Exam 10: Epicurus in Waking or in Dream

According to Taylor, "Meaninglessness is essentially endless pointlessness, and meaningfulness is therefore the opposite."

Nagel says, "No further justification is needed to make it reasonable to take aspirin for a headache, attend an exhibit of the work of a painter one admires, or stop a child from putting his hand on a hot stove. No larger context or further purpose is needed to prevent these acts from being ..."

Trisel says, "As adults going about a daily routine, it is easy to lose that sense of wonder that we had as young children. One way to reclaim that sense of wonder is by reflecting on the ..."

Wolf says, "Some people do undoubtedly get very upset, even despondent when they start to think about their cosmic insignificance. They want to be important, to have an impact on the world, to make a mark that will last forever. When they realize that they cannot achieve this, they are very disappointed. The only advice one can give to such people is: ..."

According to Trisel, "Even if life arose by chance, the universe contained the potential to create human life, as demonstrated by our existence." What support does Trisel give to this claim? Do you agree with Trisel? Explain your answer.

Trisel says, "As adults going about a daily routine, it is easy to lose that sense of wonder that we had as young children. One way to reclaim that sense of wonder is by reflecting on the improbability of human life." Do you agree with Trisel? Explain your answer.

According to Trisel, "in regard to whether one's individual life can be meaningful, it does not matter whether life was intended or arose by chance."

Schopenhauer says, "On looking a little closer, we find that inorganic matter presents a constant conflict between chemical forces, which eventually annihilates it; and on the other hand, that organic life is impossible without continual change of matter, and cannot exist if it does not receive perpetual help from without. This is the realm of _________________, and its opposite would be an _________________, exposed to no attack from without, and needing nothing to support it."

According to Kierkegaard, "If there were no eternal consciousness in a man, if at the foundation of all there lay only a wildly seething power which writhing with obscure passions produced everything that is great and everything that is insignificant, if a bottomless void never satiated lay hidden beneath all-what then would life be but despair?"

Taylor uses the myth of Sisyphus story as an illustration of ...

According to Epicurus, happiness can be achieved by pleasure, but only if it is sought in ...

According to Epicurus, "He who has a clear and certain understanding of these things will direct every preference and aversion toward securing health of body and tranquility of mind, seeing that this is the sum and end of a happy life."

Schopenhauer says, "For all that, it must rouse our sympathy to think how very little the _______, this lord of the world, really gets when it takes the form of an individual; usually only just enough to keep the body together. This is why man is so very miserable."

Wolf asks, "Are those of us who suspect there is no meaning to life deluding ourselves in continuing to talk about the possibility of finding meaning in life? (Are we being short-sighted, failing to see the implications of one part of our thought on another?)"

According to Nagel, "Another inadequate argument is that because we are going to die, all chains of justification must leave off in mid-air: one studies and works to earn money to pay for clothing, housing, entertainment, food, to sustain oneself from year to year, perhaps to support a family and pursue a career-but to what final end? All of it is an elaborate journey leading nowhere."

Epicurus wants us to realize that an awareness of our mortality allows us to enjoy life as long as we have it, and that "a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life an unlimited time, but by taking away the yearning after fame and fortune."

Explain what Epicurus means when he says, "death is nothing to us, because good and evil imply awareness, and death is the privation of all awareness." Do you agree with Epicurus? Explain your answer.

Trisel says, "If there is no superior being to provide us with this affirmation, it does not mean that our lives are bad or not truly meaningful. Rather, it simply means that our judgments about our lives cannot be confirmed. However, if we conclude, using objective criteria, that our lives are good and that one's life can be meaningful, the lack of a confirmation from a superior being does not, in any way, undermine or invalidate this judgment." Do you agree with Trisel? Explain your answer.

Taylor uses the examples of worms, birds, and fish to say "that there is no point to it at all, that it really culminates in nothing, that each of these cycles, so filled with toil, is to be followed only by more of the same. The point of any living thing's life is, evidently, nothing but life itself."

Explain Taylor's point when he says, "Meaninglessness is essentially endless pointlessness, and meaningfulness is therefore the opposite." Do you agree with Taylor? Explain your answer.