Cyrenaki were supporters of one of the branches of the teachings of Socrates. This group was founded around 400 BC in North Africa and was led by Aristippus, one of Socrates' students. Their teaching contained the position that the experience and knowledge available to an individual is always subjective. Therefore, no one can see the world the way another sees it. They also believed that we know nothing definite about the world, and that the only knowledge available is sensory experience.
They taught that the only purpose of life is to experience pleasure in the present, instead of making plans for the future. Physical pleasures are paramount and a person should take all measures to maximize their quantity. All in all, it was a very selfish point of view that gave pleasure individual person above the welfare of the community, city or country.
The Cyrenaics ignored not only foreign philosophy, but also traditional social norms. So, Aristippus taught that there is nothing bad in incest - in his opinion, only social convention led to the taboo of related marriages.
Moism
Moism was being developed by Chinese philosophers around the same time that Cyrenaics appeared in the Hellenistic world. This teaching was created by Mo Di, who was one of the first in China to raise the question of the meaning of life. He outlined 10 principles that people should follow in Everyday life, the central of which was impartiality.
According to this teaching, the meaning of life will be achieved when each person equally pays attention to everyone else, without putting any of the people above the others. This meant, of course, the rejection of luxury, wealth and pleasure. Mohists saw the ideal of human relations in equality and believed that they would be rewarded for this with the same equality in the afterlife.
Cynics
The Cynics were another group close to Socrates. They found the meaning of life in living more in obedience to the natural order of things, rather than ethics and traditions. Cynics believed that such social conventions, such as wealth or hypocrisy, prevent people from achieving the virtues.
They did not abandon social institutions entirely, but believed that each person develops his own personal ideas about good and evil and has the right to go against society, following his own principles. From this arose the principle of "paresis" - the principle of telling the truth.
Another important principle of cynicism was self-sufficiency. Cynics believed that a person can maintain freedom only if he is ready at any moment to refuse communication with other people and the benefits of civilization.
Albert Einstein
Einstein was one of the most prominent representatives of mankind. In 1951, a young woman asked him in a letter what the meaning of life was. The answer was short: "To create satisfaction for yourself and for others."
In a letter to his son Edward, Einstein was more specific. He wrote to him that he believes in "a higher stage of consciousness as the highest ideal" and that the human ability to create new things out of nothing is more than we might think. It is the act of creation that allows us to experience happiness. He also reminded that you need to create not out of a desire to be remembered, but out of love for the thing you create.
Darwinism
Charles Darwin had a complicated relationship with religion and with the religious meaning of the meaning of life. Initially, he adhered to Christian beliefs, but later his ideas were noticeably shaken.
Some of his heirs began to practically deify evolution - after all, it was it that ensured the appearance of man. They see in this the highest meaning of evolution and believe that it inevitably had to lead to modern people. Some, on the contrary, emphasize that evolution is a combination of a chain of chance and survival abilities. But both of them agree that the meaning of life is to pass on part of their DNA to future generations.
Nihilism
Most often, the word "nihilism" is associated with the predecessors of the Russian revolutionaries of the early 20th century, but this term is much more complicated. Nihilism - from the Latin hihil ("nothing") - believes that such things as "value" or "meaning" do not exist in nature, and therefore the existence of man has no meaning.
Nietzsche believed that the spread of nihilistic beliefs would eventually lead to the fact that people would cease any activity in principle. This, as we see, did not happen, but nihilism as indifference to what is happening still remains popular.
Tibetan philosophy
These teachings are common in Tibet and other parts of the Himalayas. Tibetan philosophy, very similar to classical Buddhism, believes that the meaning of life is the cessation of earthly suffering. The first step to this is understanding the world. By understanding the world, you can come to the knowledge necessary to end suffering.
Philosophy provides an opportunity to choose the "Path of small opportunities", on which a person is primarily concerned with his salvation from the world, or the "Path of great opportunities", on which a person helps others. The true meaning of life is found in practice. Tibetan philosophy is also remembered for the fact that it offers its followers precise instructions for behavior.
epicureans
Epicurean philosophy is often oversimplified. According to Epicurus, everything consists of the smallest particles, including the human body, which is made up of particles of the soul. Without soul particles, the body is dead, and without the body, the soul is unable to perceive the outside world. Thus, after death, neither the soul nor the body is able to continue to exist. After death there is no punishment, no reward, nothing. This means that a person needs to concentrate on earthly affairs.
Soul particles are capable of experiencing both pleasure and pain. Therefore, you need to avoid pain and enjoy. With what we cannot control (unexpected death), we just need to come to terms.
