The Meaning of Life: Meditations on Mortality
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- Опубліковано 3 лип 2024
- Mortality is one of the defining features of human life, which is to say, "The most significant aspect of human life is that it ends." Philosophers and poets have always reflected on mortality and how we ought to respond to our doomed nature. What is the meaning of death? What is the meaning of life given the fact that we are mortal beings doomed to die? In this video I talk about Shakespeare's Hamlet and Shakespeare's sonnets both of which function as serious meditations on the nature of death. I also talk about Homer's Iliad, and finish off with a discussion of Hannah Arendt and how her philosophy helps me understand what I'm doing with my time on earth.
#Mortality #Philosophy #Hamlet #Shakespeare #Homer #arendt
Chapters
0:00 Mortality Problem
1:03 My Problem
2:44 Our Mortal Nature
3:59 Hamlet
7:10 Shakespeare's Sonnets
12:37 Homer's Iliad
16:05 Achilles
18:45 Hannah Arendt
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Hey Professor Moore,
Very much appreciate this video.
I'm an old man thousands of miles away in distance & education & not much of a reader.
I'm grateful for the internet & library computers available to the public so all of us may watch UA-cam videos.
I'm a spectator primarily so, I don't have any suggestions for you, but I'm sure you'll do fine in the next 7 weeks.
Thanks
Thank you for the comment. Glad you're enjoying the videos! I'm really grateful that UA-cam lets me connect with audiences I would never reach otherwise. Thanks for watching!
Thank you so much Professor. Your videos are truly enlightening 🙌🏽
Thanks @zeff ! Glad you liked it.
I love this channel and hate how criminally underrated this is compared to how good it is, but im positive it'll blow up and become huge
Thanks for your support. But please, do not hate those who do not watch the channel. Rather, we should simply pity them. 😉🤣
@@GreatBooksProf 😂💯
Great talk and topic --- Keep them coming, please
I’ll do my best. 😅
@@GreatBooksProf No Problem *** There is no rush *** There should always be time for a cream soda and kids
If it helps, you could change the name you give to the grape soda. Call it an O'Reilly, in honor of Radar O'Reilly. Additionally it should be paired with a food that has a congenial relation with it. For my own part an egg sandwich is an agreeable pairing.
Or you could pour the nasty stuff down the drain.
😂
Have hope guys, life extension through scientific and technological innovation is totally possible. In coming decades we will likely have fusion, computers that are millions of times faster, better algorithms, etc. The result will be heavy AI assistance and automation in all aspects of the economy. We will be much more productive, so scientific and technological innovation will be greatly accelerated. Don't be a doomer. We can kill death.
I love the positivity… but every single one of us is doomed. 😂 It’s okay. It’ll be fine. Everybody does it.
Maybe we’ll live longer. But in the future, the 90-year-olds having their midlife crises are still gonna need to grapple with the inevitable.
And even if you’re here for forever, don’t you still have to think about how to spend your time? Like, what’s the point of productivity?
@@GreatBooksProf Thank you very much for your reply.
Note: I'm not confident about my thinking here. So when someone inevitably points out an issue, I will update my thinking accordingly.
> "I love the positivity… but every single one of us is doomed. 😂 It’s okay. It’ll be fine. Everybody does it. ...."
My positivity comes from the idea that innovation in biotechnology, statistics/AI, computer science, energy etc will likely continue at at least the current rate. Any one of these areas will profoundly affect the world. It is hard for me to accept that with all the technologies on the horizon, we won't make progress with life extension.
> "... And even if you’re here for forever, don’t you still have to think about how to spend your time? Like, what’s the point of productivity?
To me the whole point of productivity is to pursue one's best wants. If someone doesn't age, they probably still have wants. So for them, being productive would mean performing actions, which they predict will align their experience with their wants.
@@alpotato6531 Thanks. Happy to chat about this a bit more.
You’re likely correct about life EXTENSION. I’ve heard similar things about trying to find ways of reversing the aging process. However, life extension is different from immortality. Whether we live 80 years or 400 years mortality would still define us and our thinking. Moreover, we wouldn’t be immune from accidents or other kinds of unexpected ends.
I’m also a little skeptical about de-aging. Humans have always wanted this. There are myths about humans achieving immortality and there were men who tried to create The Philosopher’s Stone to achieve it. We’ve always wanted it, because we fear that undiscovered country. I don’t know that we’ll ever actually acquire it.
It might be worth thinking a bit more about wants and productivity. I think you’re right that everyone has wants or goals. But what I always find fascinating is how often people do things they don’t want to do, or are unable to do the things they say they want to do. This suggests that we are pretty confused and complicated creatures. It seems possible for someone to get everything they say they want, for example, and to end up unhappy. That’s a strange phenomenon. 🙂
@GreatBooksProf Thank you very much for your reply.
In regards to your statement:
> "It might be worth thinking a bit more about wants and productivity. I think you’re right that everyone has wants or goals..."
Below I describe my basic mental model when it comes to this topic. I should highlight that the following is intended to be a model, to guide my understanding, rather than a precise portrayal of reality. The latter would of course be unreasonable, given the complexities of human nature.
Assumption: We are incapable of experiencing anything beyond our personal experience.
Moral premise: An experience is deemed 'good' if it aligns with our wants.
Definition (Productivity): In my perspective, being productive is two-fold:
1. Identifying actions that we anticipate will optimize good experience.
2. Implementing these actions.
Reasoning:
According to Assumption 1, our experiences are the only realities we can perceive, thus we only engage with our personal experience. So, our experiences are all we truly possess, and we should aim to make these experiences 'good'. This forms the basis of my conclusion.
Conclusion: We ought to understand our wants as best we can. Based on that understanding, we should predict and undertake actions that are most likely to optimize "good experience". For instance, I want to be healthy (a successful determination of my want). Consequently, I should reduce my intake of Diet Coke (a successful determination of action). Today I had a can of Diet Coke (mission failed).
Shortened conclusion: Each individual's life purpose is to strive for productivity.
> "... It seems possible for someone to get everything they say they want, for example, and to end up unhappy. That’s a strange phenomenon. 🙂"
In this instance, I would suggest that the person may have had a misunderstanding or lack of clarity about their true wants. If their unhappiness implies a discrepancy, it could be a signal that what they thought they wanted wasn't what they truly desired (assuming unhappiness signifies something awry - it's possible that some may view temporary unhappiness as a worthwhile trade-off for future happiness).
Finally, for clarity, I'll address some potential criticisms:
1. Productivity includes societal contribution: In this model, societal contribution is a personal want. If we derive satisfaction from contributing, it falls within the definition of productivity.
2. The role of empathy and shared experiences: the model argues that empathy and shared experiences are still processed through our personal experiences.
3. Neglect of societal and ethical implications: The model's flexibility allows it to encompass ethical and societal considerations within an individual's wants, thus forming part of their personal definition of productivity.
4. Altruism: people might argue that my model overlooks altruism, where satisfaction comes from fulfilling others' wants. However, this model sees altruism as a personal want. People who derive satisfaction from helping others are satisfying a personal desire, thereby optimizing their "good experience".
In a nutshell, at the moment, I think, roughly speaking, every individual's life purpose is to strive for productivity, as defined in this model.