I think it’s safe to say that most of us in class agreed with Scheffler’s passage on the importance of an afterlife to us. To me, knowing that there will be future generations present after I pass gives me a sort of comfort, I know that I everything that I put effort into is worth it in a way since I know that people after me will benefit from it–whether it’s a professional thing like a business I’m building up or if it’s a personal thing like having children to have their own children who will have their own. I think that knowing that there will be generations after us gives us all reason to do what we want to do and gives us a brighter look like “Hey, someday, someone is going to appreciate what I did and in some way, I will benefit their life”. This, to me, gives us all a purpose and a motivational push to do what makes us happy since our happiness will lead to more generations that will be impacted by our actions. Who’s to say that we would be happy doing what we are if we knew that it wouldn’t mean anything to anyone if there is no future generation? It’s the idea that we will mean something to someone in the future that gives us a purpose and makes a feel like we have some type of legacy to leave to others. Because of this, I do agree with Scheffler’s argument that knowing there will be future generations does give us a purpose in life and we do depend on that thought.
I agree with your perspective! I believe what Scheffler said about how future generations led up to us, giving us meaning, and that we can provide this meaning to others by creating future generations and making the world better for them.
I agree with you as well. Scheffler makes a very strong point. To me, it seems so obvious that this is true, yet it’s never something that has ever crossed my mind. So much of what we do in life is to leave some type of “legacy,” whether that just be something that you leave for your children or something that you leave for the world. If humans ceased to exist after our deaths, then it would seem almost pointless to do anything other than just seek pleasure and essentially be a hedonist.
In a different paper, Scheffler calls this a “collective afterlife” which I feel is a strong factor in how people behave. Someone I know wants to become a math teacher with the goal of impacting at least one person’s life through teaching. This goal is shared by many people in different ways supported Scheffler’s ideas.