Understanding the Meaning of Life
The meaning of Life by Susan Wolf is about the big questions that exist in life. People ask themselves questions such as why there is something rather than nothing in life, why we are here, and why the cosmos. People have pondered a lot in these questions but they haven’t reached a definite answer because meaning in life matters differently in people. The author claims that despite various metaphysical and religious attempts to understand the meaning of life, any viewpoint given is challenged. This is because life is illogical, and a puzzle hard to solve because it manifests itself differently to people. The subjective approach to life that Wolf uses to denote meaningfulness in life lands her into a pitfall of questions. Her take that all people agree to the objective meanings of life is, therefore not true.
For meaning in life to be realized, its subjective and objective elements must be inextricably and suitably linked together in what Wolf describes as attractiveness. It is not however easy to understand such elements and this is why it’s hard to discern the meaning of life. Wolf declares that in life, meaning will occur “when subjective attractions meet objective attractiveness” (Klemke& Steven p. 207). She asks us to love those objects that are worthy of love and positively engage with them. However, the mere recognition of objects of objective value is not sufficient in life. In my opinion, however, don’t rely so much on the concept of objectiveness attractiveness in life because people view things differently and achieve happiness at individual levels too. Wolf says that smoking all day long, playing crosswords and Sudoku are objectively unworthy activities. I may not find significant meaning in these activities but to other people, they matter in life since they are a source of enjoyment and fulfillment in their life. The dichotomy which Wolf establishes between the objective and subjective meaning of life is therefore unsupported.
In her explanations, Susan Wolf aims to teach us what we can do to find meaning in life. She warns us against undertaking activities that we don’t have passion in because they won’t benefit us. She says that “meaningful lives are the lives of active engagement in projects of worth” (Klemke& Steven p. 205). To her, it doesn’t matter what people do in their lives as long as they love what they do and find worth in it. The conception of a self-fulfillment view involves finding a passion for something and taking the necessary step to pursue it. However, if a meaningful life rests in our active engagement in activities and projects of value, then Wolf should know that people have different definitions of worth and its source. Some people find worth in their families while others find it in their careers and thus we shouldn’t generalize it’s the meaning. Wolf is stressing on active engagement but she doesn’t recognize the price that comes with it. In my opinion, being engaged in activity means being devoted to what one is doing, but it’s not always pleasant because it’s associated with overworking.
According to Wolf, some of the paradigms of meaningful lives are those of accomplishments and moral virtues. As I mentioned earlier, she is asking us to follow our passion because it will lead us to our goals and happiness in life. Wolf gives an example of people such as Albert Einstein, Gandhi, and Mother Teresa and says that their lives were unquestionably meaningful (p. 205). These people were dedicated to valuable projects not only for their benefits but for the benefit of others and thus they deserve moral credit. However, it is worthy to know that some things are valuable to some people but valueless to others. People should, therefore, give credit only to those activities which they find meaningful in their lives or the ones that impact them positively. Finding meaning in life is therefore different among people.
To sum up, Wolf is dedicated to addressing the objective value of life but only provides a phenomenology of the objective standard of value rather than a supported theory. She is not accepting a radical account of both subjective and objective values even though she tries to establish the match between the two and this is one flaw in her book. As we all know, there are many people who don’t succeed in the projects that they undertake but we shouldn’t conclude that their lives are not meaningful. For example, there are other people like scientists who strife throughout their lives to inventing something, only to be scooped by others. Should we say that their lives were not meaningful? Wolf should, therefore, appreciate those who make efforts to achieve worthy goals but fall short. Lastly, Wolf is attributing meaningfulness or lack of meaning to specific concrete lives, which should not be the case.
Work Cited
Klemke, Elmer Daniel, and Steven M. Cahn. “The meaning of life: A reader.” (2007).