Dignified and Meaningful Work It is not uncommon to hear people complain about having to work in order to be successful in life. In theory, the thought of not having to work for anything sounds great. However, looking deeply into the fundamentals behind the idea, it is easy to see that such an initiative could never be accomplished. Karel Ĉapek discusses the idea of creating robots to do the work in place of humans in his 1921 play entitled R.U.R., an acronym for Rossum’s Universal Robots. Ĉapek’s views regarding the role of work in humanity are told through Alquist, a wise, old man who believes work is a very important defining factor of humanity. Many of the same ideas are seen in Thomas More’s Utopia. Written in 1516, More discusses what
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Domin believes that the world will still be able to function and operate with the elimination of human labor. Alquist doubts Domin’s belief, explaining, “All the laborers of the world will be out of work.” Alquist is convinced that without work, nothing will hold value, thus giving people no motivation and ultimately, no meaning in life. Alquist goes on to state, “There is nothing more terrible than giving people paradise on earth!” Alquist knows without giving reason for man to complete work, he will become lazy and ungrateful. Humans will see that they have no purpose and live with no motivation or reason in their life. Ĉapek shows that work gives personal meaning to life, ultimately leading to the meaning and functioning of …show more content…
Alquist says, “To men who are superfluous women will not bear children!” The more robots that are being produced, the less human children are being born, to the extreme that there are no human births on earth. Although many of the characters in Ĉapek’s play have different reasoning for the epidemic, Alquist believes the reason lies within the fact that women have no reason to be attracted to men if they don’t work. In addition to this, the excessive production of robots makes humans unnecessary, as there will be no work to complete. Alquist believes that people must work in order to keep the human population steady, a point that is proven in the
Domin believes that the world will still be able to function and operate with the elimination of human labor. Alquist doubts Domin’s belief, explaining, “All the laborers of the world will be out of work.” Alquist is convinced that without work, nothing will hold value, thus giving people no motivation and ultimately, no meaning in life. Alquist goes on to state, “There is nothing more terrible than giving people paradise on earth!” Alquist knows without giving reason for man to complete work, he will become lazy and ungrateful. Humans will see that they have no purpose and live with no motivation or reason in their life. Ĉapek shows that work gives personal meaning to life, ultimately leading to the meaning and functioning of …show more content…
Alquist says, “To men who are superfluous women will not bear children!” The more robots that are being produced, the less human children are being born, to the extreme that there are no human births on earth. Although many of the characters in Ĉapek’s play have different reasoning for the epidemic, Alquist believes the reason lies within the fact that women have no reason to be attracted to men if they don’t work. In addition to this, the excessive production of robots makes humans unnecessary, as there will be no work to complete. Alquist believes that people must work in order to keep the human population steady, a point that is proven in the