(Successor site to CoPhilosophy, 2011-2020) A collaborative search for wisdom, at Middle Tennessee State University and beyond... "The pluralistic form takes for me a stronger hold on reality than any other philosophy I know of, being essentially a social philosophy, a philosophy of 'co'"-William James
Sunday, April 30, 2023
Is Life Worth Living?
A question asked by everyone once or twice, as looking at the bad news of The world gives such a harrowing view of life, the globe is warming due to centuries of human neglect, the beautiful forest being devasted, oceans poisoned, and deaths and extiction of hundreds of animal species almost every day. How does one look into life and say its a livalble and prosperous life, but as James explains, such views are the ones of a pessimist, "The nightmare or suicidal view of life." (James, 16) It is one of two views that looks at life in a dreadful manner, on the other hand, optimism is the opposite, in which sees the beautiful world and the positivity of life, one person that describes what a happy and optimistic person feels is Walt Whitman's short poem,
"To breathe the air, how delicious!
To speak, to walk, to seize something by the hand!
To be this increadible God I am!
O amazement of things, even the least particle!"
Truly being able to see and enjoy the smaller things in life.
Pessimism and a bleak view of life can be changed according to William James, with religion, he doesn't condone nor condems it. James sees that religion brings "desire atonement, harmony and communion with the total Soul of Things." (James, 19) but its a dangerous game as craving too much can breed pessimism and as easily as it creates optimism. A religious disease caused by itself, such a nightmare, caused by the phenomena of Nature, natural theology. With inner discord inside of a person at all time, it may be resolved through facts or religious reading,
"supplementary facts may be discovered or believed in,
which permit the religious reading to go on."
To those who believes more in science, they should keep an open mind for those who believe more in the supernatural and mystical aspect of life, as theres no knowledge of the world beyond what we can comprehend, but that is for the readers to decide.
The issue of whether life is worth living is ultimately decided by the person, they could accept the pessimistic views and even commit suicide, or you can turn it around, accepting the world as is a believing you can do good, turning a possibility into a reality. The answer from James' point of view is a maybe and it has to depend on the person. Solook to the positive of your lives, and find what makes you still love life and hold onto it.
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Good start. Add some links (eg, in the first paragraph: global warming, extinctions, Walt Whitman)... Maybe discuss WJ's alternative to optimism and pessimism, viz. meliorism, and how that relates to "maybe"...
ReplyDeleteFrom Pragmatism Lecture IV:
"...there are unhappy men who think the salvation of the world impossible. Theirs is the doctrine known as pessimism.
Optimism in turn would be the doctrine that thinks the world's salvation inevitable.
Midway between the two there stands what may be called the doctrine of meliorism, tho it has hitherto figured less as a doctrine than as an attitude in human affairs. Optimism has always been the regnant DOCTRINE in european philosophy. Pessimism was only recently introduced by Schopenhauer and counts few systematic defenders as yet. Meliorism treats salvation as neither inevitable nor impossible. It treats it as a possibility, which becomes more and more of a probability the more numerous the actual conditions of salvation become.
It is clear that pragmatism must incline towards meliorism..." https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5116/5116-h/5116-h.htm