I turned 28 a few months ago. Just before my birthday, I spent 2 weeks writing out my worldview on a number of philosophical and practical questions. I'm sharing the section on the will to life today. It's simple, but, I hope, optimistic.

If you'd like the read the rest, you can read it here.


The typical being embraces their life.

Even if their life is full of suffering, they prefer that they exist rather than not.

Pessimists argue that these behaviors and beliefs are essentially evolutionary programming. That, in many cases, it would still be better for these people to never have been born.

Some argue that most animal lives are not worth living. Nature is completely indifferent, but the results are cruel and capricious.

But if preferences and desires matter at all, the pessimistic view loses its force. The deep preference for survival that all conscious creatures possess is significant evidence against it. Most beings have a will for life. Life's longing for itself is self-satisfying.

The mere preference to be alive, to take part in the onward rush, renders lives worth living.