RACHEL'S PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY

Appendix

What is the meaning of life, and is the meaning of life the same for every person. We could almost all agree that a person would rather live a "happy" life rather than a life of sadness and doubt. Would we also not agree that the meaning of life should be a positive factor rather than negative? Would we not say that that one should be thankful that we exist at all, therefore we should make our lives what we can to the fullest of our ability. To be able to live a happy and fulfilled life there are some keys we need to discuss. For example: God's existence, taking responsibility for our actions, and how having these first two key components will give some type of meaning to our life. Philosophy is the love of wisdom, and knowing we do not know what our existence is supposed to mean but we can still ponder and dream about the best possibilities (Abel, 2010, p.1). I have picked many writings that I agree with, and can relate truths to Western philosophy. As Bertrand Russell argues, it does not enrich our physical bodies, it enriches our thoughts and minds. Most of the time questions are still left unanswered; it is just the concept of thinking to the fullest in life. By being able to have a broad range of thoughts about the universe allows us to be liberated from different types of prejudices of common sense, custom, and culture (Abel, 2010, p.21). By gaining knowledge and understanding to take the time to look into a situation before your initial reactions, it helps bring peace and contentment in a person's life along with happiness.


RACHEL'S PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY

God's existence

God is what gives human life meaning and significance. We are his children, and he created every single one of us. But what if you do not believe in God? If it is not God that you believe in but maybe some other type of supreme being has created our existence for some type of purpose. The purpose would vary from person to person. If you have any type of faith that a supreme being has created our existence then think about what you have done in the past or what you may accomplish in the future, any of those things or all of those things may have been the purpose of your existence. God knows the outcome of our lives, how we get to the end is up to us and up to the choices we make in life.

To expand on my beliefs that life's meaning and significance is solely upon that God does exist, and we are his children doing what he has already mapped out for us in his mind. Then we need to expand on the subject of God's existence, "All are by nature endowed with the knowledge of God's existence." Therefore, the existence of God is self-evident (Abel, 2010, p.39). Thomas Aquinas believed in the cosmological theory, he so smart on this one. As children we know the existence of God or some type of spiritual being is there without being taught so. I would call it an instinct in our hearts and minds as children. Through our social upbringings and what we are taught by the people around us, who raised us, will influence what we believe in as adults. As we grow older we have a brighter understanding of our own free will and we choose for ourselves if we are to have faith in the existence of God. I completely understand the argument of the non-believers bring forth saying there will never be a truth in the existence of God unless he is standing here before you that you can touch. I agree, it is not a truth it is a faith a person has.

Even if a person does not believe that God truly, and rightly exist would you not think it better to move on to some type of spiritual world after we die then to be thought of as nothing?
There have been many novels on the proof of God's existence, some interesting theories are arguments from people who have had near death experiences, some anthropic arguments thinks that the best facts to the existence of humanity is in fact, God. The moral argument, states that the objective and the existence of morality depends on the existence of God (Morse, 2011). David Hume argued that our world is one great big machine divided up into many little machines making the world go around; this comes from the teleological theory (Abel, 2010, p.55). This could be argued to be a fact. For example, take the human body and how we operate. I don't even know how my body works to the fullest extent so someone much smarter than me must have designed my living body and soul. By understanding that we are here on earth for a certain purpose that we must fulfill, helps to understand the existence of God's and how having faith in all of the above will lead to a happiness that a person could come to in their lives.

A person needs to have that faith that someone is watching their actions and someone will be there for them in the current life and the afterlife. When we understand what God's existence means then we can understand why there is certain "rules" to live by. God is something of with a greater thought cannot be thought. Anselm explains through the ontological argument that this being must exist because this being is something at which no greater thought can be thought. When we think of the consept of God we cannot think of a greater creature to exist that is above God. Therefore there is nothing but God that can be thought of a greater thought (Abel, 2010, p.33).

