From the category archives:

Meaning of Life

Can You Be Happy When You Are Young?

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Today I was looking at my photos from Paris where I lived twenty years ago. I was very young then. As I was going through these photos, I realized I would appreciate Paris much more today than I did back then. Does that mean age makes us better able to appreciate life?
Could it even mean [...]

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Does Pleasure Make You Happy?

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Many philosophers think happiness is a “background condition,” and pleasure is only like sparkles against that background. Pleasure is a fleeting “foreground experience,” whereas happiness is what you really want. But, surely, you cannot be happy without pleasure, can you?
Schopenhauer agrees. He thinks pleasure is necessary in order to be happy, and he thinks [...]

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What Are You Doing with Your Self?

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Some people have a strong sense of self. Or call it ego, individuality, or personal identity. What I mean is the sense of being someone with wants, desires, aspirations, and the ability to claim a place in the world. We use it to go after what we think will give life meaning. But maybe [...]

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What Is the Meaning of Life?

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I have always thought about the meaning of life as something we find along the way of living our lives. I thought meaningful experiences are what give meaning to life. I can, for instance, look back and say “my life is meaningful because I have loved and known my children.” But, what if life can [...]

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What Would Life Be without History?

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Recently a friend of mine was photographed next to a photograph of someone he admires but who is of an earlier generation. A dead man, in other words. Watching this, I was suddenly struck by the fact that history separates people.
Those who are dead really are not here. Their pictures hang on our walls, [...]

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Do You Know Why You Want to Live?

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I’m reading Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers from Prison.
Here is another powerful quote from the Prologue: “ It would probably not be true to say that we welcome death … we are too inquisitive for that.”
How interesting! That my desire to know, to understand and to penetrate the world with my mind should be the [...]

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