we who Dwell on this earth belong to one humanity there is but one God and we all her his children explain the quote
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Answer:
While some people find meaning through religion or acquiring wealth, John says that he finds Star Wars action figures to be a more flexible and organic expression of life’s relentless struggles and how we meet them. John’s wife tolerates his collection of action figures, but thinks it is a little too intense: “I feel like I’m surrounded by 500 tiny warriors poised for battle; I can think of more soothing decorations to place around the apartment.”
John’s action figure hobby is his way of addressing the notion of the meaning of life. This fundamental of all philosophical questions comes in a variety of forms:
• Does life have a purpose?
• What kind of life is worth living?
• How can I overcome despair?
• How can I achieve happiness?
• Why do I exist?
• Why should I exist?
• Do my life activities have any lasting value?
Each of these questions focuses on a unique point. The first, for example, asks whether there is an over-arching design or goal to human existence that might clarify our place in the grand scheme of things. The second asks whether some approaches to life are better than others. All of the above questions, though, presume that something’s not right with life as we currently experience it, and we’d like a solution to the problem.
Not everyone is plagued by questions of life’s meaning, and a good test for determining the grip that this has on you personally was suggested by German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche (1844-1900). In ancient times, philosophers from many cultures around the globe entertained a concept called the eternal return. On this view, the universe that we live in now is just one in an endless series of universes that occurs one right after another, each being identical with the others, right down to the tiniest detail. With our present universe, there are fixed laws of nature that determine how it unfolds, including everything about my own personal existence, such as how tall I am, who I married, the job that I have, and every word I ever uttered. Someday this universe will be destroyed by cosmic forces, and from its ashes a new universe will be formed. It too will be shaped by exactly the same laws of nature, and thus all events will unfold in exactly the same way, including my own life. This cycle of universes will continue again and again, forever. Whether you believe the theory of the eternal return is not important. What Nietzsche asks, though, is how you would feel if it was true, and for eternity you would be reliving the exact same events in your life, over and over, in each successive universe. If you would be OK with that, then likely you are not especially bothered by problems of life’s meaning. You are happy with this life, and you would be content living the identical life over and over. However, if the notion of the eternal return sounds like a nightmare to you, then maybe you have serious issues with the meaning of life as you experience it right now.
Philosophers are not the only ones interested in questions about life’s meaning. Psychological studies tell us that happiness declines in our 20s and returns around age 50. That’s a long period of personal struggle for each of us, and today’s self-help industry has jumped in to address our problems. While many of these involve specific concerns, such as relationship issues or alcohol dependence, others are more general in nature. A mid-life crisis or a “spiritual” crisis, for example, will often involve larger questions of purpose and fulfillment. Philosophical discussions of the meaning of life are not meant to compete with self-help therapies. The main appeal of philosophy’s contributions to this issue rests in the puzzle itself: here is a timeless problem that touches the core of human existence. What exactly is behind the problem and which, if any, of the standard solutions are plausible?
In this chapter we will look at the more famous problems and proposed solutions regarding life’s meaning that have attracted the interest of philosophers over the millennia. Many of the solutions come from ancient traditions, both religious and nonreligious. To get a complete picture of their approaches to life’s meaning, we would need to immerse ourselves in all the particulars of those traditions and the precisely defined lifestyles that they recommend. But the best we can do here is consider some dominant themes of these traditions, along with some common criticisms of them. The criticisms we will look at are not refutations of those traditions, and advocates of those traditions have responses to them. Rather, the critiques serve more to help define their limits rather than to simply dismiss them.