Existentialism, Determinism, Free Will, and the Meaning of Life

The last of the views of morality is existentialism. The view here is that we as humans have a sole purpose of making choices and all other things that we come across are abstractions that hinder those things. Money, religion, politics, and laws are all things that society forces us to conform to and thus can hinder our ability to make free choices exercise our ultimate purpose as human beings. Yet beyond this more critical and isolated view against society, there is more to it. We choose not only who want to be but what to make of the world around us. We follow our choices and will and face the consequences. In the end we decide, though our choices. We decide everything

This obviously is something that works hand and hand with the idea of free will. Free will is the idea that we as humans have the ability to decide between multiple futures through our choices. It is counterpart to determinism which says there is only one inevitable future. However if we look at things rationally outside our own views, everything is bound by laws of physics which inevitably produce influences that we cannot escape. For us whether it is present circumstance, beliefs, personality, genetics, or desires, all these things stem from events and experiences of the past. These objects of the past we cannot change and as a result we cannot choose. All things happen are caused by something from the past. In the same manner everything that happens now will be a cause to something that happens in the future. This means that only one future can be possible from the conditions of any present time period.

I think in existentialism, a better way of explaining our ultimate role instead of making choices our duty to act. The one thing we can do in our lives, looking outside our moral judgments is to act. If we make some change to the world as humans, as a whole or one by one and face the consequences by preparing and adapting, then it will push history forward. That is not only the way to live but also the very nature of life, action and adaptation. It is without a doubt, the duty of every person to act and live out their lives. In the end we are not the ones to judge if what we do is right or wrong morally. Our will to act, our will to live, our will to be something; these are the things that truly matter.

Each individual life is a story and all we really want to do with morally is to protect one another the best we can but we cannot escape the miscalculation of our judgments and perceptions. To find peace, all you really have to do is to let them know you exist. Inevitably every person will act to change something that no one has ever changed before them. To me, that is the meaning of life; the moral duty and purpose of each and every one of us.