This does not mean that you can do whatever you want. Even if a bank robbery brings some pleasant experiences, a real epicurean remembers that feelings of guilt and anxiety can bring more discomfort later. Epicureans are also committed to friendship, the sweetest, safest, and most secure feeling that a person can have.
Aztec philosophy
The highest meaning of life for the Aztecs was to live in harmony with nature. Such a life allows the continuation of energy and the formation of new generations. This energy was called "teotl" and was not a deity, but something like the Jedi Force. Teotl fills the world, all our knowledge and extends beyond knowledge.
In teotl there are polar opposites that fight with each other and thus maintain balance in the universe. Neither life nor death is bad - they are just part of the cycle. The Aztecs believed that it was best to stay in the middle, not striving for wealth and using what you already have wisely. This was a guarantee that the children would receive the world in the same state as their fathers.
Stephen Fry and the Humanists
Stephen Fry - one of the brightest representatives of modern humanism - raises the question of the meaning of life in such a way that it concerns everyone, regardless of gender, beliefs, race or age. In humanism there is no specific meaning of life. Each person finds their own meaning in life. Instead of looking for it outside, a person should find it within himself, thinking about what makes him happy.
Because the meaning of life will really be different for each of us. Someone wants to create a masterpiece, someone - a charitable foundation. Or plant a garden, adopt a child, pick up an animal from the street... There is no single correct answer to the question about the meaning of life - everyone develops this answer on their own. And it seems that this theory allows the greatest number of people to be happy.
Contradictions in the interaction of the natural and the social in a person pose the problem of understanding and understanding the meaning of human existence for a person and society.
Reflecting on his fate, each person thinks not only about the content community development, about the state of society's spirituality, but also about the specific content and self-awareness of one's own life. Comprehending his own life, a person seeks an answer not only to the question of the objective meaning of his being, but also to the question of its subjective meaning. Reflections on the meaning and purpose of life for many people turn out to be the starting point in developing the main line of life. Deviations from this line often turn into moral experiences, and sometimes even the death of a person.
Questions about the meaning of life arise in the mind of a person not only when he is faced with critical everyday situations that cause spiritual breakdown and the collapse of ideals, but also in the conditions of everyday life. According to the well-known psychologist V. Frankl, the meaning of human life is not immutable, it undergoes constant changes generated by the course of life.
The purpose and meaning of the individual life of each person must be linked with social ideas and social ideals that determine the meaning of human history and the society in which this person lives and works.
Usually the meaning of life a person feels rather than knows. When a person tries to answer meaningful life questions, he first of all tries to formulate the conscious purpose of his existence, which organizes his life. Therefore, the question of the meaning of human life is closely connected with the problem of the individual's attitude and the search for socially justified goals.
Here we approach the problem of existentialism: life is meaningless from an objective point of view, we ourselves find the meaning of existence for ourselves, man - his own project (J.-P. Sartre). Is this true? As a problem statement, yes. But the interval approach also emphasizes an objective point: the fact is that the meaning of life is not only in me and for me, it is in some way determined by circumstances, my objective capabilities, the presence of certain givens, the possibility of entering certain social structures. When it is stated that there are different dimensions of human existence, nothing concrete has been said yet, we have only defined the methodology of the approach. The point is to show what exactly is the meaning of life in one dimension or another.
Of course, one can consider that the meaning of life is absolutely subjective (as the existentialists believe); in this case, any fantasy, whim can become the meaning of being. But more often, if we ask this question, we want to hear in response something non-trivial, genuine, a certain conclusion of "human wisdom" so that we do not waste time, do not go the wrong way, do not miss life's opportunities through ignorance.
The meaning of human existence is, of course, closely related to the central question "What is man?" But, as R. Tsaner writes, when I raise the question of human existence, I thereby call myself into question. Comprehending the existence of a person, I immediately find myself reflecting over my own existence. I, the questioner, am the questioner. I am both the subject and the object of research, and thus I am confronted with an unusual "meta-problem" that cannot be solved by the methods worked out in the empirical sciences or in traditional philosophy. We reveal ourselves as a being that concretely exists in search of itself.
In the history of the spiritual quest of mankind, three main directions can be distinguished in solving the central axiological problem: the meaning of life - is outside of life - in the objective orders of being, in God, the absolute, in transpersonal values, in serving man; inherent in life in its deepest foundations, in other words, the value and meaning of life - in life itself, wrote Goethe. According to J.-P. Sartre, a person projects, forms his own essence, his own meaning. Martin Heidegger believes that although subjectivity constructs itself, it does so through transcendental acts connected with reality. Another thinker, Merleau-Ponty, believes that "I" and "world" mutually determine each other.
