate the way they use their lives.
Arguably, there would be some people who would subscribe to a
biological point of view, where they see humans being one of the
many species in the world, and our main purpose, no different from
the other animals, are to survive, procreate and pass on their
genes. This can be seen in a certain peoples behaviour, where all
they care about is becoming successful (survival of the fittest)
getting married and starting a family.
Personally, I feel that ideally, a person should fall in the middle
of this spectrum, and I would say that I believe in a combination
of theism (God giving our lives meaning) and existentialism. Being
a Christian, I would feel that the meaning of my life would be to
serve and obey Gods commandments, and that He has a purpose for
creating us. Our purpose in life is therefore to develop a personal
relationship with God, which would be more important than any other
worldly aims or ambitions, which we see as temporal.
Certain existentialist aspects of my life still come into play, as
long as it does not conflict with the teachings of the Bible. I do
have my dreams and my ambitions, and that, together with God, gives
me a reason to strive for certain things, gives my life meaning and
a lot to hope for, both in the near future, and in the realm of the
eternal.
To conclude, I would like to say that secularly speaking, I take an
existentialist standpoint, and that the meaning of life would be
different from person to person. However, it would be up to the
individual to give meaning to his/her own life, and live it to the
best that he/she can. I totally disagree with a nihilistic
standpoint that life has no purpose or meaning. I would say that
theistic existentialism, or even existentialism in itself would be
enough to give a meaning to life if you try hard enough.
