That is always the question, isn’t it? Especially, these days, when there are so many options, so many avenues, so many ways to get off of the proverbial path and become a wayward nonconformist. Is love enough to last a lifetime? Is a sense of obligation enough to be committed for the agreed-upon enmeshment? Is religious fervor enough to maintain one’s faith even in the face of secularism’s hedonistic pull? Is pleasure enough to sustain one’s sense of wanting to exist? Is duty enough to compel a soldier to sacrifice for his country? Is life enough to sustain? That was the ultimate question for French existentialism, especially as delineated in Camus’ set of essays, beginning with the Myth of Sisyphus. What is “enough”? How can it be quantified? Underlying it all, isn’t the ultimate question beyond whether something is “enough”, actually an irrelevant question? For, as Aristotle would put it (and in this Post-Factual World, where Aristotle and Plato are no longer read, and thus, no longer relevant), we must go back to the basics, to the “foundational principles” underlying our belief systems: What is meaningful in our lives? When there is a void in meaningfulness, hedonism fills that emptiness. That is why teenagers turn to drugs; that is why adults succumb to alcohol; and that is why, when ISIS came into existence, and when the war in Ukraine began, thousands of Americans flocked to join in the “cause” — because, when the void of meaninglessness pervades, people jump to...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiZ2h0dHBzOi8vYmxvZ3MubGF3eWVyc...