Meaning of Life Susan Wolf - Essay Example

The meaning of life comes from within us and is not granted from without. I find this as the most convincing as regarding the question to the real meaning of life. This is surely the greatest way to perceive life-one’s own life, the life of a nation, a species, the world, and all living things. The meaning of life comes to us when we do things that our heart and mind desires, things that seem of importance to us. Otherwise, doing things that draw boredom since they seem not of much interest ton us does not bring the meaning of living into us.

We can realize the idea of meaningless existence and the meaningless of life if we keep on doing things that bear no fruits to us and brings nothing (Taylor 433). It surely has no meaning to perform an activity that has been drawn repeatedly but, have no direction and purpose of it. With this, the objective of existence is meaningless. Richard Taylor draws this idea from our lives, and that of the animals, the endless activities that get nowhere. However, he also says that if this is what one is willing to per sue then the idea of meaning of life comes in.

At one point, we ask ourselves why we do things repeatedly without getting anything out of it, a perfect image of meaningless existence.. t that he wants to work on, he must have the ability to be able to contribute in a positive manner to that project, and lastly the project that he is working on should be worthy in an independent manner of its own. A man must be able to have the strength to look back at his life when it is about to get over, and at that time, be satisfied truly to an extent that he feels as if his life has had some meaning or the other. (A., 2010) “What is perhaps most distinctive about my conception of meaning, or about the category of value I have in mind, is that it involves subjective and objective elements, suitably and inextricably linked.

“Love” is at least partly subjective, involving attitudes and feelings. In insisting that the requisite object must be “worthy of love,” however, this conception of meaning invokes an objective standard: it is implicit in insisting that an object be worthy of love (in order to make a contribution to meaning in the lover’s life) that not any object will do.” (Wolf, Susan) The main aim of living one’s life, writes Wolf, should be of an objective worth and not subjective worth. Wolf writes that most people try to base or model their lives on people who inspire them and make them feel as if their lives were full of and ‘in’ meaning.

Most people pick and motivate themselves by understanding actions of people who have benefited humanity at large, for example Mother Teresa and Albert Einstein. She writes that people must be able to feel satisfaction and fulfilment in order to find a sense of meaning in their lives. However, a person must carry out his own actions and achieve everything that he does on his own and according to his own merit in order to feel like he has done something meaningful which will make him happy and worthy