5 of 88

Write now Article Tools

The meaning of life is self-evident: to become more fully human, that is, conform yourself as completely as possible to human nature, with what it means to be human. Having said that, however, the "meaning of the meaning" is as open to as many interpretations and opinions as there are human beings.

The approach of Aristotle, the great semi-Greek philosopher (Aristotle was Macedonian, and thus "Greek" only by courtesy ... according to the Athenians, anyway), is extremely useful in this context. Mortimer Adler, possibly the premier American Aristotelian of the 20th century, referred to the thought of Aristotle (refined and corrected by Thomas Aquinas, Moses Maimonides, and Ibn Khaldoun) as "the philosophy of common sense." Using common sense as our guide on the way to finding the meaning of life, how far wrong could we go?

According to "The Philosopher," as he was called in the Middle Ages as a result of his immense prestige and common sense, the purpose of life - its meaning, if you will - is to become more fully human. He then spent two rather enormous volumes, The Nichomachean Ethics and The Politics, trying to figure out what that means.

The human person becomes more fully human by conforming him- or herself to human nature, an obvious point that has become increasingly less obvious since the 16th century, as G. K. Chesterton pointed out in his short biographical sketch of Thomas Aquinas, titled, "The Dumb Ox." A person conforms him- or herself to human nature by acquiring and developing "virtue," a clumsy word for the Greek original that can't be reproduced here, and would probably only confuse the reader - but it's not that important.

What is important is that "conforming yourself to nature" by "acquiring and developing virtue" means working to the best of your ability to do what it is that human beings do, that is, acting in accordance with human nature. The meaning of virtue is "the habit of doing good," so that what human beings do is seek after the "good."

Now comes the problem over what "good" means, a question that concerned Aristotle more than any other. After all, if the meaning of life is to pursue or seek the good, ... what on Earth is "good"? You can't say, that which is conformable to human nature, because that is a circular argument, and Aristotle, having invented the science of logic, wasn't going to be illogical if he could help it. He had to decide what is a human being, which he proceeded to do.

Aristotle eventually answered his question by deciding

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Finding the meaning of life?
We want to hear your view. Write now!