How should man live? Here’s how I see it. The only reasonable motivation for doing anything is to increase my own present or future sense of fulfillment. I may behave altruistically, but this is a means to an end: the sense of fulfillment that I receive from the action. It all comes down to this fulfillment (call it happiness if you like, but I think fulfillment is stronger). I think this is as true of the theist as well as the atheist.
It is unreasonable to do something that will not bring some sense of hapiness or fulfillment, or which will decrease fulfillment. Thus, if reason is our guide, then man should live in such a way as to produce his own fulfillment.
That seems simple enough.
To go a bit further, we can point out that what might bring an immediate sense of fulfillment, like having an extramarital affair or slashing the tires of an enemy, may not be in my long term best interest. Though it may bring fulfillment for the moment, the net effect after a period of time will be negative. I will end up with less fulfillment in the long run. As humans, then, it seems reasonable that following every impulse may not be desirable.
This seems simple enough, but it leaves some questions. How do we decide which is better? How do we weigh these “fulfillments” against each other? How do we know what course of action will yield a positive net fulfillment? Is the negative sense of fulfillment that I get by withholding some immediate gratification from myself really outweighed by the long term reward? Maybe I can find long term fulfillment by simply pursuing every means of short term fulfillment that presents itself. In fact, this is the life of the addict, he whose life is dominated by the pursuit of short term fulfillment. or it is the life of the ape man.
And here is an interesting question: Does this philosophy of the prusuit of maximum fulfillment provide us with any objective moral standard? Is the road to maximum fulfillment different for everyone, or is it the same? If we can say that everyone ought toseek their own maximum fulfillment (the only reasonable position if reason be our guide to oughtness), then can we say that all men ought to do certain specific things? Can we build an objective ethic?
Can we look for those things which, because of millions of years of evolutionary conditioning, bring fulfillment to homo sapiens? Can we identify those things in which we are genetically or “memetically” conditioned to find fulfillment?
[...] How should man live? Here’s how I see it. The only reasonable motivation for doin… It is unreasonable to do something that will not bring some sense of hapiness or fulfillment, or which will decrease fulfillment. Thus, if reason is our guide, then man should live in such a way as to produce his own fulfillment [...]
[...] How should man live? Here’s how I see it. The only reasonable motivation for doin… It is unreasonable to do something that will not bring some sense of hapiness or fulfillment, or which will decrease fulfillment. Thus, if reason is our guide, then man should live in such a way as to produce his own fulfillment [...]
[...] How should man live? Here’s how I see it. The only reasonable motivation for doin… It is unreasonable to do something that will not bring some sense of hapiness or fulfillment, or which will decrease fulfillment. Thus, if reason is our guide, then man should live in such a way as to produce his own fulfillment [...]