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This is the fundamental question posed to all sentient beings since we, as a human race, received the gift and/or curse of self-awareness. "How am I to judge the meaningfulness of my existence?" All of the great and small thinkers, religious scholars and faithful followers of all denominations have tried to provide a framework, a bare skeleton on which to animate a full life. Some organic way of thinking and doing that would serve both themselves in their own struggle in their own time, but that would also be an elemental resource for all of those who would come after, to reference and to learn from.

After thinking for some time about my own answer, I decided to ask a few people what they felt were the key factor or factors. I got a range of responses that included "Don't think about it, just go for it." at one end and "read Nietzsche, the Bible, interrogate your soul" at the other. I decided as a result of this little test, that there wasn't one answer that would be applicable or satisfactory or even make sense to everyone. I was however able to identify some things that people do in their pursuit that are not based on critical thought or analysis of how to lead a full life, but on the depths of human intuition and cumulative knowledge.

Moral philosophy is the study of values, responsibility, reason and of the application of the conclusions of such contemplation. The recognized great minds of antiquity through to those of our contemporaries have struggled with these concepts in the effort to, in my mind; provide tools for existence on an actionable level. The study has changed throughout history as the needs of society have changed. That which was acceptable, may no longer be, and acceptable behavior changes with the mores of the time in question. The societal function to accept or to denounce certain behaviors is distilled within the individual and his decisions. We, as individuals in a sea of connectivity, hopefully learn from our mistakes, and are able to apply what we have learned in the everyday life in order to have an effect on the society we live in. We must learn. It is said that the only true example of insanity is to do the same thing repeatedly and expect a different result.

In order to learn from our environment and the teachings that we avail ourselves to, we must be accepting of ourselves and of our place in the universe. One can't learn to be a loving, compassionate being if one is unwilling to accept that he does not prescribe to the values

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