POSTED BY William James # 7
Is life worth living? That’s a question that most people if not all have wondered.
Some people find that for them it is not. So what’s the answer. Well personally for
me I think it is. However, William James the Philosopher says Maybe it is. William
James one day saw a sign that said “ life is worth living” on top of a bridge. This
made him think that ripples in the water we make ripples in the world. Everything we do
effects somebody. We effect the people we know by the way we act. If we kill
ourselves those ripples will effect the people around us. Is life worth living
William talks about life and how we effect everything around us. He uses the
analogy of the rock dropped into the water. We are the rock and when we enter the
water the rock is lost, that rock is our material life. The first wave of ripples is the
effect we leave on the people who knew us, which is our social self. Finally we look to
the our farthest ripples and those are our spiritual self. The main point that I took out
of this analogy was that there is more to life than our physical self.
If William James believed there is more to life than our physical self I do not
understand why he said that MAYBE Life is Worth Living. Seems to me that if we
effect the the people around us and the spiritual world and are not just a bunch of
nerve endings and brain matter then life is defiantly worth living.
I am going to say life is defiantly worth living. People care about you and so does
God. We are not on this earth to just live it up and then die. We are here to bless and
help others. When we go through rough times imagine getting through it and then
helping others that are going through the same thing. I do not think suicide is the right
answer and if you or someone else is thinking about it then please talk to someone or
go to the Suicide Hotline website. People are worth a lot, and life is worth living.
In conclusion, we make a difference in then world whether we think we do or not.
The question of if life is worth living is not obvious all the time. Like William James
said just because we think our life is worth living does not mean you can force that
idea on others. Everyone’s life situation is different. Some people have it rough.
However, because we have influence on others and the spiritual world we should think
twice about ending our lives. Human life is valuable and we are not just nerve endings
and brain matter. I think life is worth living.
It was actually John Kaag who saw that sign on the bridge.
ReplyDelete"If William James believed there is more to life than our physical self I do not understand why he said that MAYBE Life is Worth Living" - well, because we don't know whether there is or isn't, and in any case life as we know and live it happens on the physical plane. Whether that life is worth living will depend on the choices we make here and the attitudes and actions they lead us to.
Another way to think of it: a good life, a happy life, a life of service to others... these are all lives most of us would agree are worth living. But not everyone will achieve goodness, happiness, or service etc. Some will be miserable, some will inflict misery on others. So MAYBE still seems right.