On the meaning of life

ISBN-13: 9781480068766 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 92 str.

Jose Zarco Quintero

Opis

What for have we come to this world? That is the question investigated in this book, for which the author tries the answer: To live a life such that we can think it was worth having lived it. Oh, very good might think the reader, but, how is such a life? Here the author proposes us to be aware that we are minuscule, insignificant, inconsequential in the universe, and, on the other hand, and at the same time enormously complex, unique and unrepeatable, and thus, invaluable. He then proceeds to put forward the idea of having in mind our own smallness when facing our needs and likes, and, at the same time, consider the invaluability of our neighbors when we approach their needs, criterion which he calls the "principle of relative value" Combining these two simple ideas: that we come to this world to live a life that we can evaluate that it was worth having lived it and that to such an end we must always consider the principle of relative value, has unsuspected consequences. Through them, the author takes us to conclude things like: that we are the only judge to evaluate if we have fulfilled our purpose in life, that egoism which is aware of the principle of relative value may be the greatest humanism, that individualism and communitarianism are two faces of one and the same thing, that there is not insurmountable incompatibility between agnosticism and religious faith, nor between ethics based on principles and ethics based on ends. He finally concludes: "I think it is worth a try."