Do we really need a reason to live? Why not just live

[amorphous_constellation]

Do animals think they need a reason to live? They do just fine without a reason.

Why would we need a reason? If someone gives us a reason outside of just living, isn't that just creating an unnecessary void in us?

What do you think?

A simple question yet not a typical one. The answer seems to require more thinking that at first consideration.

Animals actually thrive on reason, I find that we might be the wayward ones in all this, having exited the circadian rhythms of nature so conspicuously. Think about it, a lion constantly has reason in mind, it has to feed its young. It has to feed itself. It has to protect its pack. They have to travel at the right time. You see, it has to do these things otherwise it will not survive - everything it does orbits around survival. Its reason to live is to try to keep living, otherwise it will die.

The human race has interfaced with situations where such was not the case. We can have greater reasons to live rather than just to try not to starve, or we can literally live with no reason at all if we are rich enough. If one is comfortable, they don't necessarily have to worry about their own survival, in which case some make the reason to live to help others that are overburdened in worrying about survival. Others may see life as so reasonless as to unfortunately commit great evils. Still yet, others may put the blinders on and go on autopilot for the rest of their lives, because reason to them is only worry. At any rate, our situation is significantly aberrant to that of all the animals. Perhaps all reason beyond survival is artificial. And where exactly are we hoisting ourselves with all this artificial reason? Into utopia? Into space? Into 3000 more years of class system slavery? We seem to have reason to philosophize the breakaway point. Does human existence have to follow any certain order? This order? Are we still searching for the best one? How is this world going to sort out? If all the many billion people on the earth ceased to have reason to live, what would then occur exactly?

 

[1robin]

Honestly, if you knew there is no ultimate accountability, would you really become a rich tyrant ? Seriously ?

Maybe not a tyrant, but I certainly would do a lot of things I now do not do if I knew I would never be held accountable. I would not want to worry's of being a tyrant, but I would not mind the euphoria of drug abuse as long as I kept it at a level that would not cause more harm than pleasure, etc...... Let me make this more practical and specific.

Lets say it was 1860. The president asked you to risk all of your 5 sons lives to fight a war to free men you never met because slavery offended someone's ethical code. Or ask a pilot to drop a bomb that killed 80,000 people because we think democracy is better than imperialism.

I would not do so. I would only do either, if those people were actually doing something wrong. If it was not actually wrong why would I give up my one and only life so the Jews could be spared. Find the speeches given when these events occur. They all appeal to objective or transcendent moral right and wrong which is rooted in an eternal transcendent moral foundation. Reagan did not call the USSR unethical, he called them evil.

Also keep in mind we are not talking only about the average person like me. There are plenty of Stalin's and Hitler's that probably said it was not worth the risk.

 

[Koldo]

Maybe not a tyrant, but I certainly would do a lot of things I now do not do if I knew I would never be held accountable. I would not want to worry's of being a tyrant, but I would not mind the euphoria of drug abuse as long as I kept it at a level that would not cause more harm than pleasure, etc...... Let me make this more practical and specific.

Lets say it was 1860. The president asked you to risk all of your 5 sons lives to fight a war to free men you never met because slavery offended someone's ethical code. Or ask a pilot to drop a bomb that killed 80,000 people because we think democracy is better than imperialism.

I would not do so. I would only do either, if those people were actually doing something wrong. If it was not actually wrong why would I give up my one and only life so the Jews could be spared. Find the speeches given when these events occur. They all appeal to objective or transcendent moral right and wrong which is rooted in an eternal transcendent moral foundation. Reagan did not call the USSR unethical, he called them evil.

Also keep in mind we are not talking only about the average person like me. There are plenty of Stalin's and Hitler's that probably said it was not worth the risk.

Why do you think that even though I am atheist I don't use drugs ? Actually, I barely ever drink any alcoholic beverage.

By your reasoning I should be making use of drugs, and yet I don't. So, how does that work ? What is off ?

 

[Penumbra]

Do animals think they need a reason to live? They do just fine without a reason.

Why would we need a reason? If someone gives us a reason outside of just living, isn't that just creating an unnecessary void in us?

What do you think?

I think that usually when people seriously wonder what the reason to live is more than just briefly, it's because they're dissatisfied in some way, or they feel incomplete.

Very happy people generally don't seem to require a meaning or a reason of life. The answer is self-evident: because life is enjoyable. Even with occasional setbacks, it's still often a nice experience overall.

I think types of people that often wonder what a reason to live is, are people that, for example, are working some unpleasant job day in and day out and don't know what else to do, or they're battling a long-term unpleasant health problem, or maybe they're aging and lonely, or young and bullied, or maybe have most things going decently for them but feel pretty bored/uninterested anyway, or whatever the case may be that their life is not self-evidently awesome to have.

Seems like a question that arises out of dissatisfaction.