The World of Human Interactions: Goodness and Happiness - Essay Example

? Personal Philosophy Task Personal Philosophy According to Solomon and Higgins , philosophy involves a keen self evaluation and that of others to establish what one hears and what one believes. They, therefore, define personal philosophy as a thorough statement of what one believes. Additionally, they opine that basis of personal philosophy are varied and may comprise adopting other philosophers' view, and taking their arguments and examples to defend your own views. The belief about the reality of God is extremely important for a person’s life. Whether one believes in the reality of God or not, determines to a large degree how a person performs his or her life. I believe in God. The origin of my belief is through my parents. However, now that am old enough to critically evaluate what I learnt in my shaping years to distinguish between truths and non-truths, I still believe that God exists. I believe in God as a supernatural being, all powerful and omnipresent. I believe God is genderless and the rules of fairness and justice are inapplicable to Him; He is sovereign. Apart from the faith part of my belief in God, there are other ways that show that God is real. For example, I concur with Descartes in his 5th meditation on the proof of the reality of God. The God I believe in is perfect, and existence is part of perfectness. That is, there can not exist a perfect being that is nonexistence. Therefore, the God I believe in exists owing to his perfectness. Other proofs that I agree with include the proof by Thomas of Aquinas. In his argument he notes that all things are in movement. Further, he notes that the motion must have been initiated by another object in motion. Without s a supreme being to start the motion, this chain would go on infinitely, which cannot be the case. Therefore, there is a supreme who is stationary and is responsible in initiating the motion. This Supreme Being is the object of my belief in God. I hold that the conviction in deity or the lack of it is solely a personal matter. It is, therefore, not my duty to induce others into it. My belief is not based on an external reward to be attained in this existence or in another. My reverence of this being is in its supremacy as the originator of all things. Such a being that is omnipotent and perfect unconditionally deserves reverence. This is without any extrinsic impetus or any nature of reward. His instructions and requirements of good life are to be carried out not because it will bring happiness, but because the supreme requires it. Therefore, actions of integrity, kindness, benevolence, mercy, are not motivated by the ensuing effects. I love children. I grew surrounded by wonderful siblings. It is such a great thing experiencing life with people with whom you share an amazing bond. From my childhood I always envisioned having my own children. The love linking of a child and a mother is celestial, no joy exceeds that. Parenting children requires service to another being. It is not self-directed and, therefore, it is essentially superior. Varied are the reasons a person would die for willingly. Personally, this includes a choice between me and my offspring. It is quite a number of years before the time to think about children comes, however, in case I have children, I would easily sacrifice my life for them. This decision is interpretable as irrational, but I view it as the only biological evidence of one’s existence. They are the heir to one's effort on earth. The accumulations of one’s achievement are most suitably left to one’s offspring. It is in most cases an assumption that your children will be the most appreciative of your efforts, but I would readily be contented with this assumption. The only other instance when I would readily accept to die is the case of being given a choice between dying and renouncing my faith and living. In life, I believe the most real things are the emotions we feel about objects in the corporeal world. For example, emotions felt in dreams remain true even after waking. The objects that caused those emotions are discarded as unreal once we wake and realize it’s a dream. The emotions, however, persist. If the dream was scary or the context was a disparate situation, one wakes with the same feelings. As long as one remembers those dreams, the emotions persist. Descartes shared the same inclination; he said that though objects can be unreal and from a dream, the fact he was thinking could not be doubted. Even when one can feel corporeal things with the senses, it could be a dream, but what one feels and thinks is not doubtable. Life is not a story, nor is it a dream. Biologists define life using the character of animate objects. Such characteristics include metabolism and reproduction, but life is more than that. Just like one cannot define water using it characteristics, the definitions of life using its characteristics cannot be satisfactory. Nevertheless, life is divine; no one's life is more important. All man’s efforts should be directed toward preserving life. Exterior to himself, man has no function in the cosmos. What is the size of a man compared to the size of the universe? What is the effect of a man’s activity in the expanse of the universe? Man objected the discovery that we are not the center of the universe, but just a small part of it because people believed there is a great external purpose they were destined to achieve. The definition of existence is defined axiomatically. The regular axiom is physical manifestation. Humans definitely exist since they are noticeable by other representatives of their species. Unlike the proponents of existentialism, I disbelieve that humans should spend time trying to fix a purpose in their life. We have found ourselves existing, and we should live soundly. Each day I live with a quest to attain the highest good I can: to improve my soul by pursuing the ultimate good, achieved through communion with God. The improvement of the soul is the only activity lasting eternally, as the soul is perpetual. Plato in the dialogue Phaedo presents the argument of forms to support the soul’s eternity. He argued the numeral three would rather suffer annihilation than be converted to an even number while maintaining its identity. Through this he attests that forms can never be their opposites. Additionally, beings having the property of a soul have the form of a soul. The spirit makes the body alive, the contrary is death. The soul as a form means that the soul cannot achieve its reverse which is death; therefore, the soul is immortal. A person should, among the general good deeds, find a passion to pursue in life. This passion should be in line with humanizing self. My passion is in helping others. Nursing enables me to expend my time and energy in serving others. The motivation towards this serving is not monetary gains, but for the sake of the passion itself. People should endeavor relentlessly to execute the chosen passion. Perfection is ideal, but there is a chance to improve one's performance of the duties. Goodness and happiness are not associative. In the world of human interactions, the most good does not result in the greatest joy; in fact, it may result in the greatest pain. Goodness improves the soul. In numerous instances, it is in contradiction to the desires of the body which is mortal. Goodness brings innumerable joy to the soul, and may in turn cause pain to the body. In this sense, justice is internal, and not external. The question then shifts from whether the world is just to whether one does justice to oneself when pleasing the body by doing what causes pleasure. It is more just to improve one’s soul through integrity, though it may result in sorrow. Numerous decisions I have followed have been subjective to external opinions. For example, my choice of career was extensively affected by family and teachers. One cannot live reclusively, detached from the society. Though the final call in deciding what to do is private, there should always be a provision for the suggestions of others. One can not exhaustively understand oneself. Introspection is important but not exhaustive. Whenever external influences are positive, it is not wrong to accommodate them if one wills. References Solomon, R. C., & Higgins, K. M. (2010). The big question: a short introduction to philosophy (8th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Read More