Lia Denise T.

Tan

Ethics1 B3

The Inexplicable Purpose of My Life

What is the purpose of life? What is the meaning of it? Why are we here? There are too many

questions that people have struggled millenniums to tackle. Question about the life well lived, have

been debated in philosophical, religious, world literature and in every human being`s mind at an

extensive amount of time.

Because of this, different philosophical insights were realized and took form in the lives of many

people whom identified and related their experience with it. Examples would include Aristotle`s

Nicomachean Ethics and how it tells to us the way to achieve happiness, in his great treatise,

Aristotle compares our attempts to live a good life, to an archer`s attempt to aim the arrow properly

to hit the mark. The archer will most likely hit the mark because he has a goal to hit it. Similarly,

we can envision ourselves finding the purpose of a good life, as long as we possess the knowledge

to define on what makes life good.

While Socrates` idea of a well lived life, is a life that has been examined with the help of reason,

logic and a creed of a consistent approach to life, that aims to evaluate the daily moral dilemmas

that everyone faces.

Religion also prescribes a standard for the manner to which we live a meaningful life. Christianity,

believes in the bible and the idea of living their life at the utmost uprightness prescribed with it.

Muslim also believes in the holy book which is a guide for their ways of life. Hinduism and various

religions also have their context that they also follow.

Everyone, lives either to achieve their purpose of life or finding that purpose and then carrying out

that purpose. So, if someone doesn’t know his purpose in life, one should learn how to examine,

question and seek the meaning of living, and to choose their purpose independently.

The advent of the 21st century has engendered a new problem of individual existence in the world,

all based on the alienation and absurdity as depicted in the many gruesome, ill and wretched

happenings in our environment. These existential problems continue to challenge people to

question the purpose of their lives and find an answer for the existence of human suffering.

For the past days that I`ve been meditating and carefully evaluating and re-evaluating myself I

have found certain realization that determines and established my becoming as a person, and that

surprisingly relates to Nietzsche.

According to the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, the answer to human suffering resided

in styling our lives to the way we want it, via a process of becoming. In applying Nietzsches` ideas

to my own life, I have realized that my life is a product of various elements that I embrace the

most, influencing therefore the decisions that I make and shaping my ambition and purpose in fully

realizing myself.

Nietzsche argue that the reason why people suffer is because they are under the delusion that there

is an inherent meaning in themselves and in the world, when in fact life is based on “nothingness”.

According in his view, life is completely based on contingency, and only individuals themselves

have the power to instill meaning into their lives.

He believed that people must stop following the “herd” and its standardized moral conduct. To

find happiness in life, people have to be courageous and free themselves from the indoctrination

of societal values, pursuing after their own desires instead.

Therefore, Nietzsche believed that the key to living life was to view life as an “individual process”,

this process entails individuals to actively seek out and shape themselves into the person they

aspire to be, to “become” the physical representation of the image they want to project to others.

Consequently, Nietzsche argue that the value of human life is created by the individual. There is

no intrinsic value that is embedded in our lives, and we must create the meaning of life for

ourselves.

In order to test whether one has created a meaningful life, Nietzsche has created a theoretical notion

of “eternal recurrence”, where humans are given a choice to live heir life in the exact same manner

over and over again, going through the same events and experiencing the same emotions. If the

person appreciates the repetition, the according to Nietzsche, the person has created a truly

meaningful life that they would not mind living.

Creating such life requires an aesthetic approach to organizing one`s experiences and desires in

harmony. The kind of like a blank canvas, our life is initially in a state of nothingness, and it is the

responsibility of each person, as the artist, to insert meaning and personal “style” into the canvas.

However, for people to progress and establish themselves, they must first be content with

themselves and identify themselves as a distinct individual and build from there. Nietzsche argue

that people who are dissatisfied with themselves will never find happiness, for they will always

resent who they are.

Every experience and action, or element, in the work must be in harmony with one another, as the

small elements mold together to shape the whole. There is no standardized or “correct way” as

long as it is your own way. Thus, life itself reflects the process of humans constantly shaping their

image with the final product epitomizing who we really are.

Applying now the lessons and realizations I have gathered from Nietzsche’s process of becoming,

I have formed my own set of elements in my life that I embrace the most in my attempt to complete

the creation of “my self “. My first element is companionship, the capacity of a person in being

committed to relationships with other people and fully engaging with them. I think it is necessary

for a person to socialize and form relationships with people in order to fully realize his concept of

becoming. Exposing yourself to people allows you to have a community in the trying times in our

life, not only this but it gives you an awareness in different ideas such as, but not limited to,

empathy, love, hate, fear and joy that ultimately benefits you in holistically building yourself

My second element is intellectualism, because having the ability to critically analyze, evaluate and

distinguish ideas and events happening around you and make decisions and distinct intellectual

actions about it is a much needed and required skill that a person should attain. Much so in living

a philosophical life and in trying to distinguish yourself apart from other people, there has to be a

deep understanding and even a greater level of intellectual prowess that doesn’t necessarily

translates into mathematical or scientific aptitude but the insight to be able to meditate and apply

this to yourself and to others.

Lastly, the third element I would like to have in my life is independence. This does not necessarily

refer to the general notion of independence as some kind of freedom from oppression. Rather it

talks about the notion of self-autonomy in my life. It means that in living my life, I believe there

must be a need that there is an established concept that I am in control of my life, and that regardless

of what might happen to it is a result of the consequences of the actions and decisions that I made.

Now that I have more or less determined and harmonized my elements into one form, there is a

clearer purpose and path that I can pursue.

In trying to find myself in reflections and the nuances of my being I realized that in finding my

purpose and pursuing the path will require a deeper understanding of the self just like Nietzsche

said, there had to be an identification and satisfaction first on your being before trying to find the

becoming of one`s being.