Moral Philosophy and Living Issues
It has been well-established that every individual personality is thesum total of her or his life experiences. Since a person's life experiencesusually represent a mix of influences such as family upbringing and values,religious teachings, and social culture, it follows logically that each ofthese factors play a role in developing an individual's worldview:"Worldviews are ideas, assumptions, beliefs...that individuals hold. Thatthey may be widely shared makes them no less psychological. Moreover, thatsome aspects of them are established in childhood but that philosophies oflife are late-adolescent developments suggest that they have a complexdevelopment." (McLoughlin, 1991, p. 21) Of course, the degree to which eachfactor influences a person may vastly differ. In my case, however, mycurrent worldview has been formed largely on the basis of my familyupbringing followed by my own learning and critical thinking about life's Today my worldview is that life has a definite purpose though neitherits exact beginnings nor its ultimate destination, if any, may yet be clearto humankind. However, I believe that the very fact that life and human
If you get affected, it is likely that yourdevelopment will regress instead of progressing towards realizing your fullpotential. If there is a design to life, then,logically it can be inferred that God exists. This occurred duringa time when family circumstances led to my severely questioning whetherlife had a grand purpose or was simply at the mercy of the malevolentintentions of fellow human beings. This self-realization, though hard to admit and accept, didfinally lead to a change in perspective and behavior. Instead, I learned to grow highly self-aware that even the most unjust andtrying of circumstances represented personal challenges and choices. In fact, to my mind, the intricatedesign of Nature is proof positive that the universe and life work to adesign, which is certainly not random. Looking back on those childhood years, I am grateful to my parentsthat they guided us into developing an ability to think independently. My friend or rather, benefactor, did so by making a quiet observationone day, which will probably stay etched in my memory for ever. The amazing part was that while they did share their personalworldviews, they never really attempted to foist these views on theirchildren. er the millennia reveals that there is adefinite purpose and meaning to life. In this case, irrespective of the factthat my friend had chosen to abandon our friendship, my reactions were,without question, negatively affecting both my friend as well as my ownpeace of mind. This daily exercise has led to perhaps one ofthe most important self-realizations so far. Before I had the occasion and opportunity to read suchdiametrically polarized views on morality, I, like Mill, leaned towardsevaluating actions by their consequences. Post analyzing thesephilosophies, however, I came to the realization that the two must actuallybe married into one cohesive philosophy in order to achieve a balancebetween the practical necessities for survival and the ethicality of humanactions.
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