Insignificant mortals, who are as leaves are,
and now flourish and grow warm with life,
and feed on what the ground gives,
but then again fade away and are dead.
~ Homer Continue reading A Philosopher’s Lifelong Search for Meaning – Introduction
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26. What I Hope For
What then should we hope for? The objects of my hopes are vague and indeterminate. I hope that something better will emerge in the course of cosmic evolution; that things will work out for the best; that truth, goodness, beauty, justice, and love are real; that my life and universal life are meaningful; that somehow it all makes sense; that life is not in vain; and that things ultimately matter. These are my most fervent hopes. Continue reading A Philosopher’s Lifelong Search for Meaning – Part 8 – Hope and Meaning
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23. Attitudinal Optimism
One response to the failure of our intellectual analysis to demonstrate that life is or is becoming fully meaningful is to adopt certain attitudes to help us live in the face of the unknown. Let’s consider two potentially helpful attitudes—optimism and hope.
Optimism is a tendency to expect the best possible outcome. Optimists believe that things will improve, while pessimists believe that things will worsen. I wholeheartedly reject such optimism because I don’t expect good outcomes or have faith that the future will be better. Continue reading A Philosopher’s Lifelong Search for Meaning – Part 7 – Optimism and Hope
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Yet, as we ascend these mountains of thought, we are brought back to earth. Looking to the past we see that truth, beauty, goodness, love, and meaning have emerged from cosmic evolution but so too have ignorance, loneliness, cruelty, despair, poverty, and pain. Surely serious reflection on this misery is sobering and we must temper our optimism accordingly. Continue reading A Philosopher’s Lifelong Search for Meaning – Part 6 – Skepticism and Meaning