Freedom of self-realization is opposed to alienation. The meaning of life is in free and spiritually full-fledged self-realization, in the creative identification of all potential possibilities. How to return to yourself, how to find peace in your soul, how to find harmony? If the idea of self-realization as a key life-meaning stratagem is correct, then it should be confirmed in the history of culture, in the spiritual practices of past eras, in religious and philosophical teachings. culture found various ways, technologies, procedures, recipes for self-realization. Every philosophical discovery of this type was accompanied by a recipe, a certain procedure. Freud proposed psychoanalysis, existentialists offer a mental situation "face to death", there are also different forms of meditation. Speaking about the fundamental dimensions of human existence, Martin Buber noted: "The triple vital attitude of a person is his attitude to the world and things, his attitude to people - to an individual person and to the human multitude, and his attitude to that mystery of being, which, although it shines through in the above relations, but infinitely surpasses them, to that mystery that the philosopher calls the absolute, and the believer God...". It is obvious that each of these relations is essential, i.e., defining the corresponding interval of human existence, in each of which human existence appears precisely as a given essence.
So, in the first interval, a person relates to another as to a thing, regardless of whether the thing in front of him is material or another person, because in this interaction a "subject-object" type of relationship is realized. Moreover, within the framework of the "material" world, a person himself acts as an object of manipulation by other people. Therefore, we can say that this is the world of inauthentic being, in which a person loses himself. In the second case, we have the realization of the "subject-subject" relationship, when a person treats the other not as a thing, a "talking tool", not as a means to achieve his subjective goals, but as a value in itself, as an end. Within the framework of this section of human relations, the alienation of a person from his own essence is overcome. Here the harmony of truth, goodness and beauty, the principles of freedom and justice are restored. This is the beginning of spirituality, but in its single expression (at the level of a family, a small social group). There is still no awareness of unity and harmony with the whole. Man has not yet risen to the understanding of the universal scale of spirituality, its transpersonal essence. In the third case, the "metaphysical" level of human existence is considered. In modern technocratic civilization, this level is often perceived as a third-rate, insignificant, almost as a deviation from the norm. Meanwhile, in the history of mankind there are epochs and countries where the cosmic dimension of being served as the basis of the worldview and the starting point of human existence.
So, there are three levels of existence of the individual - organic, social, spiritual. The first level is "I - It": a person cognizes the world, he examines the surface of things and gets acquainted with them, he obtains information about their structure. Thus, "I" cognizes Something. But, knowing Something as an object, as a thing among other things, a person remains not involved in the world. The fact is that the world is not involved in the process of cognition. Naturally, there may be another cut associated with an extra-utilitarian attitude. These are the relationships that M. Buber defines as a pair of "I - You". "Whoever says 'You' has no something as an object." "You" is limitless. The same idea can be expressed in other terms, namely, as two types of relationships - spirituality and without spirituality. Among all creatures on our Earth, man is the only one who is aware of the inevitability of his death. And, perhaps, this sad privilege of people has some hidden meaning for man as a cosmic phenomenon. After all, in essence, the entire history of culture is an endless variety of attempts to touch immortality.
Value nature the meaning of life is manifested in the selective attitude of a person to ideals, goals and traditions, as well as to information and ideology. Man lives in a world of ideals that determine his choice. The absence of ideals, called social anomie, gives rise to a feeling of psychological and social discomfort, a feeling of emptiness and meaninglessness of existence.
The loss of the meaning of life is a tragedy of the human soul, which leads to the loss of a person's own being. A person who considers his life meaningless is a deeply unhappy person. Only a person who has a life-affirming position, who is able to enjoy all the manifestations of being, who does not require much from life, is better adapted to everyday experiences. Such a person knows how to be grateful to fate for the most insignificant luck, which provides him with peace of mind and longevity. Perhaps this is precisely the meaning of life, which, by the way, was also affirmed by our ancestors, according to whom, "the meaning of life is in life itself."
A person who is able under any circumstances to remain a Human in relation to other people, living in accordance with high moral principles, finds the meaning of life in specific everyday situations - in work and creativity for the benefit of other people. Such a person values friendship, love, simple worldly joys more than material values. Such a person has many friends who are happy for him for his own sake, and not for the sake of those presents that he can give them.
Human life is a blessing that a person must use in order to discover and realize his abilities, in order to realize his personal potential. Only in this case, he is able to make his life meaningful. Focus on personal self-realization and self-actualization help a person to fill his life with a truly human existence.
The search for the meaning of life is the search for a socially justified life. The inability of a person to become significant for another leads to a feeling of social isolation and loneliness, to the experience of the meaninglessness of one's existence.
Basic concepts: man, human nature, essence
human, philosophical anthropology, "abandoned creature", "homeless creature", "one-dimensional man", posthuman, compensator, meaning of life.
Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Informatics
Essay on Philosophy
Topic: Philosophy of the meaning of life
Completed by: Shtabel A.A.
Lecturer: Glukhachev V.V.
1. The problem of the meaning of life. 3
2. Philosophers of Ancient Rome and Greece 4
3. Basic philosophical currents. 6
3.2. Nihilist views. 8
3.3.Positivist views. 9
3.5. Pragmatic views. 10
4. The problem of the meaning of life from the point of view of religion. eleven
5. Russian philosophers about the meaning of life. 15
List of references: 18
I chose this particular topic for the essay, for the reason that the problem of the meaning of life affects not only philosophy, but also our everyday life.
Many (if not all) people think at some point in their lives about why they exist. But it is unlikely that anyone will be able to accurately formulate this and explain. This knowledge is embedded somewhere in the subconscious of a person and, in fact, is his total opinion about life in general, based on the experience he has already acquired. People can answer this question, but only in some individual way. After all, as they say: different people- different opinions. Depending on the class and religious affiliation, people have different ideas about the meaning of life. However, if we take a certain group of people belonging to the same class of the same era, then their opinion will have general character, although it will differ in some respects.
Throughout the existence of the science of Philosophy, its adherents have wondered what is the meaning of life. And the answers to this question were different in different eras and for each philosopher separately. In my essay, I am going to consider and compare the opinions of philosophers about the meaning of life in different eras of human existence.
The problem of the meaning of life.
The problem of the meaning of life is closely connected with the problem of human essence. They intersect in many ways and often even coincide. After all, both of them deal with a person - the highest phenomenon of the material world.
Philosophers of Ancient Rome and Greece
According to the teachings of the Stoics, the goal for human aspirations should be morality, which is impossible without true knowledge. The human soul is immortal, and virtue, in turn, consists in human life in harmony with nature and world reason. The ideal of life for the Stoics is equanimity and calmness in relation to internal and external annoying factors.
IN antique time people did not think about the meaning of life, thus not separating their own existence from the existence of nature. The absence of the concept of personality, as such, deprived it of the right to comprehend existence. Only the existence of the genus had meaning then. And this meaning was in the extension and distribution of a kind. The meaning of the life of an individual person consisted precisely in subordination, its merging with the meaning of the genus and ensuring the action of this meaning.
However, driven by the philosophers of antiquity and their descendants, people gradually began to try to comprehend their existence, and thus, over time, various philosophical currents were formed associated with different positions regarding the meaning of life and being.
main philosophical currents.
Existentialism .
In his work “On the insignificance and sorrows of life”, Schopenhauer draws the following conclusions: “... a person suffers from natural, social and human elements, becomes sad, loses peace and joy ...”, “... his life passes in a continuous struggle for existence itself, at every step he is threatened with death ...”, “... the happiest moment of a person is when he falls asleep, the most miserable moment is when he wakes up ...”.
The views of Schopenhauer, as we know, became one of the theoretical sources of existentialism. This current considers not only the essence of man, but also the meaning of his life. Followers of existentialism believe that human life has a sad, tragic meaning. The main features of life in which it is expressed, from their point of view, are fear, anxiety, despair, responsibility for one's choice, etc. The reasoning of existentialists thus takes on a lengthy form: a person is born in suffering, grows in tears and pain, spends his days in constant fear, works in the sweat of his brow and ends his life in the dirt, having experienced a lot of grief and disappointment, in order to eventually face the inevitable death to which he was doomed from the very first minute of his existence.
The forerunner of existentialism, the 19th-century Danish philosopher Søren Oby Kierkegaard argued that a person's life is full of absurdity and he must create his own values in an indifferent world.
Speaking of meaning human life and death, Sartre wrote: “If we must die, then our life has no meaning, because its problems remain unresolved and the very meaning of the problems remains uncertain ... Everything that exists is born without a reason, continues in weakness and dies accidentally ... It is absurd that we were born, it is absurd that we will die.”
In the history of human thought there are other, much more optimistic statements about life and its meaning. These include, for example, the ideas of two of our great compatriots, writers Maxim Gorky (AM Peshkov) and Leo Tolstoy. Gorky, being a great connoisseur of life, wrote: “It is not true that life is gloomy, it is not true that there are only sores and groans, grief and tears in it! It is not only vulgar, but also heroic, not only dirty, but also bright, charming, beautiful. It has everything a person wants to find!”.
L. N. Tolstoy owns the following words: “No, this world is not a joke, not a vale of trials and transition to a better, eternal world, and this is one of eternal worlds which is beautiful, joyful, and which we not only can, but must make more beautiful and joyful for those who live with us and for all who will live in it after us.” From this we can conclude that for Tolstoy the meaning of human life is life itself, joyful and beautiful, bringing happiness to the person himself, which is the complete opposite of the views of existentialists.
