Most people live their lives without ever finding their true purpose. What is our general purpose?Whats my purpose? Am confused and lost. Is this the first step to my soul finding enlightenment in this life or am I bound to be reborn? Anyone have any ideas that might help me find what am looking for? Although I do not know what am looking for?
Would you rather die with answers or with questions?
decisions decisions if only we had a choice when we die. Questions answers am bound to die with atleast one unanswered question and so is everyone on this planet who has ever sat down and thought about it or maybe I knew the answer to that question but forgot it or maybe I will remember it when I die but for now Iam as ignorant as everyone else.
Why do babies cry when they are born? Do they know something we dont?
Babies cry to draw the attention of their source of food.
Are you saying that some people might find a/the purpose? And what, lost, does “purpose” mean?
I don’t think you’re lost(well, because essentially I can’t concieve of a destination). Just bored. Or, perhaps, the little activites no longer suffice to occupy yourself, they fail to distract you from the question you just might be asking here.
What does any of it really mean?
I could accept a fatalistic position allowing that it be “purposive” but insignificant and useless while living. Do I believe in fate, predestination, determination? Sure. But these are existentially meaningless. My life, to be sure, is always somewhere between what is actual and what is possible. As it happens, it becomes actual as “had been,” and there I can call it fate while looking back at it. But I live forwards, so what does my past mean? What good is fate and purpose when I have to decide what to do, how to act and live? Purpose, from these fatalistic suppositions, is a ridiculous post hoc leap.
It was fate after the fact that John hesitantly shot the invading burgler. During the event John cannot rely on any predetermined purpose while choosing. And where it needn’t be the case that “John shoots the burgler,” his choice is contingent. John is “no purpose” incarnate.
So, lost, you do whatcha wanna. Just try not to step on another man’s toes while doing it.
Remember, he’s going through the same shit as you and I are.
You should check out Soren Kierkegaard some time. Try “.com” for starters.
He’s an expert on questions such as “human
purpose,” “passion,” “anxiety,” “dread,” to name a few themes. He uses ironies and paradies often to showcase the human condition. You know, the peculiar things that nobody really mentions in philosophy. Its very personal and intense. You’ll like it.
Your purpose is to figure out what man should do makeing you the greatest Eticist of all time.
You have 30 years, begin now. 
Nanook, do you know any good sites dealing with Kierkegaard, for Sooren’s beginners.
thanks
Lost? You are not. And you’re not confused either. Go get a decent job. It’ll give you a purpose and you will feel better about yourself. Give yourself a bit of self esteem by being a useful part of society. I am being serious, although I am basing that on how melodramatic that was writen. Sounds like somebody with an awful job, or maybe no job. I’m probably just being arrogant. Nobody ever does anything important by starting with the prerequesite that they have to do something with a great purpose.
Man should make robots. Robots that do everything man can do, only better in every way… rendering humans next to useless. If humans no longer have a purpose then they must have achieved it or at least passed it on to more capable hands. There. I just him 30 years! Now crown me ‘greatest ethicist of all time’ and I’ll go find another forum to bother.
You don’t like it? It IS a purpose. It COULD work. What more do you want?
lenore,
I suppose any site would be as good as the other. Typically because you will be reading about him and not his actual writing itself(other than various quotes). And I think most commentary about Soren will be more or less the same.
The complicated part is reading Soren’s books. He is a very unique writer and often hard to understand. I would suggest, if and after you take an interest in him, to purchase any of the many introduction books that are out there. I just recently bought one called “Kierkegaard for Beginners,” as a gift for a friend. I liked it so much I kept it(I’ll buy him another later). It is a wonderful book, simple and fun to read. It also has some excellent comical illustrations.
For example, I just found out that “Kierkegaard” means “graveyard.” And this was funny because at the end of the book, there is a picture of Kierkegaard sitting on his tombstone and he says, “what did you expect from a man who was named after a graveyard?”
The master of irony he was indeed.
too many answers yet none with a significant meaning except one.
Get a better job. best advice anyone ever gave me at my present
situation. Bro you nailed it. It took me exactly 18 and a half hours
to get a better Job. I have handed in my Notice and am on my way
to South Africa in 2 months time (surfs up). Life has a meaning but we are not ready for the truth. Maybe we are guinea pigs for some sick scientific experiment or maybe we are just toys for a much superior race
we will never know.
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Henry David Thoreau
“Man is a rope, fastened between animal and Superman - a rope over an abyss.
A dangerous going-across, a dangerous wayfaring, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous shuddering and staying-still.
What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal;what can be loved in man is that he is a going-across and a down-going.”
Friedrich Nietzsche Thus spoke Zarathustra, Hollingdale translation, italics in original, bold type mine.
“The Gods had condemned sysyphus to ceaselessy rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall of it’s own weight. They had thought that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. … … … … … … … … … …The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine sysyphus happy.”
First and last part of the myth of Sysyphus by Albert Camus, Translated by Justin O’Brien, Bold type mine.
Life in a nutshell:
Get absolutely wasted everytime you get a chance,
Love atleast once doesnt matter what you love.
Be loved Unconditionally atleast once (not by your mum)
Do something new everyday doesnt matter how insignificant
Learn to let go (we all live in one world but we live in different worlds)Learn as much as you can about anything and nothing
At the end of the day we are all headed back to Gaya.
We came alone with nothing, we will leave alone with nothing.
Remember its not all about what you achive in life but how you live life
that matters. Be true to yourself cause your on your own.