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Maisha ni muda ambao kiumbe hai anajaliwa kuishi. Ni hali tofauti kabisa na uzima wa milele, kwa kuwa uhai wake una mwanzo na mwisho.

Hasa mwisho unasababisha maswali: kama kila chenye mwanzo kina mwisho, ya nini kuwepo kwake? Kukosa lengo, kuwepo bure, kutokuwa na maana kunamfanya mtu ajisikie mnyonge, pengine akate tamaa ya kuishi, la sivyo ajitose kufurahia mazuri yanayopatikana maishani, lakini bila uwezo wa kuondoa moyoni ule utupu wa maana unaomtia huzuni ya dhati.

Ndiyo sababu maana ya maisha ni mojawapo kati ya masuala makuu ya binadamu duniani: hawezi kukwepa maswali ya kutoka moyoni mwake kuhusu thamani, madhumuni na umuhimu wa maisha yake.

Suala hilo linaweza kujitokeza kwake katika maswali mengi tofauti yanayohusiana, kama vile: "mbona tumekuwepo?"; "maisha yanahusu nini?" na "nini maana ya hayo yote? Binadamu anajiuliza maswali kama hayo hasa anapokabiliana na kifo, kwa mfano msiba wa ndugu au rafiki.

Hilo limekuwa suala kuu la udadisi wa sayansi, falsafa na dini tangu zamani. Hivyo kumekuwa na idadi kubwa ya majibu kutoka asili mbalimbali kadiri ya itikadi na utamaduni.

Marejeo

Aristotle, The Metaphysics, translated by Hugh Lawson-Tancred, Penguin Classics, 1999, ISBN 0-14-044619-2, ISBN 978-0-14-044619-7
Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole Logic, or the Art of Thinking, (known as the Port-Royal Logic), translated J. Buroker, Cambridge 1996
Terry Eagleton, The Meaning of Life, Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-19-921070-5 ISBN 978-0-19-921070-1
Heraclitus, Fragments, James Hilton, forward, Brooks Hexton, translator, Penguin Classics, 2003, ISBN 0-14-243765-4, ISBN 978-0-14-243765-0
Michael J. Loux, Ockham's Theory Of Terms (translation of book I of the Summa Logicae c-1327)
Bryan Magee, The Story of Philosophy, Dorling Kindersley Lond. 1998, ISBN 0-7513-0590-1
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, 8th edition 1908* Plato, The Republic, translated by Desmond Lee, Penguin Classics, 2003, ISBN 0-14-044914-0, ISBN 978-0-14-044914-3
Alvin Thalheimer, The Meaning of the Terms: Existence and Reality. Princeton University Press, 1920
C. J. F. Williams, What is Existence?, Oxford University Press, 1981