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Charlotte Shigemitsu

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How should human beings best live their lives?

Descartes says to follow Reason only, while Shakespeare says that a balance between reason and passion is to go. Shakespeare also states that we are constantly changing beings. Hume says that reason is and ought to be the slave of passions, and says that our judgment of morality is based on passion and that passion initiates action. Hume argues that no action is based purely on reason alone. Darwin says that we are one of the results from a process of evolution by means of natural selection, while E.O. Wilson says that our whole existence is a result of genes; the way we think and how our culture is shaped is all due to genes.

Based on all of these thinkers and biologists, what is the best way to go for human beings to live? What's your opinion? Any thinkers you can relate this topic to?

Topics: Charles Darwin David Hume E.O. Wilson Hamlet Michel Montaigne Renee Descartes Shakespeare philosophy
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    Feyisayo Anjorin 50+

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    Oct 12 2012: Appreciate every beautiful thing; do your best to change what you can; help to build something of service to humanity that will endure even when you're gone; be a good influence, because whether you know it or not you are an influence.

    Live, love, learn, serve; and leave a legacy.
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    Iulian Sociale Ingegnere

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    Oct 12 2012: You are a thinker too, so to say , so do not ask yourself this and have some fun because this kind of questions have made us go to wars and made harm to a lot of people just to be demonstrated and after some years they were stated as wrong and innocent people also died just because some people ("they") wanted to reach God by sciences and discover God in some ways that were wrong. Instead of reaching God they lost their life in vain and most of them died alone and they let us questions unanswered by themselves, because they were alone and unhappy and they tried to be happy in some way as they could. Read some biographies of them and you will understand their needs maybe and this way you will find also some answers but you will never feel what they felt and you can never repeat someone experiences in an ever and ever changing world. Tell me do you like this melody https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na-IIyhGK2w but do not watch the screen just listen with your eyes closed :) . And this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbpS_DbQiQk. The past has always the answers but the present is the one that really make us feel them and not bother to rediscover them :)
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    Fritzie Reisner 100+

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    Oct 12 2012: With a combination of reason and heart.
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    pat gilbert 50+

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    Oct 12 2012: I went to the tomes and after much deep profound thinking I have decided that life is a game, a life is best lived as though you are playing a game.
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    Gail . 50+

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    Oct 12 2012: Know thyself. The rest takes care of itself. When you know yourself, reason reigns supreme because suffering (ego) goes away. Only then can you truly act in your own (and everyone else's) best interests.

    If I must choose from those you mention, I'll choose Descartes (and Spinoza).
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    Peter Law 30+

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    Oct 12 2012: Jesus said to love God & one another.

    Works for me !

    :-)
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    R H 20+

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    Oct 12 2012: Have reason, passion, and genes given us guns, germs, and steel? Now we have quantumness, alternate realities, technological evolution. You ask how to live our lives. To steal another tag line from another author: Live long and prosper.
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    James Zhang 30+

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    Oct 12 2012: just wing it
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    Lawren Jones 10+

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    Oct 12 2012: We best live our lives by working to achieve honesty with ourselves, because the clarity with which we can see the rest of the world is limited by the clarity with which we are first willing to see inward.
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      Gail . 50+

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      Oct 12 2012: Well articulated! I agree wholeheartedly.
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