The Four Keys to a Meaningful Life Could pursuing meaning be the path to true happiness? We at Greater Good have written often about the differences between a happy life and a meaningful life and found that the two are closely related. When we aim for a life of meaningful pursuits, we are likely to feel more sustained happiness and life satisfaction—even if there is some discomfort, sadness, or stress along the way—than if we aim for a life of pleasure alone. In fact, seeking happiness directly may actually backfire, while pursuing meaning may increase our health and well-being. Now a new book takes a stab at figuring out just what pursuing a meaningful life entails. In The Power of Meaning, journalist Emily Esfahani Smith draws from the texts of great writers and philosophers—Emerson, Aristotle, Buddha, and Victor Frankl, for example—as well as interviews with everyday people seeking to increase meaning in their lives, to try to distill what’s central in this pursuit. 1. 2. 3. 4.
Philosophy - AllAboutPhilosophy.org Oxford's Free Introduction to Philosophy: Stream 41 Lectures You don't need to go to Oxford to study philosophy. Not when it will come to you. Above, find a playlist that features 41 lectures from Oxford's course called General Philosophy. Here's what it has to offer: A series of lectures delivered by Peter Millican to first-year philosophy students at the University of Oxford. The lectures comprise of the 8-week General Philosophy course, delivered to first year undergraduates. Philosophers covered in the course include Aristotle, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley and Hume. The lectures can be accessed on YouTube, iTunes or the Web. Follow Open Culture on Facebook and Twitter and share intelligent media with your friends. If you'd like to support Open Culture and our mission, please consider making a donation to our site. Related Content: Download 100 Free Online Philosophy Courses & Start Living the Examined Life Death: A Free Philosophy Course from Yale 135 Free Philosophy eBooks
Living a Meaningful Life Source: rosemary sword Although we might think happiness – or the pursuit of it – will make us feel better about ourselves and our lives, research indicates that it’s actually finding greater meaning in our lives that, at the end of the day – or our lives – is more fulfilling. In Emily Esfahani Smith’s fascinating article, “There is More to Happiness than Being Happy” ( she reports, “While happiness is an emotion felt in the here and now, it ultimately fades away, just as all emotions do; positive affect and feelings of pleasure are fleeting. The amount of time people report feeling good or bad correlates with happiness but not at all with meaning. Meaning, on the other hand, is enduring. It connects the past to the present to the future.” article continues after advertisement The Pursuit of Happiness Our Search for Meaning Happiness versus Meaning Living a Meaningful Life In Annie M. The Time Cure References
Metaphysics and the limits of science | Mary Midgley | Opinion | The Guardian Is physical science – as some people say – omnicompetent? Can it (that is) answer all possible questions? If, for instance, we ask why human beings sometimes behave so appallingly – or how we know that they shouldn't behave so appallingly; or what is the best way to deal with inner conflicts; or whether depression is a physical or a mental trouble – can we look to the physical sciences for an answer? How would we even start to hunt for it there? This idea that science is an all-purpose oracle dealing with every kind of question is surely very odd. Yet that promise was confidently launched in the 1930s and has proved a very powerful myth. "Two hundred years later this programme for a self-sufficient science has succeeded beyond the dreams of its inventors … The major puzzles of existence have been pulled to pieces [by] all-conquering and consuming scientific rationality. What can this mean? Neither, of course, do physicists claim to deal with the "major puzzles of existence".
Opinion | If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is Instead, we ask those who sincerely believe that it does make sense to organize our discipline entirely around European and American figures and texts to pursue this agenda with honesty and openness. We therefore suggest that any department that regularly offers courses only on Western philosophy should rename itself “Department of European and American Philosophy.” This simple change would make the domain and mission of these departments clear, and would signal their true intellectual commitments to students and colleagues. We see no justification for resisting this minor rebranding (though we welcome opposing views in the comments section to this article), particularly for those who endorse, implicitly or explicitly, this Eurocentric orientation. Some of our colleagues defend this orientation on the grounds that non-European philosophy belongs only in “area studies” departments, like Asian Studies, African Studies or Latin American Studies.
