Question

What does it mean to lead a meaningful life? Consider the following hypothetical scenario: suppose someone (a genie, or whatever) had the power to transform you into a person who would spend the rest of your life perfectly happy, but the catch is that you would also have to spend the rest of your life doing something completely pointless, like counting blades of grass, or something grotesque (like in Wielenberg's example). You will be transformed into a person who really enjoys doing the pointless or grotesque activity. Would you accept this "gift"? Or would you rather choose to continue living your normal life - where you can choose to engage in a variety of activities which are more purposeful, but with no guarantee of success or happiness? In other words, what ultimately matters for a meaningful life? Is it just happiness, or something more? at least 250 word

Answer 1

I would choose to be an ordinary person who could experience the day today normal life. Although gods are more powerful, it is the priests who enjoy the benefits. So, being a person without having to do anything, is worth nothing. Human life is full of turns and twists, happiness and sadness. It brings lots of people in the form of friends, family, society and thus introducing us to people of different characters, abilities, interests, tastes etc. One can enjoy diversity in one's real life although it would be difficult and one would undergo lots of struggles to occasionally taste success. But, happiness doesn't depend on the material gain one achieves because it's a state of mind. People can be happy even without anything except the basic needs that would be necessary for them to survive.
Happiness is not a destination or target to be achieved, it's all about being content with what one has and what one does. If people set happiness as a destination, they wouldn't find it. The idea is to live in the present, appreciate what one has, who one is with and finally accepting one as valuable and important. People with more money are worried about safeguarding their money and people with more success are worried about retaining their success this prevents them from enjoying their present happiness. Happiness is about experiencing everything that one undergoes including pain and suffering because only at the end of pain one starts to experience real happiness and pleasure. It comes only with comparison and not on its own.

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