Experiences and the point of life

10/16/08

Throughout the years numerous people have tried to figure out who should be able to judge another and why. What gives lets say me the right to judge your actions? How am I supposed to understand your ideas or your views? The answer is experience. Life and everything we understand comes from experience. You learn how to walk by experiencing crawling, and watching others as they walk. You learn how to do math by experiencing a teacher do math on the board. In life experiences gives us the ability to understand the world. In John Stuart Mill's version of Utilitarianism, only those that have experienced both sides of a pleasure or pain are allowed to determine which is indeed higher. An example would be, a man who has worked his whole life as a gravedigger could not understand the pleasures of being a doctor, unless he himself has been a doctor. The same goes for the doctor who judges the gravedigger without actually ever being one himself.

This theory can then be applied to any belief, idea, or action. I am given the right to judge your idea because I have experienced both sides. A man who sits in his room all day, never experiencing the world around him will certainly never know any pain or pleasure. Now it is true with more experience comes the possibility for more types of pain, but this is a risk worth taking. For "it is better to be a Socrates dissatisfied then a fool satisfied". When I look at the world I see many people who are afraid to experience, to explore the world, to step out to their comfort zone and learn. Here though it is obvious to see that our life is nothing without experience. Without experience we would be a helpless, no knowledge beast. So I say to those who feel that they need to experience and live for a change, go out and do it. Any experience good or bad is never a wasted experience, because when the time comes for you to understand the world around you, you will be able to do it not as a fool but as a Socrates.

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