Nihilism denies the need for human knowledge and truth, and explores the meaning of existence without knowledge of truth. From a nihilistic point of view, the main source moral values is the individual, not culture or some other rational or objective basis. Nihilism, when brought to an extreme state, turns into pragmatism, i.e. the denial of what is not useful and rational in relation to one's own organism does not satisfy the basic needs of a person. And in general, in the recognition that the best thing a person can do in his life is to enjoy it. F. Nietzsche believed that the meaning of life is the preparation of the Earth for the appearance of a superman: “Man is a rope stretched between an animal and a superman,” which, in turn, has some common features with the opinion of transhumanists about the posthuman (human of the future).
With regard to the meaning of life, Ludwig Wittgenstein and other logical positivists will say that expressed through language, the question is meaningless. Because "the meaning of X" is an elementary expression that "in" life means something about the consequences of X, or the importance of X, or something to be reported about X. etc. So when "life" is used as "X" in the expression "meaning of X", the statement becomes recursive and therefore meaningless.
In other words, things in personal life may have meaning, but at the same time life itself has no meaning other than these things. Philosophers other than Wittgenstein have turned to trying to discover what is meaningful in life by studying its inherent consciousness. But when such philosophers tried to find a global definition of the term "Meaning of life" for humanity, they failed to find agreement with Wittgenstein's linguistic model.
For the humanist, the purpose of biological life is built into itself: reproduction. In short, this is how the human race came into being: beings that reproduce in progression in an uncontrolled evolution, as an integral part of nature, which in turn is self-existent. However, the purpose of life is not the same as the purpose of man, although it is one of its aspects. The goal of a person is determined only by people, without any external supernatural intervention. Similarly, knowledge does not come from a supernatural source, it comes from human observation, experimentation and rational analysis, using mainly scientific method: the nature of the universe is what we see in it. The same applies to ethical values, which are derived from human needs and interests, tested by experience gained throughout life.
Pragmatic philosophers believe that instead of looking for the truth about life, we should find a useful understanding of life. William James argued that truth can be created but cannot be found. Hence, the meaning of life is the belief in some purpose of life, which in turn does not contradict the experience of a meaningful life of any other person. Roughly speaking, it could sound like: "The meaning of life is those goals that make us appreciate it." For the pragmatist, the meaning of life can only be discovered through experience.
These are the main approaches and views of philosophers of different times. At present, it is religious beliefs that have a very large influence on society in this matter.
The problem of the meaning of life from the point of view of religion.
Most religions embrace and promote some specific notion of the meaning of life, offering credible reasons to explain why we and all life on our planet exists. Indeed, perhaps the basic definition religious faith is the belief that life serves a divine purpose. It is often assumed that religion is a response to the human need to stop feeling confused or afraid of death. By defining a world outside of ordinary life (the spiritual world), these needs are "satisfied", thus providing meaning, purpose and hope for our lives.
Most people who believe in God as a person could agree that it is God who is the One "in Whom we live, move, have our being" (a quote from the ancient Greek poet Epimenides).
The meaning of life is Jesus Christ himself: "Jesus said to him: I am the way and the truth and the life."
Christianity sees the meaning of life in eternal life in God, otherwise called salvation. This means, firstly, the conviction that God exists, and that He is not just a source of being, but being itself, in which only the good of being of all that exists is possible, full comprehension of the Truth and knowledge of the “created” world in its being is possible.
The Christian meaning of life lies in acquiring a personality even here on earth, god-like spiritual values and faith in the real resurrection of the body for the subsequent endless life.
For the world of pleasure, wealth and glory are the basis of life, for Christianity, these are passions that inevitably entail suffering, disappointment and inevitable bodily and spiritual death.
It has long been known that any type of morality, in order to be a regulator of certain relations between people, evaluate their behavior and establish any norms, must have a developed “life program”, a specific target setting. What is the meaning of human life from the point of view of Islamic morality?
Everything for the good of man, in the name of man - this is precisely the motto of real socialism, which embodies the teachings of scientific communism. The main motto of Islam is everything in the name of Allah, to glorify his name. A person should pray, work, study and even love and hate only in the name of Allah.
The highest moral duty is to serve God, to praise him. Everything else is secondary, unimportant and unimportant.
Thus, the meaning of human life, it turns out, is not in striving for the realization of real earthly ideals, which are aimed at creating conditions for the all-round development of the whole society, but in constant service to supernatural power.
