Epictetus's Theories Of The Meaning Of Life

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Seldom, one thinks of the meaning of its own existence. Further, if any is assigned, it’s usually nominated by religion or social constructs, which in reality have no productive value. This is evident in everyday conversation when one finds individuals unsure, hesitant, nervous or even unaware of this matter. For centuries though, philosophers or lovers of wisdom as defined in Latin, have sought to find the meaning of life. The different outcomes, the different interpretations and the different instructions on how to conceptualize this idea say as much about the philosopher as they do about human nature. Dissimilarities between their doctrines may indicate that the meaning of life is unique to each individual.

Firstly, Epicurus indicated
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This philosopher describes life as very difficult. But by embracing the difficulties of life one can become very aware of what 's ahead of oneself, and can plan for obstacles. Epictetus states that the outside world, our environment, or whatever surrounds us is out of our control and the only thing that 's in our control is our response. That is, the outcome is directly linked to our response to events. Further, Epictetus drives one to analyze the what we think of others misfortunes. Usually, when a mishap happens to a person, to our neighbors for instance, like if their car breaks down, people are compelled to say, “oh well, those things happen.” Similarly if a burglar breaks in somebody 's house, individuals go ahead and blame the dysfunctional society or even the president. But if the same happens to them, they go on and on, and blame the world and say that the world hates them and that collectively, all functions are working together to make their life miserable. Epictetus says that the same way things happen to you, happen to anyone else and that you have to embrace these things and just accept the fact that things happen, that 's how life is. Instead, wish for the things for the things that do happen to …show more content…
For this reason, Albert emphasizes the fact that because life doesn 't have any meaning one must assign a meaning to it. This is made clear in his essay “the myth of Sisyphus.” Albert states that the painful misery behind Sisyphus it 's not the fact that he has to push a rock up a mountain and let it slide back down and push it up again for eternity, but instead it is the fact that he 's aware of it. When one thinks about doing a mundane action for the rest of one 's life, anyone may think that it 's meaningless, but how much more painful it is to be aware of this thing? Just like Sisyphus our everyday life is surrounded by repetition one after the other, but frequently we 're not conscious of this. When one is conscious of this torture but still manages to exert motion, one has won the battle because the misery is overshadow by our character. As Albert states in the last line, “one must imagine Sisyphus

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