Chapter 4
The part is larger than the whole.
This is most true, for the mother of all abstractions, the ultimate aim of life. This is omnipotent, and it can justify any action however unreasonable, while making it easy to defend, even the worst instance of inaction.
Is there an ultimate aim for life?
I think there are many answers. Theology specializes in dealing with this issue. It links the ultimate aim with a short fall that can happen to one at add times. And how, this shortfall (sin) is to be compensated. It overlooks the significance of immediate gains. Science looks at all the aspects of immediate gains. But it leaves the ultimate one to winds. Literature tries to meet both, but I think, never crosses the half way mark. Let me now face the question for both.
How are we to answer a question? In, say, a verbal exchange, both the words and its setting are equally important for formulating a good and appropriate answer. And, the answer should depend on how, this question was originated, or its context. I also feel, questions generally does not have a meaning unless qualified by accompanying statements or declarations, explicitly, or otherwise. For, life or living is just an umbrella verb for a large collection of words that denote action, like fishing, eating, sleeping, reading, and so on. The question regarding the ultimate aim, therefore, does not make sense instantly. But it can convey a lot, when it is used along with such a collection of activities, and a picture of which, except when spelled out explicitly, are to be there in the imagination of those who give answers.
For answering, let me first see how we would have arrived at this question. I think the first question that would have perplexed mankind is, what make beings alive, or what is the purpose of life. We can see everywhere, the joy our young ones keep getting while learning the nuances of things, one comes across. And we can safely conclude, our past heroes also would have been mastering everything that came on their way. The only questions that remained without any resolution would have been the ones of this genre. And it would have been giving them a really tough fight, given the popularity of religious organizations and movements that are primarily meant for answering such matters, even now.
While getting exposed to new and varied situations and encounters with things living and non-living, our forefathers would have learned to look for a cause, for whatever, and which would have would have enabled them to make things happen, as they chose. Possibly this is the first step of enquiry, both what our ancestors learned, and where they met success the most. And in that process, it seems they understood this as true for of all things in nature, that things will continue as they are, till something made it to do otherwise. Which later came to us as Newton’s first law.
(The hunt for the ultimate aim of life should have ended then. Life will continue to be, till something occurs to stop it. I think we humans didn’t want to be merely obeying a law that applies to a stone!)
Now, since any living thing will look for a reason to discontinue what it is busy with, it is natural that the earliest question that vexed our ancestors was, why am I living, what for? This, for two reasons. One, they would have been meeting great success in finding an answer to such questions, as far as non-living things go. Two, death would have been catching them unaware, and it would have been natural to experiment about extending life, or delaying death, the leftover signs of which we diligently classify as remnants of say, pagan ceremonies.