Unlike Marxism, which considers man the highest value in the world, Islam recognizes the value of man only because he was created by God and serves him. Because of this, Islam sees the meaning and purpose of human life not in the comprehensive and harmonious development of a person, not in the deployment of his talents and abilities in the name of social progress, but in serving God, in begging favors from him.
Religion distorts the very meaning and value of human life. It measures them only by how pious a person is, how deep his faith in a supernatural deity is, how much time and ability he devotes to serving this power. And life itself, according to the teachings of Islam, is given to a person only so that he, with worship, humility and patience, seeks to earn the mercy of Allah, and with it the hope of eternal bliss in paradise. It follows from this that the unique, inimitable earthly human life itself, as such, has no independent value. She is only a test, an obstacle on the way to other world. The Quran warns: “The life here is only play and fun. ". Whoever wants to enjoy its benefits, that "is not in future life nothing but fire, and vain is what they have done here, and empty is what they have done.
The creators of the Upanishads, one of the greatest literary achievements of mankind, raise many questions about the Universe, about man.
Where did he come from and where is he going? Is there any meaning in this life or not? How is a person connected with eternity? After all, only through this connection a person joins the true life.
The Brahmin sages answered this question simply: our death is in ignorance. Man only needs to realize how deeply he is rooted in the Immortal. Blessed is he who discovers the universal Spirit in himself.
Only through his "I" a person can approach the world "Atman".
Earthly desires were a hindrance to true knowledge. Only one who refused everything that connected him with life and the world around him could become immortal.
But not all people who were looking for the meaning of life were ready to become ascetics, and it is not surprising that the Brahminical teachings did not go beyond the sketes.
A characteristic feature of Buddhism is its ethical and practical orientation. From the very beginning, Buddhism opposed not only the meaning of external forms religious life and above all ritualism, but also against abstract dogmatic quests, militant, in particular, the Brahmanic-Vedic tradition. The problem of the existence of the individual was put forward as a central problem in Buddhism. The basis of the content of Buddhism is the preaching of the Buddha on the four noble truths. All the constructions of Buddhism are devoted to the explanation and development of these provisions and the idea of the autonomy of the individual contained in them.
Suffering and liberation are presented in Buddhism as different states of a single being: suffering is a state of being of the manifested, liberation is of the unmanifested.
Buddhism imagines liberation, first of all, as the destruction of desires, more precisely, the extinguishing of their passion. The Buddhist principle of the so-called middle (middle) path recommends avoiding extremes - both attraction to sensual pleasure, and the complete suppression of this attraction. In the moral-emotional sphere, the dominant concept in Buddhism is the concept of tolerance and relativity, from the standpoint of which moral prescriptions are not mandatory and can be violated.
Russian philosophers about the meaning of life.
One of the characteristic features of Russian philosophy in the second half of the 19th - early 20th century is attention to man, anthropocentrism. Two directions are clearly distinguished here: materialistic and idealistic, secular and religious.
The moral meaning of life is initially and finally determined by the good itself, which is internally available to us through our conscience and reason, since these internal forms of good are freed by moral achievement from slavery to passions and from the limitations of personal and collective selfishness. »
Russian philosopher S.L. Frank continued fundamental research worldview problems in the already established Russian philosophy. Frank was a philosopher who tried to elucidate the nature of the human soul and human knowledge. Philosophical doctrine Frank was, however, highly religious. He was one of those philosophers of the 20th century who, in the process of searching for the worldview of the highest spirituality, came to the conclusion that this is Christianity, expressing universal spiritual values and the true essence of spirituality. Frank himself said: "I'm not a theologian, I'm a philosopher."
Frank called his concept: "metaphysical (philosophical) realism." His philosophy is a realistic philosophy of spirituality, which raises the problem of man high and is aimed at achieving the spiritual unity of all mankind.
In conclusion of all the above, I would like to add that, despite the long existence of the problem of the meaning of life, it remains relevant in our time. Although only the tip of the iceberg has been considered here, the problem itself still remains unresolved.
All philosophers have been and are discussing the meaning of life, however, they have not come to an unambiguous conclusion, and in my opinion they will not come. I think so, because in my understanding the meaning of life is the meaning of the existence of a certain person, and not of society as a whole. It cannot be generalized and its unambiguity cannot be achieved in any way (except perhaps to affirm that the meaning of life lies in the person himself).
List of used literature:
History of Philosophy: Encyclopedia / Book House, 2002. - 1364 p.
Gusev D. A., Manekin R. V., Ryabov P. V. History of Philosophy. / YES. Gusev - Moscow: Eksmo, 2004. - 449 p.
Frankl V. Man in search of meaning. / V. Frankl - Moscow: Progress, 1990. - 196p.
