PHIL0101 week 6. Meaning of Life. Literature & Language Essay

Meaning of Life Name Institutional Affiliation Date
Learning on the meaning of life is one of the greatest concepts that exist in philosophy. We do lack the definition of life and over time, there are various philosophers who have provided their thoughts on the concept of life. As Susan Wolf notes, we do think that the definition of life is a simple activity that we can carry out but it turns out that it is not the case. In this paper, I will begin by giving the view of a philosopher called Susan Wolf on life. I will then proceed to give my thoughts on her view about life and provide a criticism for the views that I will express. I provide an argument that for human beings to realize the meaning of life, we need to engage in meaningful activities that match the skills that we do have and this will be more useful if we learn on helping other people in the society.
In his teachings about the meaning of life, Wolf a great philosopher points out that human beings can realize the meaning of their life if they begin engaging in meaningful activities that are worthwhile. The concept of self-interest is the beginning for one to realize the meaning of life. Self-interest can involve a number of things in our lives such as realizing our natural abilities and learning how we can make use of the natural abilities to make the world a better place where human beings can co-exist in peace and help each other. However, for one to realize the meaning of life, we also need to realize the worth of life among human beings. There are people in different parts of the world who have given up on life since they do not fully understand the meaning of their life and most of the people would prefer taking away their lives(Wolf, 2016). The concept of self-interest which is the foundation of the meaning of life should be advanced and be defined by the individual further. If one realizes their capabilities in life, then they will be on the journey towards achieving happiness. Happiness comes after one has realized their meaning and their worth. Active engagement has also been pointed out as one of the ways through which human beings can advance self-interest. The process involves engaging yourself in constructive projects that will uplift your life and projects that bear fruits. She also argues that meaningfulness is an aspect of a good life. Self-interest in relation to happiness can be viewed as the lack of pain and presence of pleasure according to the hedonistic theories (Wolf, 2016). The preference theories define happiness as getting all those things that you want even the ones that do not necessarily give you pleasure while the objective list theories definer the concept of self-interest as realizing the priorities that human beings should have.
In my view, I would not like to live forever in this world. I do believe that each of the human beings should exist within a given time and after the expiry of our time of existence...