In some way everyone lives their life by a particular philosophy, whether that philosophy is to reject the existense of a 'meaning' for life just means that they themselves have the particular philosophy of not worrying about where their actions fit in the big picture. We can never be perfect, but we never stop trying to be perfect, so even though we will never find what the meaning for life really is, that doesn't mean that it's pointless that we search for it in the first place. On that note, I would like to introduce you all to my life philosophy and why I think it's necessary that a 'meaning' for life is found, and if not found at least sought after.
My philosophy is based around the quote "treat others the way in which you would wish them to treat you". In acting in a certain way I wish to put myself in their position in order to assess whether it's the right decision or not - therefore it is clear that I base my actions primarily upon how I think others will feel. Because of this I do get stuck with indecision and shyness in that I wouldn't know how I would react to the situation in their position because I myself have never been in that particular postion.
The other foundation of my philosophy is the 'maximisation of fulfillment' which I seek in my time on earth. Because, as humans, we have a limited life-span we seek to make the most of our time here, whether that's in achieving great feats or experiencing happiness depends upon the individual. To state this is obvious, almost a truism, but it's a useful foundation upon which to build a life-philosophy because you can refer back to whether this point contradicts my foundation.
There are two routes to take in order to explain my philosophy, the modern and the post-modern. Thatis, whether life has a common goal, a development throughout history similar to a story (modernist point of view), or whether everything is individualised according to the beliefs of that person and to try and attach a common story to everyone would be impossible. I would nestle my philosophy in between the two, taking some parts from both modern ideology (I believe that if everyone is fulfilled then everyone will have made use of their time on earth) and the post-modern (the ways in which we can achieve this result vary from person to person). Critically, the route we choose to get to our final goal of fulfillment is influenced by Society and what makes us fulfilled at one point in time may have a quite different influence at another point of our life when Society has deemed it to be innapropriate, and we will not derive the same amount of fulfillment from that event.
I believe the role of society, and our acknowledgment of society as playing a key role in who we are is critical in understanding ourselves. There has long been debate about whether we have a core self which isn't influenced by society or whether we are 'just our social roles'. It is obvious that religious, political, cultural, educational and environmental viewpoints are created by the social interactions in which you are involved in. There is little doubt that I am an Atheist because my parents are, and little doubt that most Christians are Christians because their parents are and because the whole ideology has been installed into them from such a young age that it's impossible to believe that anything else could possibly be correct. Fashion, aspirations, interests and 'what we like' is very much influenced by what others deem to be 'appropriate' and therefore what just seems to be right for us. Is there anything in our mentality that is untouched by society?
The only possibility is our ability to reason, but even then we could argue that we use our reason to decide that this T shirt was really nice and that's the 'reason' why we bought it. However, was it really a coincidence that the T shirt looks nice now and not 10 years ago when god-knows-what looked fashionable. Nevertheless, I do think that reason is in some way our own and that no matter what stage in history we live in that we would think in similar ways and come up with similar conclusions.
However this does not mean that we shouldn't be held accountable for our actions. If I do something then I can't back out with the excuse that "I didn't have a choice", we always have a choice no matter what the decision is because we all have the ability to use our imagination for envisage the future consequences of our actions. We are free to decide what we want to do, therefore we must realise that we are the ones responsible for what we have done. Therefore it is critical to think about how my action will affect the person who I am acting towards, obviously this is a point where "treat others the way you would wish yourself to be treated" comes clear. You can't back out of the decisions that you have made and blame others, you must realise that you are responsible for what you do and you must be prepared to to pay the price if you make the wrong decision.
Josh
(Written in mid 2001 so things might have changed since then.... :)
