Life is more than just the fact that one exists and draws breath. Human is an extraordinary being whose existence can intentionally affect everything around them. Various philosophers have established that one needs to lead a meaningful life. If a person lives without meaning, then their existence is not worth it. Reasonable people try to understand the meaning of life. However, the meaning of life is quite complex, and philosophers from all over the world, across various generations, have attempted to describe the ideal characteristics of a meaningful life. Ideally, everyone should strive to lead a meaningful life. If one does not seek to shape their lives to take the path involving characteristics associated with a meaningful life, they may be considered failures. Despite numerous attempts by philosophers and other stakeholders to reveal what makes a life meaningful, a universally set of characteristics that identify a life as meaningful has yet to be established. However, various similarities have emerged among the identifying qualities of a meaningful life. It, however, remains a question whether; children and adults alike are included in the concept of a meaningful life. There is a significant difference between children and adults. Some elements that define a meaningful life are somewhat unachievable for children. It is, however, essential to recognize that a child’s life can be as meaningful as that of an adult counterpart.
The Question
Clarification of the Question
The question “Can a child have as meaningful of a life as an adult” aims to help determine what makes a child’s life meaningful. The question recognizes that adults can have a meaningful life. Therefore, by answering the question, it will be established if any set of characteristics can be identifiable in a child’s life to make it as meaningful as that of an adult. In arriving at the question, I brainstormed to compare how children and adults relate. The capabilities, experiences, and available resources for adults are far more than that of an average child. Besides, adults have a greater command of themselves and can control how they behave or interact with others. Children and adults are all human despite the difference in capabilities and accessible resources. Therefore, if an adult’s life can be meaningful, a child’s life should also be meaningful.
Approach to the Question
In answering the question, I plan to use three articles; “The Meaning of Life” by Richard Taylor, “Meaning in Life” by Susan Wolf, and “Narrative and Meaning in Life” by De Bres. The three articles describe various elements that make life meaningful from the authors’ perspectives and the respective philosophical views concerning human beings. The most outstanding concept I will describe when answering the question is the definition and characteristics of a meaningful life. Another essential concept that will come to play is the difference and similarities between adults and children so that I compare how they relate concerning a meaningful life. Additionally, I will integrate critical thinking skills to ensure I sufficiently analyze and defend my point that children can have as meaningful a life as their adult counterparts.
Views
Reading Discussion
“The Meaning of Life” by Richard Taylor, “Meaning in Life” by Susan Wolf, and “Narrative and Meaning in Life” by De Bres expounds on the idea of the meaning of life as they attempt to reveal the elements that are constituted on the idea of the meaning of life. The authors give approaches to addressing what a meaningful life involves. De Bres’s main idea is that a meaningful life is intelligible, with many positive stories to narrate about it. Susan Wolf argues that a meaningful life goes beyond happiness and involves caring deeply about particular things they are interested in or excited about. On the other hand, Taylor thinks that a meaningful life is one in which individual meaningfulness of life is relative and is entirely rooted in the rightful orientation of the individual’s desires when engaging in any particular task.
Richard Taylor’s “Meaning of Life” begins by acknowledging that the meaning of life is a complicated concept that is extremely challenging to interpret (Taylor 19). The article plays by observing the environment, how people behave throughout their lives, and what they achieve at the end to reveal whether life can be meaningful. Living has proven to be a cycle of the same events occurring repeatedly across human generations. The same applies to the lives of other animals, which engage in meaningless activities of moving across the globe and returning every year and achieving no progress in their wellbeing. Richard expresses fear that despite humans being special animals with consciences and the capability to control what happens around their lives, many have failed to do so and continue to do things the same way as their predecessors did, leaving no progress behind for their families to take over. The article recognizes that in everything an individual does, he aims at perpetuating them to their children (Taylor 24). Therefore, if an individual makes no progress throughout their lives, they leave no background for the development of their children. Resultantly, it may be mandatory that their children seek to find a purpose for life themselves when they come of age. Human, therefore, has the potential to make a living a meaningful life if they try to break the cycle and brings up a new thing in their family to improve their lives. Richard brings up the idea that for everything someone does, the goal should be to pass it down to their children.
Susan Wolf’s “Meaning in Life and Why It Matters” presents that meaningful life is achieved through having certain things that one deeply cares about and feels attached to, excited about, and interested in. She strongly criticizes the behavior of being alienated and bored about one’s environment because it leads to a meaningless life, which every human should always strive to avoid. The article identifies that while an individual should pursue something that they deeply care about, they must focus on things that have value. She provides the example of a woman giving up her career and everything worthwhile to follow a man who does not deserve her (Wolf 6). Therefore, life can only be meaningful if one cares about and finds great interest in something worthy of their attention and love. The argument is much interesting because it integrates some contrasting information. One has to avoid things that are not worth their attention and time and should care about things that positively contribute to their upward movement. Overall, caring about some things may be meaningful, whereas caring so much about others may result in leading a meaningless life.
Helena Helena de Bres holds that life’s intelligibility matters when determining what life is meaningful and which is not (de Bres 556). According to the author, a meaningful life should be talked about by people in the community. The individual members of the community should bear witness to the quality that one has brought about during their lifetime. When an individual is alive, the sole goal should be to make a difference not only to their own lives but also to those around them. Meanwhile, it is essential that the stories told about life are verifiable. When talking about life, there should be sources to support the claim that life is meaningful. She says that since people are naturally biased and would like to tell positive stories about themselves, the best way to determine the value of life led by an individual is what others have to say about them and not what they have to say about themselves (de Bres 557). For example, when the story is about success, the individual should not be part of the group discussing success. Instead, a third party with no interest in earning from positively talking about the individual should be the best source of information to rely upon and verify that, indeed, the life being talked about was successful.
