Yes and No - Life is Absurd Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Yes and No - Life is Absurd - Term Paper Example After an assessment, this paper will point out some underlying ideas on which both Smith’s and Feinberg’s differing views are based. A backgrounder Michael Smith is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities whose interests include the philosophy of the mind. His article Is That All There Is poses a question which embodies the position of the philosophical school of Absurdism that man is incapable of ultimately finding inherent meaning to life. In the article, Smith implicitly avows his absurdist philosophy, nothing short of revealing his growing up experience in an undeveloped suburb of Melbourne, Australia’s capital city. Smith’s schooling was not remarkable, except for the intellectual cream of his school’s teaching staff. Mr. Taffe, one of his respected teachers, came prominently in his recollection as the teacher who introduced him to the French language and culture. The opportunities afforded by Mr. Taffe allowed Smith to attend a Waitin g for Godot theatre performance. As an adolescent with a malleable mind, Smith felt strongly influenced by the play’s dramatic portrayal of life’s tragic lack of meaning. The play belongs to the genre of the Theatre of the Absurd which portrays horror and tragedy with characters caught up in situations of hopelessness and absurdity. In Smith’s own words, the play impressed on him the â€Å"utter pointlessness and tragedy of human existence† (Smith 77). This sense of hopelessness would linger throughout the life of Smith in spite of such wonderful experiences as having a family. Later in his career, Smith would garner career achievements such his being a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities. But in spite of his success he says he felt the intellectual â€Å"dissonance† in his life, and this prompted his study of Joel Feinberg’s paper â€Å"Absurd Self-fulfilment.† Feinberg’s essay Feinberg’s essay was a challeng e to Smith’s enduring adolescent dissonance. In his critique, Smith found an ally in Thomas Nagel, an American philosopher widely known in the field of the philosophy of the mind. Nagel’s What Is It Like to Be a Bat held a sceptical view of the world, as the mind is obstructed by three barriers to human consciousness-- physical, functional and mental. Smith then expounds his five arguments arguing against Feinberg’s propositions which upheld coherence to human life as such, and the redeeming value of fulfilment to save human life from being tragic: 1. What makes a life absurd? Smiths lays the ground for discussion as he explains Feinberg’s explanation of what is absurd, namely: the irrational/incongruous in things/activities/attitudes of the individual person. For Fienberg, the Absurd can be likened to the mythical Sisyphus who perpetually rolls a rock uphill, the rock rolling down the other side again and again. For Fienberg, there is a spectrum of absur dities from the extreme-intrinsically worthless, to the absurdly trivial, the burdensome-ill-designed, and misfits in terms of pretensions of aspirations. With sweeping insight, Smith viewed Feinberg as positing different levels of absurdity, some more and others lesser the extreme being the thought of life as totally pointless. Smith clarifies that his adolescent dissonance does not redound to absurdity in the extreme case. 2. Can a pointless human life be saved from being tragic by being fulfilled? Smith gave cognizance to Feinberg’s position that human lives can both be pointless to a certain extent and at the same time fulfilled, again to a certain extent. Feinberg’s own definition of fulfilment is â€Å"an individual’s having and exercising the capacities that are centrally involved in her being the individual that she is†

Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albiom) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albiom) - Essay Example The death of his favorite uncle brought a turning point in his life. He made up his mind, earned degrees in journalism and started his career as a sports writer. He worked for several newspapers and finally reached The Detroit Free Press. Mitch prospers in his life, still his covetousness grows. He marries and promises to settle in life some day. Accidentally he hears of his long-forgotten old professor Morrie in a TV interview. Unfortunately his favorite professor is dying of Lou Gehrig's disease. Though afflicted with the disease Morrie refused to be afraid and disappointed. He rather decided to make his final classes, teaching students how to die. Mitch meets Morrie and promises to visit again. Mitch looses his job in few weeks and decides to meet Morrie as he felt frustrated with unsettling thoughts. Having abundant time Mitch visits Morrie every Tuesday till Morrie’s death. Mitch records their talks as they discuss everything in life. Morrie gives valuable thoughts regard ing death, life, money, marriage and various other things. Their talks, Morrie’s valuable insights and his approach to death became the foundation for Tuesdays with Morrie. Tuesdays with Morie is an awesome work that would change the readers’ perspectives about life. The story reveals what is relevant in life. Readers get highly inspired by the book as they testify that it is the one of the most profound, interesting and thought-provoking book they have ever read. The book presents a wonderfully honest exchange between a professor (who is heading towards death because of a dreadful disease) and his 'successful' student. This true story portrays the compassion and wisdom of a man who had an extraordinarily good heart. It is about a man who lived his life to the fullest until the closing of his life. It is a story of a special bond of friendship between the student and the teacher that was lost for many years. The friendship was never forgotten and was picked up again at the most important period in the lives of the Professor and the student. We find both of them giving and receiving valuable gifts of friendship and love. Morrie gives valuable lessons to Mitch. Morrie teaches Mitch several things through his words. He says that that the happiness of youth is just a farce, as the young people who seldom possess the wisdom to face the miseries they face. Morrie embraces aging, instead of fearing or hating it. He makes Mitch understand that aging and death are inevitable and fighting age is a hopeless battle. These words of Morrie made me understand that again and death is a natural part of life that should be taken in the right sense. We find that Morrie had lived through all the stages of life and he doesn’t wish to return to any of these stages. Each of the stages he had gone through makes the man he is now. This made Mitch (and also me) understand that all stages of life is important and no stage is better than any other stage. All the stag es of life makes a man complete. Morrie is ready to face new frontiers of life in future, though he is well aware that life is short before him. Morrie wanted to make his remaining days fruitful, instead of getting depressed over that the fact that he has to face death soon. Through this lesson Mitch understands that it is pointless to lament over anything and it is utterly foolish to fear anything in life. On the fourth Tuesday Morrie teaches Mitch that if he learns how to die he can learn how to live. He says this as a reply to Mitch’