Thread: Should humanity have an end goal?

The ultimate goal of all living beings is to procreate, or continue the species. We should make the human race a permanently spacefaring species if we want to ensure our chances of survival. The earth will be gone someday, as strange as it is to think of. I think terraforming is a serious thing to consider, if we weren't so busy killing ourselves.

The "end goal" of humanity which I have encountered that I like best is that humanity should seek to flourish.

How do we flourish?

By practicing virtue.

What is virtue?

Virtue is a state of balance in between excess and deficiency. So, to love, but not too love too little or too much is to practice virtue. To take care of the body, but not to do so too much or too little, is to practice virtue. To condition the mind, but not to do so too much or too little is virtue...Sounds sort of Buddhist, but this is actually Aristotle's position.

One problem with setting a specific "end goal" for anything, though, is that while pursuing the goal, many other promising opportunities can be missed along the way.

You lost me when you failed to explain how moderation will cause us to flourish.

For whatever reason, the quote function is not working, so I am replying to Original Poster's comment:

"You lost me when you failed to explain how moderation will cause us to flourish."

The position is essentially that too much or too little of anything is not good. Consider eating, for example. Eating too much is unhealthy, as is eating too little. If a person can find the balance between eating too much and eating too little, they can attain a state of health, which, some might argue, is a state in which one is flourishing.

It's not so much moderation that causes flourishing, it's achieving a state of balance that enables one to flourish (under this train of thought). Moderation is a part of it, but navigating a balanced path between vice is the key.

Right I understand what balance is, and I understand why there are many aspects of life in which being unbalanced is detrimental, such as diet. But you still haven't explained how that will cause humanity to flourish. You've only managed to explain that it's healthy.

I think the goal is perfection. When we get there....... we should perfect it.

Quote by Original Poster:

"Right I understand what balance is, and I understand why there are many aspects of life in which being unbalanced is detrimental, such as diet. But you still haven't explained how that will cause humanity to flourish. You've only managed to explain that it's healthy".

To live a healthy life is to live a life that is flourishing, at least in terms of health.

I'm sort of trying to get past circular logic here.