What is the purpose of living?
- Philosophy every week
- Aug 24, 2020
- 2 min read
[English]
I beleive the purpose of life depends on a lot of things. One, and probably the most important one, is how much you contribute to society. With this I mean, how much you give to society from yourself. This includes maybe not society as a whole but also the citizens from the village or city you live in, your family and friends... This question can easily be combined with that of the utilitarian point of view based on how much our actions and character are worth based on the pleasure and good it generates in the rest of society. John Stuart Mills once said "it is better to be socrates disatisfied than a pig satisfied" when talking about the higher and the lower pleasures us as humans experience. Not only John S. Mills, but also his father James and a friend of his family Jeremy Bentham also beleived that the pourpose of life was to generate as much pleasure to more people than those which experience displeasure due to a decision you have taken.
Do you agree with the utilitarian point of view?
PS: I am sorry for not updating the past few weeks, I have been on holidays and there were not signal for me to upload the questions. Therefore I am posting today a 4 question update, hope you like them.
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¿Cual es el propósito de vivir?
[Español]
Creo que el propósito de la vida depende de muchas cosas. Una, y probablemente el más importante, es cuánto contribuyes a la sociedad. Con esto me refiero a cuánto le das a la sociedad de ti mismo. Esto incluye tal vez no a la sociedad en su conjunto, sino también a los ciudadanos del pueblo o ciudad en la que vive, tu familia y amigos... Esta pregunta se puede combinar fácilmente con la del punto de vista utilitario basado en cuánto nuestras acciones y carácter valen en función del placer y el bien que genera en el resto de la sociedad. John Stuart Mills dijo una vez que "es mejor estar Sócrates insatisfecho que un cerdo satisfecho" hablando sobre los placeres superiores e inferiores que experimentamos los humanos. No solo John S. Mills, sino también su padre James y un amigo de su familia Jeremy Bentham también creyeron que el propósito de la vida era generar tanto placer para más personas que aquellas que experimentaban disgusto debido a una de decisión tomada por ti.
¿Estás de acuerdo con el punto de vista utilitario?
PD: Lamento no haber actualizado las últimas semanas, he estado de vacaciones y no había señal para subir las preguntas. Por lo tanto, estoy publicando hoy una actualización de 4 preguntas, espero que les gusten.
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Week 16
Image credits: Shutterstock
Yes! .., John Stuart Mill is one of the men who laid the intellectual foundations of today's society, and i have no doubt he would agree with the idea that our life should contribute in our personal scale and experience to a higher and scale looking for a global tendency towards a better social order. I have sometimes thought about my death, perhaps from the perspective of how I should have contributed to my friends' lives, to my family, to the history of the world (uhhmmm). It doesn't seem that my life's story is specially exciting, but now I keep learning to look inside myself and to be connected to life and love, to feel all the world around us,…