Their Own Meaning Of Life example essay topic

Intro to Philosophy Second Paper March 29, 2005 Be True To Your Self The question, "What is involved in being true to your self?" is very complicated. There are many aspects to this question. First you would need to know what is meant by being true. Being true is the act of putting forth sincerity, or being genuinely faithful.

It is honesty, seriousness, and earnestness. Next you would need to realize what it means to be a self. In class we discussed the difference between animals, rational animals, and people. This topic also came up in the reading about the concentration camps. Frankl quotes", ... he (a guard) playfully picked up a stone and threw it at me. That, to me, seemed the way to attract the attention of a beast, to call a domestic animal back to its job, a creature with which you have so little in common that you do not even punish it.

The most painful part of the beatings is the insult which they imply". This shows how low the guards in the camps treated the Jews. They treated them like animals; they treated them as if they were not selves. The whole experience was extremely dehumanizing. I have never experienced anything so horrific in my lifetime but I have been through a dehumanizing affair. I was in high school when many of the boys would make comments about my womanly features in a derogatory fashion.

Although they were just being playful and possibly trying to flirt, god-forbid, I would tell them off or sometimes just ignore it but it made me realize how insignificant those boys were and how that's not all I was. I was and still am more than the derogatory terms they would call me. It pointed out more important things like intellect, and intelligence instead of physical image. It also made them look like animals.

The primal concern for animals is pleasure and survival, the same for rational animals but they also strive for success, and finally people, our primary motivation in our lives is the search for meaning. That is first nature to us. The meaning of life is a very confusing question but to be able to answer it you must realize that it differs for everyone. There is never only one real answer. Everyday it can change for each individual. Everyone has their own way of living; they have their own thoughts and beliefs so therefore each persons answer to the meaning of life will be their own private version.

Frankl determines that there are three different ways we can discover the meaning of life". (1) By creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward avoidable suffering". This yearning for the meaning of life gives a person the definition of a self. It proves that they can think for themselves and it shows they have significance and importance in this world.

There are many other subjects that relate with being a self; however topics such as instinct and sexual drive have nothing to do with being a self. They are a part of being a human being on this planet but they take no thought, they are "biological imperatives" that have no meaning. Instinct is a natural inward impulse. It is an unconscious, involuntary feeling, whether bodily, or mental, without a distinct apprehension of an outcome to be accomplished.

The same goes for social conditioning, which is a majority of people who live in a common world with each other. They all focus their lives around each other instead of around themselves. You can't live as a self if you are living as someone else's self. It comes back to the fact that each person has their own meaning of life and each individual can only come up with his or her own meaning and if you are living in accord to the social world there is no way you can arrive at the true answer of life. Being an individual is the only way to exist with any self-worth. Being an individual consists of not caring what other people are going to think or say.

You have to follow what you believe is right. It easily compares with one of my favorite anonyms quotes, "Dance like nobody's watching and love like it's never going to hurt". Put your self out there and face the world. In the Disney movie Aladdin, the Genie says, "Bee yourself". You also cannot have self-respect if you live as someone else. Self-respect is a proper confidence, pride, and admiration for yourself which shows that you value yourself.

There is no way that you can value your life if you don't live it up to your own expectations. What are your expectations? They surround the things in life that you care about deeply, your passions, dreams, and love. Social conditioning doesn't surround your zeal for life; it surrounds money, power, and fame, all of which mean absolutely nothing! Now that we have determined what being true is and what a self is we can answer the question what being true to yourself actually means. All we have to do it put the two meanings together.

It is putting forth sincerity, and being genuinely faithful to your own individual aspect of the meaning of your life. However, we now have to determine what meaning is. Meaning has many different levels; it is wisdom, psychological or moral sense, purpose, or significance, an interpreted goal, intent, or end. There are many different ways to describe the meaning and Frankl gives much insight into what is involved in living our lives in a meaningful way from his time in the concentration camps. "A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth -- that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.

Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love". This quote from Frankl shows how important love is in life and it proves it because when he was in such a situation that is what he was thinking of. He wasn't missing money or social status, but love and human companionship. This shows that the way to be really true to yourself is be meaningful in your love for people and life and most of all yourself.