Analysis: Does Death Give Meaning To Life
Introduction
Does death give meaning to life? One might wonder how something so morbid could bring meaning to “life”, which is supposedly something more pleasant and sound. Bernard Williams was an English philosopher in the 20th century who suggests that death gives meaning to life, and that immortality might not be something that one should desire and wish for (Jacobsen, 104). In the average human life, everyone has many different desires that bring meaning and purpose to that life. There are conditional desires, unconditional desires and categorical desires, and all of these desires bring meaning and interest to our lives. Conditional desires are things we want to do if we live long enough, like travel the world when we retire for example. …show more content…
The example starts with a 342 year old person who goes by the name EM. She lives a life where death does not come. EM chooses to live out the rest of her life at the age of 42. She does not age and her health does not change over time. Everything else will continue to change, emotions, feelings, interests, etc. EM lives for 300 years at the age of 42. Williams suggests that the problem would be boredom and a lack of any meaning in her life. “Her problem lay in having been at it for too long. Her trouble was it seems, boredom: a boredom connected with the fact that everything that could happen and makes sense to one particular human being of 42 years had already happened to her. Or, rather, all sorts of things that could make sense to one woman of a certain character,” (106). Another problem that Williams brings to light is the problem of repeated events and experiences. With the same person living for essentially forever or in this case 342 years, things will tend to repeat. Events, experiences and personal relations will repeat in that time frame. This adds to the boredom and the fact that life loses its meaning once these events and other experiences repeat itself. Williams suggests that to make it work, then EM will have to continually change everything about her on a regular basis. To live a bearable immortal life one must always be able to change very important aspects about her life (108). EM will have to …show more content…
Boredom. Everyone will eventually lose the will to live because they have already done everything they could have done and experienced everything to their interests. This, I agree, is true, as an endless life could possibly get boring, but one objection that can be raised about his view is that one would not lose meaning to life. I believe there are endless possibilities in life. There is always something new to experience and do. Life is too short. If you could live an immortal life, I do not think it would lose its meaning. Personally, I believe the biggest flaw in Williams’s views is his assumption that your character will be unchanged and everything that could happen, would. In life, people go through so many changes in their character, personality and interests. Things you found interesting when you were 12 years old and things you find now at the age of 20 are completely different. Being older you would find the things you found interesting at the age of 12 boring, so you don’t continue to do those things. You changed and adapted every day, and are always changing in your life span and life hasn’t lost its meaning. So who says you cannot do that with an endless
Does death give meaning to life? One might wonder how something so morbid could bring meaning to “life”, which is supposedly something more pleasant and sound. Bernard Williams was an English philosopher in the 20th century who suggests that death gives meaning to life, and that immortality might not be something that one should desire and wish for (Jacobsen, 104). In the average human life, everyone has many different desires that bring meaning and purpose to that life. There are conditional desires, unconditional desires and categorical desires, and all of these desires bring meaning and interest to our lives. Conditional desires are things we want to do if we live long enough, like travel the world when we retire for example. …show more content…
The example starts with a 342 year old person who goes by the name EM. She lives a life where death does not come. EM chooses to live out the rest of her life at the age of 42. She does not age and her health does not change over time. Everything else will continue to change, emotions, feelings, interests, etc. EM lives for 300 years at the age of 42. Williams suggests that the problem would be boredom and a lack of any meaning in her life. “Her problem lay in having been at it for too long. Her trouble was it seems, boredom: a boredom connected with the fact that everything that could happen and makes sense to one particular human being of 42 years had already happened to her. Or, rather, all sorts of things that could make sense to one woman of a certain character,” (106). Another problem that Williams brings to light is the problem of repeated events and experiences. With the same person living for essentially forever or in this case 342 years, things will tend to repeat. Events, experiences and personal relations will repeat in that time frame. This adds to the boredom and the fact that life loses its meaning once these events and other experiences repeat itself. Williams suggests that to make it work, then EM will have to continually change everything about her on a regular basis. To live a bearable immortal life one must always be able to change very important aspects about her life (108). EM will have to …show more content…
Boredom. Everyone will eventually lose the will to live because they have already done everything they could have done and experienced everything to their interests. This, I agree, is true, as an endless life could possibly get boring, but one objection that can be raised about his view is that one would not lose meaning to life. I believe there are endless possibilities in life. There is always something new to experience and do. Life is too short. If you could live an immortal life, I do not think it would lose its meaning. Personally, I believe the biggest flaw in Williams’s views is his assumption that your character will be unchanged and everything that could happen, would. In life, people go through so many changes in their character, personality and interests. Things you found interesting when you were 12 years old and things you find now at the age of 20 are completely different. Being older you would find the things you found interesting at the age of 12 boring, so you don’t continue to do those things. You changed and adapted every day, and are always changing in your life span and life hasn’t lost its meaning. So who says you cannot do that with an endless