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Why does your life matter? A personal story and a challenge to readers
I recently read a book inspired by Marcus Aurelius’ famous Meditations, William Ferraiolo’s Meditations on Self-Discipline and Failure. Despite the fact that I endorsed it when I was asked to examine a pre-publication copy, I now think it is an example of what I term “dark Stoicism,” and I have explained in a full length review why it does not make for a good reading for people interested in a positive philosophy of life.
Nevertheless, there are some interesting bits in it, and one in particular struck me as worth reflecting. It’s a question Ferraiolo poses in chapter 30, section 7 (p. 162 in my electronic version), and it goes like this:
“Is there one attainment to which you can point and say, with confidence and sincerity, ‘that is why my life mattered’? If you were to write out a comprehensive list of your virtues and admirable achievements, how much paper and ink would you need?”
In context, this is part of Ferraiolo’s tendency to brooding and self flagellation. But I figured it would be interesting for me — a self-described reasonable optimist — to take up the challenge and see what would come out of it. So brace yourself, as this is going to get personal. Before we get into the thick of it, however, let me stress that what you are about to read is not just someone else’s critical self reflections, it’s an invitation for you to do the very same thing, though not necessarily in public as I’m doing here. After all, according to Socrates, the unexamined life is not worth living…
The first thing I can be confident about in this context is that it wouldn’t take too much ink (or e-ink, as the case may be) to list the reasons I think my life — so far (I am 54) — has been worth living. The second thing we need to agree on is that there isn’t an objective, universal standard of worth to be applied here. Different people will regard both their own and others’ accomplishments as more or less worthy of attention. Still, I think it is fair to say that my life has been far more worthy than Hitler’s (okay, really low bar!), and far less than Socrates’ (very high bar!). You get the gist.
In order to better organize my thoughts, I figured it would be helpful to break down the analysis in terms of a number of…
