What drives a Vulcan to keep on living, what gives their life meaning?

Question

I beleive that everything that gives meaning to our life is rooted in emotions. Simple pleasures, love, friendship, pursuit of knowledge. Happiness, a sence of obligation (which is how you avoid feeling shamed, maybe even shamed by yourself) what is there that is not rooted in emotion that would give a humonoid being meaning?

Answer 1

Creation.

You prefer to exist over not existing. It is completely reasonable to want this.

Existance is not free. It requires labour. Some things make this labour easier. It is therefore completely reasonable to want all those things to exist as well.

It is also reasonable to believe that others have similar motivations, even when if you cannot directly witness them yourself. Thus its reasonable to create a superstructure and tools that serve communal needs.

None of this need be emotion-based, but we've already developed a reasonable basis for industry, society, and probably many, many other humans endeavors. It all serves a purpose beyond the emotional and instinctive.

Peace.

Answer 2

Feeling shame and carrying shame are so many miles apart. I can't cry over the spilt mile anymore, now I have to clean up the mess and learn from the mistakes of how I handle the carton the last time so this time it wont happen. I beleive that family, friends and all can be a good wall to bounce things off and receive there opinion but the book speaks about a council which is wiser than those who come with biases, dislike, their own emotion hang ups but this is something to be weighed, Some advice is good and others well toss it to the heap of rubbish but the best advice will always stand the test of time. Look to history.

Answer 3

In the Vulcan past they were very emotional passionate warlike people. Surak came with his teachings of peace and emotional suppresion to bring peace to Vulcan. A belief in logic and learning drives Vulcans. They are also family oriented. Have you read about "Pon Far" the mating cycle. Vulcans are also explorers. They have many drives. Just because they are slightly different from Humans doesn't make them less.

Answer 4

That belief is a choice and a belief that is likely to cause you great suffering over the course of your lifetime.

The problematic side is the highly emotional people are often hurt, taken advantage of and easily manipulated. Knowing someone's "buttons" -- well, it becomes easy to manipulate them with that knowledge.

Driven by emotions is not something that I have ever subscribed to.

Such a belief system also means that you are unlikely to find any sense of inner peace. Dedication to emotion means that your life will be a roller coaster.

The next time you feel angry, hurt, depressed, guilty, remember, you like having these emotions as a reason for living.

Answer 5

What a great question! A Vulcan has no emotion, so they in fact would have no need to question their existence. To hypothetically question the meaning of life would be illogical since it serves no purpose. To a Vulcan, existence is simply preferable than non-existence, so they continue to exist.

Answer 6

This is phrased so as to seem very appealing. But what if it were phrased as, "live for your own pleasure, your own happiness, your own self interest"? Or how about, "do whatever it is you feel like doing"? Love and friendship just means using others to get our good feelings. Doesn't sound to me nearly as appealing and certainly nothing noble to live for.

Logically, meaning is derived from accomplishing our purpose in life. We only have purpose if we are created for a purpose.

Answer 7

Vulcans, are not like humans. You may know that already. They do not enjoy what we enjoy. I guess they enjoy logic.