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Got a great book to to read in summer. 🙂 Anybody already read it? Anybody wants to tell me "why we should live?" What do you tell yourself when you wake up in the morning to live a great day?

“One student asks: Why should I live?

Steven Pinker answers: In the very act of asking that question, you are seeking reasons for your convictions, and so you are committed to reason as the means to discover and justify what is important to you. And there are so many reasons to live! As a sentient being, you have the potential to flourish. You can refine your faculty of reason itself by learning and debating. You can seek explanations of the natural world through science, and insight into the human condition through the arts and humanities. You can make the most of your capacity for pleasure and satisfaction, which allowed your ancestors to thrive and thereby allowed you to exist. You can appreciate the beauty and richness of the natural and cultural world. As the heir to billions of years of life perpetuating itself, you can perpetuate life in turn. You have been endowed with a sense of sympathy—the ability to like, love, respect, help, and show kindness—and you can enjoy the gift of mutual benevolence with friends, family, and colleagues. And because reason tells you that none of this is particular to you, you have the responsibility to provide to others what you expect for yourself. You can foster the welfare of other sentient beings by enhancing life, health, knowledge, freedom, abundance, safety, beauty, and peace. History shows that when we sympathize with others and apply our ingenuity to improving the human condition, we can make progress in doing so, and you can help to continue that progress.”

[goodreads.com]

AnandaKhan 6 Apr 18
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4 comments

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1

He's so amazing.

0

So why should you live ? To seek answers to your question , once you have seeked you will cease living

Rosh Level 7 Apr 19, 2018
1

As I get further into what I now view as ‘the cycle of life,’ past motivation was tied to where I was in that cycle. Motivation evolves; what now ‘makes a great day’ may once have caused teeth clenching boredom… Though, accomplishment always feels great, in it’s many forms, both large & small..

As far as having read the book - damn, Summer was way back, and I’d rather write than read.. So definitely not. In fact ..that block of uninterrupted text below your question was too much for me 😉

Varn Level 8 Apr 19, 2018
2

there isn't a reason, you just are alive because of genetics and your parents. there is lots to live for though.

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