I would like to know why I would then accept life as it is.
I understand a lot of things about life, but that doesn’t mean I WANT to accept these things.
I have fully read the article on the following website: http://www.leerwiki.nl/Het_leven_accepteren_as_het_is
I find the explanation of this article unsatisfactory. I wonder what is meant by the last sentence of the conclusion:
“So you don’t have to accept life as it is, as long as you decide how you want to respond to life and don’t let life determine how you react.”
My question seems to me to have a philosophical aspect as well as a psychological aspect.
Answer
Dear Samuel,
I think you are right to question this article and its conclusion. What the article tries to do is differentiate between what happens to us in life and how we deal with it. The closing sentence is rather unfortunate: it does not properly summarize the multiplicity of what the article is about in a nutshell.
I think you’ll know more if you include the Wikipedia article on acceptance. That is unfortunately very brief, but it does touch on things that go in the direction of your own reservations, such as the importance of free will.
The source in which the article appeared seems to me to be less reliable than Wikipedia, because it involves commercial purposes (“In addition to the main educational aspect, it is also possible to earn a monthly income from LeerWiki. The presence of advertisements on websites will undoubtedly not unfamiliar to the ears and it is precisely this income that you can share on LeerWiki.nl. The amount of income you can earn with this can be quite substantial.”) That is not the case with Wikipedia; anyone can co-write, correct or add to Wikipedia without hindrance.
You may also be able to satisfy your interest in psychology and philosophy through university-level courses, such as those of the Open University of Ghent or the Continuing Education of Ghent University. Other universities may have similar options, but they are less familiar to me.
Hopefully I helped you somewhat with this.
Gert Buelens
Answered by
Prof. Gert Buelens
English and American Literature American Studies Gender and Sexuality
http://www.ugent.be
.