Life as Flow

Notes

Claim

Many philosophers argue that one's life should be in accordance with nature.

Explanation

To live according to nature usually refers to how we deal with Uncertainty creates anxiety when knowledge and control are incomplete and Randomness. As humans we have a tendency to want to control our environment, to adjust it according to our needs and desires.

Why it Matters

Therefore, instead of trying to master the world, we have to listen to it, embrace, be one with it, and resonate with it. Usually that means releasing our Expectations shape wellbeing through the gap between desires and reality that we can control what happens in our lives, or that we know better than nature, and focus on contentment rather than pursuing lofty goals. To accept that Life is change, that who we are, what we have, what we do, all of that is fleeting, and that it a feature, not a bug of life.

By giving those up, we supposably will have better balance in life. When we are one with nature, we are more likely to be one with ourselves Achieving internal harmony requires integrating all parts of yourself.

Examples

Supporters

These philosophers claim that against nature we would always lose. Either because the outside world is much more complex and strong than we are, or that by fighting nature we fight against ourselves, which is a sure way of loosing. intrapersonal conflict.

Wu wei makes the same case from the Taoist tradition - that we achieve more by responding to the world than by forcing it into shape.

Opposers

The will to power is the inner drive to transcend oneself and become something greater argues the reverse - that life isn't about conforming to nature, but about rising above it: using it, improving it, growing beyond what's given rather than yielding to it.

Open Questions

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