In search of meaning. The wisdom of the millennia. / A. E. Machekhin. - Moscow: OLMA-PRESS, 2002. - 1306 p.
Fundamentals of Philosophy: Tutorial for universities / E. V. Popov. - Moscow: Humanite. ed. Center VLADOS, 1997. - 201 p.
6. Freud Z. Dissatisfaction with culture. World of Philosophy. / Z. Freud - Moscow: Politizdat, 1991. - 871 p.
7. Sartre J.-P. Being and Nothing: An Experience of Phenomenological Ontology. / J.-P. Sartre - Moscow: Respublika, 2000. - 639 p.
8. Fromm E. The human soul. / E. Fromm - Moscow: Republic, 1992 - 80 p.
Meaning of life- the main goal, the main value of human existence.
Most people do not think about the meaning of their lives, about the question "Why and for what I live?". Such an attitude towards life has its justification: after all, life is a value in itself, no matter what it is - good or bad.
However, situations may arise when life begins to seem boring, uninteresting, useless. Then a person can think about some high, final goals of his being: “Why me? What do I live for?” and his life ceases to be “life for the sake of life.” A person leaves the circle of everyday life and moves into some other world of values - he thinks about the meaning of life.
Let us consider some variants of answers to this question found in the philosophical literature.
First option: life is meaningless, that is, it has no purpose and value. When realizing the meaninglessness of life, different behavior is possible: 1) “weakness” - a person continues to live, “pulls the strap of life”; 2) "strength" - a person voluntarily leaves this life; 3) a person strives to enjoy every moment of life, perfectly understanding its meaninglessness and not thinking about the future.
Second option: The answer to the question of the meaning of life does not exist at all. This view is called "moral skepticism". Its essence: to believe that there is a meaning to life is a delusion, a kind of habit through which a person gets a sense of the guarantee of success in life.
Third option: the meaning of life is. But what does it consist of? The answer to this question is very individual, however, summarizing, we can offer the following:
1. The meaning of life - in spiritual, psychological and physical improvement to achieve, for example, the state of nirvana, "dissolution" in the Absolute Mind. This is, for example, the point of view of the philosophy of Buddhism, yoga, Jainism.
2. The meaning of life - in faith in God and service to Him. One can get acquainted with the religious understanding of the meaning of life on the examples of Christianity, Islam, Judaism and other religions.
3. The meaning of life - in asceticism.Asceticism- a doctrine that justifies the rejection of the pleasures, joys and enjoyments of life. This version of understanding the meaning of life can be found on the example of philosophy stoics(founder - ancient Greek philosopher Zeno from Kition, 4th century BC), as well as various religions, allowing monasticism, hermitage, celibacy, fasting and other ways of killing the sensual nature of man.
4. The meaning of life - in creativity, accomplishment of the Cause. Here we can recall the great artists, composers, inventors, scientists, for whom all other joys of life, except for creativity, were relegated to the background. It was the accomplishment of the Cause that filled their lives with meaning.
5. The meaning of life - in serving the people. Here we can talk about serving a close, beloved person, or a group of people (class, nation), or humanity as a whole - every person perceived as a “neighbor”.
1. Approaches and solutions to questions about the meaning of life
2. Search for the meaning of life
Introduction
Man is the only being who is aware of his mortality and can make it a subject of discussion. The vocation, purpose, task of every person is to comprehensively develop all his abilities, to make his personal contribution to the history, to the progress of society, its culture, the meaning of the life of society. The meaning of life lies in life itself, in its eternal movement as the formation of man himself. Death is terrible for those who do not see how meaningless and disastrous their personal lonely life is, and who thinks that he will not die. A person has died, but his attitude to the world continues to affect people, not even the way it was during life.
Meaning of life - this is a perceived value to which a person subordinates his life, for the sake of which he sets and fulfills life goals. The question of the meaning of life is the question of the meaning of human death and of his immortality. If a person did not leave a shadow after his life, then his life in relation to eternity was only illusory. Understand the meaning of life, determine your place in the eternal stream of change.
The question of the meaning of life, one way or another, confronts every person - if he has at least somehow developed as a person. Usually such questions come in early adolescence, when the newly created man must take his place in life - and strives to find it. But it happens that one has to think about the meaning of life both in old age and in the dying state. This collision of a single person with himself as a particle of a vast, infinite world is not always easy. It is terrible to feel infinity in oneself - and it is terrible not to notice it. In the first case, it is an incredible burden of responsibility, too jubilant pride, from which the soul can break; the opposite is a sense of one's own illogicality, the hopelessness of existence, disgust for the world and for oneself. However, thinking about the meaning of life is necessary for any person, without it there are no full-fledged people.