Why a meaningful life might matter more than happiness - Health - ABC News "Whatever good or bad fortune may come our way, we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value." Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha. What is the most meaningful thing that happened to you this year? What inspired you, and gave you strength and resilience? For me, it was the response to a story one of my sons and I wrote earlier in the year. It was our way of trying to make sense of something that made no sense at all. And the response was almost overwhelming. People, young and old, families from all around the world got in touch, saying how much the story had touched them. How it had given them a reason to hug their children tighter. Being able to look back and highlight meaningful moments is important. meaningful life comments teaser Looking back, looking forward When you cast your mind back on the last 12 months, what do you focus on? That's what American writer Emily Esfahani Smith has found. She believes living a meaningful life might matter even more than happiness.
E/O Essays – Philosophy, Ethics and Religious Studies essay guidance for students Introduction to Philosophy/The Branches of Philosophy The Branches of Philosophy[edit] Western philosophy can be divided into six branches that have assumed various importance over time. Traditionally metaphysics sets the questions for philosophy. Epistemology asks how do we know? Understanding philosophy in the 6th century b.c. involves taking into account different priorities than those of the 19th century a.d. Epistemology[edit] The theory of knowledge, from the Greek words episteme (knowledge) and logos (word/speech), is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, origin, scope and possibility of knowledge. [edit] Metaphysics however (derived from the Greek words " meta & physika ") - meaning 'after physics'. Logic[edit] Logic (from Classical Greek λόγος (logos), originally meaning the word, or what is spoken, but coming to mean thought or reason) is most often said to be the study of arguments. Ethics[edit] Ethics is a general term for what is often described as the "science (study) of morality". Aesthetics[edit]
A Happy Life May Not Be a Meaningful Life Psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl once wrote, “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.” For most people, feeling happy and finding life meaningful are both important and related goals. But do happiness and meaning always go together? It seems unlikely, given that many of the things that we regularly choose to do – from running marathons to raising children – are unlikely to increase our day-to-day happiness. Recent research suggests that while happiness and a sense of meaning often overlap, they also diverge in important and surprising ways. Roy Baumeister and his colleagues recently published a study in the Journal of Positive Psychology that helps explain some of the key differences between a happy life and a meaningful one. As one might expect, people’s happiness levels were positively correlated with whether they saw their lives as meaningful.
A Level Answer Plan with Guide DFI This Is Water: David Foster Wallace on Life On September 12, 2008, David Foster Wallace took his own life, becoming a kind of patron-saint of the “tortured genius” myth of creativity. Just three years prior to his suicide, he stepped onto the podium at Kenyon College and delivered one of the most timeless graduation speeches of all time — the only public talk he ever gave on his views of life. The speech, which includes a remark about suicide by firearms that came to be extensively discussed after DFW’s own eventual suicide, was published as a slim book titled This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life (public library). You can hear the original delivery in two parts below, along with the the most poignant passages. On solipsism and compassion, and the choice to see the other: On the double-edged sword of the intellect, which Einstein, Steve Jobs, and Anne Lamott have spoken to: On empathy and kindness, echoing Einstein:
Beyond Belief: Why Australians don't go to church, but call upon God in times of crisis By Chloe Brant Posted Most Australians claim they believe in God or some kind of "higher power" and yet fewer than one in 10 of us attend church every week. We don't actively "worship" and yet are apparently comforted by the mere presence of the many churches that operate in our community. And, despite not believing in God, we send our children to religious schools and turn to the Bible during times of crisis. In his new book Beyond Belief, Australian social researcher Hugh Mackay argues a growing number of people, particularly young people, are abandoning religion in favour of a different kind of spirituality — one not restricted by institutions or guidelines. We still crave answers and seek happiness, Mackay says, but more of us are finding it in secular realms: yoga, meditation, music. Let's discuss 'our need to believe'. I think the underlining reason is [that] life is a mystery; we want those big questions answered to why we are here. We are currently in a soft revolution.
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