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Debate Score:5
Arguments:5
Total Votes:5
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smh62(39) pic



What is the purpose of life? Argue for one or two values from a list of 18.

  1. A Comfortable Life: a prosperous life.
  2. Equality: brotherhood and equal opportunity for all.
  3. An Exciting Life: a stimulating, active life.
  4. Family Security: taking care of loved ones.
  5. Freedom: independence and free choice.
  6. Health: physical and mental well-being.
  7. Inner Harmony: freedom from inner conflict.
  8. Mature Love: sexual and spiritual intimacy.
  9. National Security: protection from attack.
  10. Pleasure: an enjoyable, leisurely life.
  11. Salvation: saved;  eternal life.
  12. Self-Respect: self-esteem.
  13. A Sense of Accomplishment: a lasting contribution.
  14. Social Recognition: respect and admiration.
  15. True Friendship: close companionship.
  16. Wisdom: a mature understanding of life.
  17. A World at Peace: a world free of war and conflict.
  18. A World of Beauty: beauty of nature and the arts.

 

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1 point

Probably the most upsetting thing for me is unfairness and inequality. That would drive me to instinctively choose "Equality" as the most important purpose of my life. But thinking for a second, I realise that equality without freedom is to imprison everyone equally. I choose "Freedom" (with "Equality" coming a close second).

Side: FREEDOM and EQUALITY
1 point

It's important to allow dual positions in this debate. Though the number of possible positions jumps from 18 up to a whopping 153 positions, it does enable us to make some very significant distinctions. For example, I argue that the dual position "FREEDOM and EQUALITY" is as distinct from the single positions of "FREEDOM" and "EQUALITY" as the single positions are from one another.

Valuing freedom without a concern for equality is to value freedom for yourself alone. And, as I've already said, valuing equality without a concern for freedom is to imprison everyone. The difficulty with both of these single positions is in what one then fails to value. There is an eerie similarity in both of these positions in the following sense: one who seeks to downplay equality means to expand their power to exercise their freedoms irrespective of the rights of others; one who seeks to downplay freedom means to rob all others of their rights but in an equal manner. Both single positions critically lack a concern for the rights of others. This concern only emerges in the dual position.

Side: FREEDOM and EQUALITY

What would you do without freedom?

They may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!!

Freedom
Side: FREEDOM
1 point

Happiness is the goal i think. All of those things you listed are a means of reaching this goal.

What I've always wondered is this. "time flies when you're having fun" right?

So does this mean that if the goal is to be happy and happiness speeds up our recognition of time , is the real goal to move on to the next level of existance as quickly as possible?

Side: FREEDOM
smh62(39) Disputed
1 point

I wasn't sure whether to click support or dispute. I opted to dispute because you tagged you're argument None which I definitely do dispute. :)

Happiness is the goal i think.

That's a laudable goal for some people but it's quite inappropriate for others. I might even argue that it's inappropriate for the overwhelming majority of people. Happiness is an emotion which people experience with varying frequency according to changes in mood. Mood is influenced both rationally/productively by actual positive and negative events and irrationally/counter-productively by stress, drug abuse, mood disorders, etc. In light of that, most people would be better off abandoning the romantic's longing for an unattainable goal. Instead, they would do better to appreciate what pleasures they can find, lose themselves in some challenging but doable activity with the goal of finding themselves at a point in their life where they're gratified by the outcomes of their life.

All of those things you listed are a means of reaching this goal.

No. The items are possible end states. They're things you can gain, retain, and lose. What one or two things in the list do you believe would contribute the most to your own sense of satisfaction with life? I'm going to have to press the point, I'm afraid.

What I've always wondered is this. "time flies when you're having fun" right?

Sounds like the start of a joke.

So does this mean that if the goal is to be happy and happiness speeds up our recognition of time , is the real goal to move on to the next level of existance as quickly as possible?

"next level of existance [sic]"?

"the real goal"?

I think it's salvation you're looking for. Tag you're argument "SALVATION" if I've understood you right.

Side: FREEDOM and EQUALITY