LIVING TO SOME PURPOSE

PETER SINGER

PREPARED BY:
ZOHA SHOAIB AHMED
MUHAMMAD GHAZI RAZA
MOHAMMAD FASEEH
ATIF MUSHTAQ
NON-ARGUMENT
• In the concluding chapter of his book Good and Evil, Richard Taylor, an American philosopher,
also draws upon the myth of Sisyphus in order to explore the nature of the meaning of life.3
Taylor asks an ingenious question: in what way would the fate of Sisyphus need to be altered,
in order to put meaning into his life? Taylor considers two possibilities. The first is that instead
of endlessly trying to get the same stone to the top of the hill, with nothing to show for his
labors, Sisyphus might succeed in pushing different stones to the top of the hill, and there
construct a noble temple. The second is that, although Sisyphus continues to push only the
same stone, and always in vain, the gods, in a perversely merciful mood, implant in him a fierce
desire to do just what they have condemned him to do - push stones!
• REPORT
 NON-ARGUMENT
• The tiger, restlessly pacing back and forth behind the bars of a small concrete cell, is
fortunately becoming a less common sight at the zoo. But the monkeys still kept in barren
metal cages in laboratories, or the pigs confined for months on factory farms in stalls too
small to allow them even to pace back and forth, are suffering from the same problem.
• These are illustrations. Examples given by the author to prove his point.
 NON-ARGUMENT
• Yet when Friedan talked to them, she found that they had a problem. They didn't have a
name for it, and nor did Friedan, so she called it 'the problem that has no name'. The
problem formed the core of Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, the book that more than any
other single work triggered the modern feminist movement. In it women describe the
problem in their own words.
• REPORT
 NON-ARGUMENT
• Once his youth, vigor, and even the thrill in winning are lost, [the gamesman] becomes
depressed and goalless, questioning the purpose of his life. No longer energized by the team
struggle and unable to dedicate himself to something he believes in beyond himself, which
might be the corporation or alternatively the larger society, he finds himself starkly alone.”
• Explanation since the author intends to provide reason as to why the
gamesman feels alone i.e. due to lack of purpose in life.
 ARGUMENT 1

1. Each day humans work to feed themselves and their family. As soon as the task is done, it must begin
all over again.
2. Humans reproduce, and their children must take over the same task.
3. (The myth of Sisyphus was also similar as he had to do the same task all day). (from 1 & 2)
4. Hence, probably the myth of Sisyphus serves as a bleak metaphor for the meaninglessness of human
existence.

INDUCTIVE, WEAK
 ARGUMENT 2

5. There is no such thing as objective value or meaning, independently of what we desire.

6. Therefore, pushing a rock up a hill is neither more nor less meaningful than building a temple.
7. Hence, it can be said that anything can be a meaningful activity if we want to do it. (from 6)

INDUCTIVE, WEAK.
ARGUMENT 3

8. An activity will have meaning for one if it happens to tally with one’s desires.
9. An activity will not have meaning if not aligned with one’s interests.
10. Therefore, meaning is subjective to one’s interests and desires. (from 8 & 9)

DEDUCTIVE, VALID, SOUND

 ARGUMENT 4

11. Compared to women in earlier periods, or in other countries today the American housewife of the
fifties had it easy.
12. (The most fulfilling roles at that time were the ones where a group had it easy).
13. Therefore, magazines and television soaps of the time tried to tell women that the role of wife and
mother was the most fulfilling there can be.

INDUCTIVE, WEAK.
 ARGUMENT 5
14. A woman’s life plans came to an end when she had achieved everything.
15. Suburban housewives lived in their cozy homes with devices that did their chores for them in a couple
of hours.
16. It took her just an hour to do her weekly grocery shopping for the family at the super market.
17. Raising a family is her only job.
18. Her children spend most of the time at school and the rest of their time watching television.
19. (The housewife has a monotonous routine with nothing new or exciting). (from 14-18)
20. Hence ‘having it easy’ is not consolation but is the real problem. (from 19)

INDUCTIVE, STRONG, COGENT

ARGUMENT 6
21. Aboriginals buy their food with welfare cheques coming from the Australian government.
22. (Aboriginals do not have to hunt or find food, nor do they have to work to earn money to pay for their
food) (from 21).
23. Hence the skills that the aboriginals acquired become useless. (from 22)
24. Whatever aboriginals used to spend their days doing has become pointless.
25. As a result of all this, aboriginals’ life has lost meaning. (from 23 & 24).