1. Approaches and solutions to questions about the meaning of life
The question of the meaning of life is the question of whether it is worth living? And if everything is worth it, then why live? Since ancient times, people have been asking this question, trying to find the logic of their lives.
There are two answers to this question:
1. The meaning of life is originally inherent in life in its deepest foundations, this approach is most characteristic of the religious interpretation of life. The only thing that makes life comprehensible and therefore has absolute meaning for man is nothing else than active participation in the divine-human life.
2. The meaning of life is created by the subject himself- in accordance with this statement, it can be understood that we ourselves are consciously moving towards the goal set before us, by any means of being. We give meaning to life and thereby choose and create a human essence, only we and no one else.
Awareness of the meaning of life, as the main value, is of a historical nature.
Each era, to one degree or another, influenced the meaning of life definition of a person.
Life is meaningful - when you are needed for something and you understand why. Even in a semi-animal state, in the web of everyday worries and in the swamp of narrow-minded interests, a person does not cease to be universal, belonging not only to himself, his family, his class, but also to humanity as a whole, and to the world in its entirety. Of course, a separate person, an individual - cannot be a person in general, these are different levels. But man in general is represented in each individual man, since the universal can exist only as a community of its representatives. Each of them reveals its own side of the universal - and any side of it must be represented by someone, must incarnate and go its own way as a thing, or a living being.
When a person lives meaningfully, it does not become easier for him to live, rather the opposite. But a person who knows his purpose, his destiny, is always a force. He may doubt and suffer, he may make mistakes and retreat from himself - this will not change anything. The meaning of his life will guide him and force him to do what is required - even if it is contrary to the will of the person himself, his desires and interests, as far as he is aware of them.
There are various approaches to solving the life-meaning problem, of which the following can be distinguished:
The meaning of life is in its spiritual foundations, in life itself;
The meaning of life is carried beyond the limits of life itself;
The meaning of life is introduced by the person himself into his life;
There is no meaning to life.
Within the framework of the first approach, there is a religious version. The meaning of human life was given by God already at the time of the creation of man. Having created man in his own image, endowed him with free will. And the meaning of a person's life is to achieve a given similarity with God. The meaning of human life is the preservation and purification of one's immortal soul.
Philosophy considers the moral meaning of human life in the process of improving its spiritual foundations and its social essence on the basis of goodness.
The meaning is contained in life itself, but, unlike the religious point of view, it is argued here that the meaning of a person's life is found in it himself. The meaning of life consists of situational, specific meanings that are individual, as life itself is individual. On the basis of situational meaning, a person plans and solves situational tasks of every day or even hour.
The second approach takes the meaning of life beyond the limits of a specific human life, extrapolating the meaning of human existence to the progress of mankind, for the benefit and happiness of future generations, in the name of bright ideals and justice.
All of the above is the highest meaning and end in itself, while every human generation and every living person acts as a means to achieve this goal. Many people live for their own future.
From the point of view of the proponents of the third approach, life in itself has no meaning, and the person himself brings it into his life. Man, as a conscious and volitional being, creates this meaning in his own ways. But the will, ignoring the objective conditions of human existence, imposing its own meaning, turns into voluntarism, subjectivism and can lead to the collapse of meanings, existential emptiness and even death.
From the lips of a modern young man, one can hear that the meaning of his life lies in pleasure, joy, and happiness. But pleasure is only a consequence of our aspirations, and not its goal. If people were guided only by the principle of pleasure, then this would lead to a complete devaluation of moral actions, since the actions of two people, one of whom spent money on gluttony, and the other on charity, would be equivalent, since the consequence of both is pleasure.
As for joy as the meaning of life, then joy itself must have meaning. Even a child, with his very mobile nervous system, directs his joy outward, to the object or action that causes it. Joy, therefore, is also not an end in itself, but a consequence of the goal achieved. The meaning of life is revealed to a person only when it is required by an objective necessity, when humanity as a whole is mature enough to accept, to master this particular aspect of its existence. In other words, the meaning of the life of an individual person is realized when this life becomes truly universal, when the actions and deeds of a person are not his individual characteristics, but something inherent in many people, albeit in varying degrees, and not all together
But still, attempts to find the meaning of human life prevailed in the history of human thought:
The meaning of life is in its aesthetic side, in achieving what is majestic, beautiful and strong in it, in achieving superhuman greatness;
The meaning of life is in love, in striving for the good of what is outside of man, in striving for harmony and unity of people;
The meaning of life is to achieve a certain ideal of a person;
The meaning of life is in maximum assistance in solving the problems of social development and the comprehensive development of the individual
The realized meaning of life, which has value not only for the living, but also for society, relieves a person of the fear of death, helps to meet it calmly, with dignity and a sense of accomplishment.
