The counterpart to the question about the purpose of life is the question about its value. We can encounter two contrary philosophical views among numerous attempts at mediation.
The first view says:
The world we live in is the best possible world and life and actions in this world have a tremendous value.
Everything is represented as a harmonic and appropriate play and therefore deserves appreciation. Even the seeming bad and evil things are something good from a higher perspective. It is a very welcomed opposite to the good things. We can even appreciate the good things more if they stand out from the bad. And evil is actually not evil at all, it’s just welfare to a lower degree. Bad is the absence of good, nothing what has a meaning itself.
The second view says:
Life is full of pain and misery. Displeasure outweighs lust, pain outweighs joy. Our whole existence is a burden and the not-be / nonexistence is favored over existence under any circumstances.
I guess we have all heard about both views and we all know the short description for these views:
Optimism and pessimism.
Both views have a loyal following. Is it just a view of life or a real attitude?
Arabic saying:
One should not be angry, that the rosebush carries thorns.
They shall rejoice that the bramble carries roses!
The representatives of Optimism believe that the world is the best we can imagine. A better world is impossible. God is wise and god is good. A good god wants to create a good world. The best world. A wise god knows the world, he can distinguish a good world from possible other ‚not so good‘ worlds. Only a bad, evil and unwise god could be able to create a bad world, worse than the best possible. And if someone wants to contribute to the best world, he only needs to understand the consolations of god and behave according to them. If he knows what god has planed for the world and mankind, he’ll do the right thing as well. And he will feel very comfortable to add his own work to the good world. Life is worth living. It has to encourage us to take part, actively.
The view of the representatives of Pessimism is completely different.
The primordial ground is not an all-knowing, wise and universal being but a blind urge or will. It is an eternal craving, an everlasting yearning for satisfaction, which is never reached in the end. This is the main feature for all intentions. Because if you reach a desired goal and new desire pops up and so on. Satisfaction itself can only last for a very little period of time. The remaining content of our life is an unmet urge. That’s the dissatisfaction and the suffering we experience. If the blind thrive is deadening, any content is missing; an almost endless boredom fulfils our existence. That’s why the relative best is to nip wishes and needs in the bud. Kill your desire. That again leads to apathy and laziness.
A different pessimistic view reduces everything to illusion. Every satisfaction is an illusion. It is an illusion if you believe you reach satisfaction and joy in health, youth, freedom, love (sex), sympathy, friendship, family, honor, science or art and many more. Every enjoyment creates more pain and misery than joy. Displeasure is omnipresent. Ask someone if he wants to live this painful life again: The person will say no.
The urge for satisfaction can be described like this: Your activities reach out beyond the scope of life’s purpose. If you are hungry you desire food. But you don’t just eat to survive, to keep your organs working, you want to enjoy and taste some good food. If you strive for honor you want decent acknowledgement for your achievements because you think otherwise they would be worthless. The fulfilment of your desires creates lust and joy, unsatisfied needs create displeasure. The desire itself is not bad at all, that’s not unhappiness. The repetitive pleasure of a thing creates the next desire, if it is not fulfiled you start to feel displeasure, a good example is smoking. If you are not able to enjoy what you wish for, you feel displeasure.
Another example: Having sex is fun, raising your kids is sometimes not so funny.:) It’s like a natural law: Displeasure follows pleasure.
What about you?
Are you an optimist or a pessimist?
I believe the desire itself for different things is already a pleasure. Just imagine you plan a baby, you plan to build a house, you just bought a new car and it’ll be delivered in 6 months. Maybe you just plan to move in 2 years, you plan to travel to Hawaii next year.... just powerful dreams. We all know the feeling, the joy of hope for a distant goal. And this feeling is completely independent from the goal itself, if you reach it or not. If you reach the goal and your desire is fulfiled you’ll even experience an additional feeling of joy. The fulfillment.
Vice versa: The feeling you had during all the time you had to wait will cure the feeling of displeasure when you don’t get what you wished for.
Pessimists tend to value life as something worthless because the pain is overwhelming and dominating yet you have to fight and struggle to survive. Well, luckily the number of suicide victims is lower than the number of living humans who are brave to continue :))
Calling on all pessimists out there: Think positive!:))
The lust and joy outweigh unhappiness.
Life is wonderful and full of opportunities.
Say 'yes' to it.