A Response to Question 1, Section 1: The Meaning of Life: Wolf vs. Taylor
Both Richard Taylor and Susan Wolf understand the difficulty of answering the question, “What is the meaning of life?” Taylor begins his “The Meaning of Life” by saying that we do not even understand what the question means to then answer it, and Wolf claims in her own “The Meanings of Lives” that the question is embarrassing to ask because, as Taylor asserts, we really do not understand what is being asked here. Taylor proposes, then, the best way to answer this is to ask what makes for a meaningless life, and perhaps from this comparison, we can find some answers to the original question. Wolf appreciates Taylor’s approach as she also adopts his method, and even though …show more content…
Meaningful experiences are not always happy. “A trip to one’s birthplace may well be meaningful; a visit to an amusement park is unlikely to be so” (Wolf 3). According to Wolf, to live a meaningful life, it is important to acknowledge that we are not the center of the universe; that in the grand scheme of things, our lives are meaningless, and plan a life filled with activities and projects that are non-subjectively worthwhile (Wolf 10). This way, we can at least have some meaning in our lives. As a result, Wolf would most likely argue against Taylor’s claim that a change in Sisyphus’ attitude on rock-rolling makes his activity meaningful. To Wolf, attitude is not enough to make life meaningful or sustain meaning in life. If a life is devoted to doing the things that are good for only you, that is not living a meaningful life, but living life solipsistically. Wolf suggests that we instead live our lives by doing or caring for something not because of our “own psychologies... or our own desires, but in a fact about the world” (Wolf 12). In other words, we should live lives that are not just for ourselves. It is important to note, however, that we can do something important for someone else without rendering our lives meaningful. An alienated housewife, as Wolf suggests, can recognize that her work is important and perhaps continues to do so because she thinks it is important but doesn’t find …show more content…
To Taylor, a meaningful life is a life of mixing our struggles and passion that amounts to something. Whereas Wolf believes a meaningful life is the undertaking of non-subjectively worthwhile projects and a life lived not just for
Both Richard Taylor and Susan Wolf understand the difficulty of answering the question, “What is the meaning of life?” Taylor begins his “The Meaning of Life” by saying that we do not even understand what the question means to then answer it, and Wolf claims in her own “The Meanings of Lives” that the question is embarrassing to ask because, as Taylor asserts, we really do not understand what is being asked here. Taylor proposes, then, the best way to answer this is to ask what makes for a meaningless life, and perhaps from this comparison, we can find some answers to the original question. Wolf appreciates Taylor’s approach as she also adopts his method, and even though …show more content…
Meaningful experiences are not always happy. “A trip to one’s birthplace may well be meaningful; a visit to an amusement park is unlikely to be so” (Wolf 3). According to Wolf, to live a meaningful life, it is important to acknowledge that we are not the center of the universe; that in the grand scheme of things, our lives are meaningless, and plan a life filled with activities and projects that are non-subjectively worthwhile (Wolf 10). This way, we can at least have some meaning in our lives. As a result, Wolf would most likely argue against Taylor’s claim that a change in Sisyphus’ attitude on rock-rolling makes his activity meaningful. To Wolf, attitude is not enough to make life meaningful or sustain meaning in life. If a life is devoted to doing the things that are good for only you, that is not living a meaningful life, but living life solipsistically. Wolf suggests that we instead live our lives by doing or caring for something not because of our “own psychologies... or our own desires, but in a fact about the world” (Wolf 12). In other words, we should live lives that are not just for ourselves. It is important to note, however, that we can do something important for someone else without rendering our lives meaningful. An alienated housewife, as Wolf suggests, can recognize that her work is important and perhaps continues to do so because she thinks it is important but doesn’t find …show more content…
To Taylor, a meaningful life is a life of mixing our struggles and passion that amounts to something. Whereas Wolf believes a meaningful life is the undertaking of non-subjectively worthwhile projects and a life lived not just for