Critical Discussions
The most critical concepts that will help analyze the research question include intelligibility/authenticity of information known about life, attempting to create change that positively impacts an individual and the community, passing it down to the children, and pursuing a worthwhile activity with great interest and engagement. All three concepts can be evident when talking about how a child lives his life and may be beneficial when determining whether children can also live with meanings as their adult counterparts do.
Opinion on the Subject
A child’s life can be as meaningful as an adult’s. Limited attention has been paid to children when discussing the meaning of life. Often, childhood is considered a part of an individual’s life journey. Unfortunately, when identifying whether a person lived a meaningful life, their achievements and engagements as children are excluded, and a lot of emphasis is laid on how they carried themselves out as adults. Often, it is argued that during childhood, a person has no particular direction and may not be able to follow a straight path. Therefore, it is, somehow, impossible to speak about the meaningfulness of an individual’s life as a child. Some people believe that children’s lives have no meaning, as it revolves around being provided for and cared about by their parents. However, there is more than a child can do to give their lives a purpose and make them outstanding members of their communities. Therefore, it is mandatory to consider and recognize the kind of life a child lives. From how the children behave, evaluating whether they lead meaningful lives is possible. Furthermore, it is possible to predict the direction they are likely to take in their lives.
Supporting Arguments
The first reason why children’s lives could be as meaningful as that of their adult counterparts is because they are human as adults. Humanity holds great value above the rest of the animals, making it the only specie with intelligence to modify its environment, and make it more suitable and sustaining for their wellbeing. Taylor identifies that, unlike the rest of beings, humans can observe and consciously modify their environment to make it better through innovative and creative thinking. Children should not be left aside when defining the meaningfulness of life because they have great similarities with adults, who are reasonable and capable of modifying their environment. In addition to children being human beings, society aims to ensure the endless continuity of whatever they do. They strive to ensure that what they do is perpetuated by passing them down to children (Taylor 24). It would be impossible to argue that someone whose life has no meaning would take over from a counterpart whose life has meaning. Parents trust their children to proceed with the practice of modifying their environment because they understand the potential that their lives hold.
One of the leading reasons adults’ lives are believed to have the potential to hold meaning is because they pursue their interests, which may involve taking care of the family (Wolf 6). Coincidentally, the interests tend to be worthwhile as it is a great response of duty for an individual to ensure the safety of their families. Meanwhile, children, too, have a lot of tasks in which they can channel their efforts to ensure their success. Academics, for instance, is a highly constructive practice that children can pursue until they emerge prosperous. Although the scale of impact may differ from that of an adult, it is unfair to disregard that a child’s academic success is not as good a success in an individual serving in any workplace. Other than academics, children may show love to their younger siblings and those around them, showing the role a child can perform. Therefore, Wolf would confirm the capability of a child to lead a meaningful life through responsibly taking on the constructive tasks they are assigned.
A meaningful life is characterized by the rightness of the motivation the door had when considering engagement. The final product may not reach the goal for which it was initially meant to achieve. Children are among the most genuine individuals in society as they hardly lie when discussing a critical issue. Children, unlike adults, tend not to understand their environment and may not put sufficient effort into anything failing around them. Unlike an adult who can decide to initiate a project to create a show for the rest of the people to observe and feel impressed, children’s primary intention for any engagement is intrinsic. Therefore, at all times, any activity that a child has is always right-oriented. Meanwhile, the orientation behind a particular activity is a major determinant of a meaningful life.
Opposing Arguments
A meaningful life must have a genuine story behind it. However, for a story to be told about anything in the human environment, it must have occurred over time, and it must be significant and truthful enough to impact directly on society (de Bres 557). The only meaningful life is intelligible. A life that a child lives can hardly be intelligible because they often lack consistency in what they do. Furthermore, the only individuals who can tell more about a child’s life and achievements are their parents and close relatives. Unfortunately, the individuals capable of telling what life a child has lived all have the interest to pursue and would not hesitate to give false information. Furthermore, children are very messy at what they do and make a lot of mistakes in the constructive engagements they pursue.
While it is true that children make a lot of messes, their intentions are often positively oriented. They often want to achieve the best but are hindered by mere distractions. Thus, it is unfair to argue that their lives are meaningless because they do not end up with the desired outcomes. Secondly, a child’s life is only exposed to a small group of people, which may include teachers, parents, and close family members. It is illogical to seek a child’s achievements from any other source apart from the child’s close community.
Conclusion
Therefore, a child’s life can be as meaningful as that of an adult because of the right intentions of their engagements, their ability to act consciously like adults, and their tendency to pursue interests that are, in the long run, constructive. Both children and adults are human beings and are similar in a lot of perspectives. Their capabilities are also similar and greatly influence their abilities to live in a meaningful. It is quite unfair to seek information about the intelligibility of a child’s life’s meaningfulness from an external source because a child’s successes are hardly reflected in the community. Over time, the child’s achievements would transpire and translate to significant positive benefits to the community.
Works Cited
Taylor, Richard. “The meaning of life.” Philosophy Now 24 (1999): 19-28.
Wolf, Susan. Meaning in life and why it matters. Vol. 35. Princeton University Press, 2012.
de Bres, Helena. “Narrative and meaning in life.” Journal of Moral Philosophy 15.5 (2018): 545-571.
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