Wolfe's Essay: The Meaning Of Life

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There is an inevitable clash between the ideas of what the meaning of life is. The primary argument pertains to whether human beings’ act of thinking or doing is more valued. Aristotle posits the theorem of that the highest activity a human being can undertake is contemplation. Susan Wolfe argues a counter to this by stating that the highest activity a human being can participate is being engaged in a project of positive value. The idea of determining a singular and universal meaning of life is nearly impossible but the goal of this analysis is to come up with aspects of the meaning of life that can be determined by each individual. The search for the meaning of life is one that has been sought since ancient times and is bound to continue …show more content…
This is derived from the idea that actions have the best chance of advancing the individual person. Wolfe makes sure to the distinction that the actions have to be part of a positive project. This concept is very important for any proposed meaning of life because if no progress is made then it should not be valued as the meaning or purpose of life. Wolfe uses the example of the “blob,” in this example a person just sits in from of a tv and drinks beer. She concedes that this person would have a large amount of pleasure, but also very few other aspects. Thus lack of depth is what Wolfe identifies as the flaw in this way of life. She counters the pursuit of pleasure argument with the idea that one must have gain something deeper than mere surface benefits. She specifically states that a person should be engaged in a project that has positive value. This idea is the central point of our argument, in saying that this positive value has several interpretations. Positive value is necessary in human life because without positive value and growth people tend to become stagnant. With this stagnation comes complacency which causes future growth to be harder. For this reason, positive value is
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