The Meaning of Lives by Susan Wolf, and Death by Thomas Nagel

Meaning of Life
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Meaning of Life & Death According to Nagel and Wolf
People often try to find the meaning of life and death and their place in the world. These issues have been philosophically discussed by CITATION Nag70 \l 1033 (Nagel, 1970) and CITATION Sus07 \l 1033 (Wolf, 2007). Wolf discusses the meaning of life and what amounts to a meaningful life whilst Nagel discusses death deriving some of his arguments from deprivation theory. Through the insightful arguments they present, this essay attempts to show why life is meant to be enjoyed and why death is imminent.
CITATION Sus07 \l 1033 (Wolf, 2007), acknowledges that there is no universal perception or definition of ‘meaningful lives.’ Her definition are based on what we perceive as self-interest and how Parfit’s distinction of the three types of self-interest in terms of objective list, hedonistic theories and preference theories each lead to varied meanings of life. She points out that meaningfulness is an element or ingredient of a good or happy life. She cites several examples that assert her opinion on what amounts to be a meaningful life. In her view, which she inclines to approaching the issue from a objective-list theory perspective, she argues that a meaningful life is not necessarily a happy or pleasurable but that has objective value. She argues that the people who adopt this worldview of life overlook the importance of objective value in defining the meaning of life. She considers these two elements; happiness/pleasure and objective value necessary elements in defining the meaning of life. Wolf asserts that objective value stems from engagements that have a positive value. She sums up a meaningful life as that which has positive value, active engagement and successful. She opines that pleasure/happiness alone or success of an active engagement alone do not give life its meaning, but rather, both.
CITATION Nag70 \l 1033 (Nagel, 1970) discusses the subject of death pegging his reasons on experiences of life. He derives his arguments partly from deprivation theory by explicating what death deprives a person. He points out that conscious existence ends at death and therefore there is no subject to experience death or the after effects. Nagel also argues that ability to experience is future oriented and if a person cannot expe...