INDUCTIVE, STRONG, COGENT

 ARGUMENT 7
26. The modern housewife and the modern aboriginal both are suffering from the lack of purpose.
27. Similarly, animals like farm hens have nothing to do after they quickly finish their food.
28. Hence, they attack other hens and must be debeaked to stop them killing each other. (from 27)
29. (The violent behavior which stems from the lack of purpose shows how important purpose is in life).
30. Hens kept in houses are given finely ground food, so they must work hard to consume their daily
intake and it takes them time.
31. (Hence, the hens are not idle all the time and are provided with purpose of activity). (from 30)
32. The modern concepts of leisure might make us think that making the hens work more would have
made their life difficult, but observations prove that they have made their life better by providing
them purposive work.
33. Hence, it can be said that our quest to find a purpose in our lives can be traced back to our
evolutionary history and cannot be eliminated from our lives. (from 26,29,30,31, & 32)

INDUCTIVE, WEAK
ARGUMENT 8
34. Shopping is a modern-day tranquilizer.
35. People admit that they go shopping for recreational purposes rather than just buying stuff.
36. Doing a lot of shopping seems to help reduce depression.
37. Shopping malls have taken the place of hunting grounds.
38. Shopping takes a lot of time like gathering fruits, seeds and berries in arid lands.
39. Shopping helps to develop specialized forms of knowledge, and skills like hunting.
40. Therefore, probably shopping has replaced traditional hunter gatherer activities as a form of purposive
activities in the lives of people. (from 37-39)
41. Hence, shopping is a substitute for purposive activity.

INDUCTIVE, STRONG, COGENT

 ARGUMENT 9

42. During the 50’s very few women and mostly men had jobs which had chances of promotions and
increase in responsibility and power.
43. Men can silent questions about their worth by imagining days when they will be promoted to a job
with more power, money and authority. (from 42)
44. Their romances will die down; their children will depend on them lesser every day.
45. Hence American housewives feel like their life has no purpose, more often than their husbands after
achieving all they thought they wanted. (from 43 & 44)

INDUCTIVE, STRONG, COGENT

 ARGUMENT 10
46. Wealthy people (classified as leisure class citizens by Veblen) who are at a stage of life at which they
have surpassed the need to acquire subsistence and comfort, focus on their desire to challenge
themselves to equal or surpass the wealth of others.
47. (This desire to equal or surpass the wealth of others, led them to develop a competitive attitude in
life to fill their void of purpose). (from 46)
48. Leisure class citizens compete with one another by constantly making ‘conspicuous consumption’ i.e.
they buy goods for the sole purpose of displaying their wealth and enhancing their relative status.
49. Conspicuous consumption is an unnecessary expenditure for leisure class citizens which has no
depreciations of motives (i.e. competitive types like such will always be looking to buy more and
more unnecessary goods and will keep on striving to enhance their status and wealth)
50. Desire for wealth can scarcely be satiated in any individual instance.
51. Leisure class citizens who make a competitive attitude to life will never reach a point of satisfaction.
They attain a new level of relative poverty i.e. they will never feel rich no matter how much wealth
they have. (from 47, 48, 49, & 50)

INDUCTIVE, STRONG, COGENT

 ARGUMENT 11
52. The craving to win, whether in business or in sport, is like a sentence to never-ending labor without a
goal.
53. It is an addiction that gets one hooked and ruins them e.g. Boesky.
54. (One is never satisfied no matter how much one achieves)
55. Hence, craving is insatiable as one will always want more. (from 52, 53, & 54)

DEDUCTIVE, VALID, SOUND

 ARGUMENT 12
56. Many sporting competitors report feeling empty after achieving the greatest possible success in their
chosen sport.
57. Winning doesn't satisfy you. (from 56)
58. (Especially because after you've won, there's always next year). (from 57)
59. Winning something or ultimately "making it" is mostly a hollow gain because then you want to win
more or achieve something else. (from 56, 57, 58)

INDUCTIVE, WEAK
 FINAL CONCLUSION

• The only thing that can give meaning to our lives is our own inner desire and will; but
once we have achieved what we strive for, we’re still not satisfied. Therefore, winning
makes one feel empty and one again lacks purpose.
 LOGICAL FALLACIES

• Argument 1: WEAK ANALOGY between Sisyphus and the lives of humans.

• Argument 2: SLIPPERY SLOPE fallacy where 6 happens because of 5, and 7 happens as a
result of 6.
• Argument 4: APPEAL TO INAPPROPRIATE AUTHORITY; the author mentions the authority
of magazines as well as that of TV soaps to justify his claim.
• Argument 7: WEAK ANALOGY where the author compares the behavior of farm hens and
other animals to that of house-wives.
• Argument 12: HASTY GENERALIZATION; the author generalizes that winning is
unsatisfactory to everyone due to a majority of sports players feeling so.