人生の目的

Abstract

What is the aim of life, the "good" we seek ? To this question the humanistic view gives an answer though insufficiently, that it is to enjoy this life and this world. The popular religious view, which does not contradict humanism, gives also an answer that it is to prepare ourselves for a better life, an everlasting happiness after death, by making this life a means to that life. But is an everlasting continuation of the individual life, even in paradise, desirable ? The zest of living requires novelty. And the solution of the problem of novelty is death. Neverthless, I believe there is a real problem which the popular religious views are trying to solve ; what is the total value of life in the univers as a whole and through all the future ? And why does it matter what happens for a little while on this small planet in the vastness of space-time ? For three thousand years or more, men have had glimpses of an answer to these questions : if there is a unity of life in space and time, if all lives are items within an all-embracing, conscious life, then indeed our every moment can contribute its mite to a single value. In accepting this view we must overcome the following great difficulty ; how can we believe that all life is included within a supreme and everlasting life, when there is so much conflict, suffering, and wickedness in the world ? If the supreme life enfolds all, how is evil possible ? Is it unable to control its own constituents ? According to my opinion, for the divine life to exercise precise control over its constituents would be the same as for it to have no constituents. And the evil in the world, which results-I hold-not from divine contrivance, but from the partial uncontrolability of the individuals making up the world, is not too high a price to pay for there being a world at all. We may now answer our original question, what is the aim of life ? We live to live well and to make life better for others, but this is worth doing, because we thereby contribute indestructible value to the one life of which we all are members.