This could be a fact, I can't think of anything else greater that God's existence to exist therefore he must exist. Richard Dawkins suggest that living organisms are much more complex beings that any artificial objects therefore we must be a product of God (Abel, 2010, p.64). The same conclusion is brought up about God's existence after every opinion. We are complex human beings that have amazing workings in our bodies and minds; therefore we must be made up by a supreme being that is much more intelligent than we could ever think of being. Having faith that God does exist in our lives plays an important role on who we are and who we what to become throughout our life. It is an important role in how we make our decisions and how we raise our families in our households.
Taking responsibility for our actions

Taking responsibility for our actions is another key factor in Rachel's philosophy of life. If everyone on this planet took immediate responsibility for there actions there would be no need of a justice system. I would go commit a crime that is against the law and then immediately turn myself in to take responsibility for what was just done. John Rawls sees our justice system as a system of fairness. Everyone should have equal treatment in our justice system to find out the truth of the matter at hand (Abel, 2010, p.574). Not everyone in our society takes responsibility for their actions and maybe a part of that is the ignorance people have about what they did was wrong. Not only in the system of justice can a person take responsibility for there actions but also in the things we say and think. The system failed Socrates, he was sentences to death despite his innocence in the matter and refused to escape even though he was about to take responsibility for actions he did not do. Nerveless Socrates believed that a person should not willingly wrong or mistreat others, even if someone has wronged or mistreated them. He also believed that one should fulfill one's just agreements (Abel, 2010, p.491).

I have agreement with Socrates first moral argument but not the second. Our justice system in many ways can become corrupt and just because you have been handed down what one set of people is a set just agreement does not mean it was rightly put in place. In my views of love of wisdom in life, Socrates has a beautiful point that we should never willingly harm or mistreat others. That is not what life is about, love, faith, peace is what living a fulfilled happy life is about. Another issue to think about when taking responsibility for our actions is, that we live in a social society; while living in a social environment people takes notice to our actions and the way we react to our mistakes or accomplishments. Rawls had a good point of view; he basically states that in our social society that we live in today we rely on all different types of personalities and people to make our world go around. We need a mechanic for our vehicles, a repair man for any one of our appliances we have, along with many other different types of professions that we do not know how to do and require other people to do for us. Taking responsibility for our actions will provide more of a social connection to our society when it is needed (Habermas, 2010).
The meaning of life

When a person has some type of supreme being, and faith; along with responsibility in their life, it makes the meaning of your life a little clearer. We understand that we are created and put on this earth by God for a reason and we need to fulfill our destiny. In the path to fulfilling our destiny we have to make good choices to the best of our ability. By having the faith that we do in our supreme being, we already have an understanding of what is morally right and morally wrong. Throughout our life and in the bad choices we make we need to take responsibility for our action and learn from our mistakes. In learning through our mistakes to make better choices in the future we can achieve a type of peacefulness and happiness in the journey to the next life. The meaning of life is what you want to make the meaning of your life to be. I am under the assumption that a person does not want to live a life of misery and we all are trying to achieve the happiness and we sought. We are social human beings and a part of our happiness is from being socially accepted by other human beings. A lot of the problems we encounter in life come from mixed communication or what we say is not what we meant or what we meant is not exactly what we say. As with the meaning of our life there are different variations in what we think we are thinking, or what we think we are saying. As follows, sometimes we say what we mean and sometimes we mean what we say, sometimes what we say is not always what we mean resulting in confusion, deception or ignorance. Sometimes we do not always exactly say what we mean because we are afraid of how our own thoughts will be accepted socially (Stone, 2011). With happiness and the meaning of life comes a understanding of taking into account of how other people feel and also an understanding that you may not always know the right answer, we need to keep an open mind that what we are hearing and our interpretation of what people say is not always correct.

Conclusion

To live a meaningful, thoughtful, and fulfilled live of life long success that involves happiness and love; a person is to follow the three elements of the philosophy of life which id first to have a strong connection and faith in God or a supreme being. Next, always take responsibility for your actions; it is the morally right thing to do. By having these two things in your life it will help bring a clearer meaning of what life is about, and what we need to do to make our life meaningful. These keys points will at the very least help to lead an extraordinary lifestyle, and notice I have not mentioned money at all as a key to a good life. Money and material items are just as they sound, disposable. Although both things seem to be wanted in our lives they are not needed to achieve the happiness you seek.

References:

Abel, D., (2010) Fifty Readings Plus: An introduction to philosophy (2nd ed.) McGraw-Hill Companies: New York, NY.

Morse, D. R. (2011, October). God's Existence: Proof. Journal of Spirituality & Paranormal Studies. p. 181.

Maher, C. (2010). On being and holding responsible. Philosophical Explorations, 13(2), 129-140. doi:10.1080/13869791003759955

Habermas, J. (2010). The ‘Good Life’—A ‘Detestable Phrase’: The Significance of the Young Rawls's Religious Ethics for His Political Theory. European Journal Of Philosophy, 18(3), 443-454. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0378.2010.00424.x

Stone, M. H. (2011). The Meaning of Life and Adler's Use of Fictions. Journal Of Individual Psychology, 67(1), 13-30.