Western philosophy began with a Declarations of Independence.

In the 6th century BC the Parmenides proposed “For it is the same thing that can be thought as can be.”

In the 5th century BC Protagoras proclaimed “Man is the Measure of All Things”. 

These doctrines declare that human thinking independent of a reality external to our thought, if such there be, is the ultimate authority on what there is, what is good and what is beautiful.

In Obedience vs. Autonomy, I proposed that the purpose of our lives is that for which we are free. In that post, I argued that the freedom to pursue happiness, the freedom to pursue righteousness, and the freedom to love – to will the good of the other do not provide a purpose for human life. I could have given a similar argument that the freedom to pursue truth fails to provide a purpose for human life. I concluded that a freedom to obey something external to our reason might indicate a purpose for our lives.

In this post, I want to set aside an implication that I argued that happiness, truth, righteousness, and love could not be purposes of human life. More importantly, I want to generalize the notion of obedience to dependence. Only under the assumption that reason is the ultimate authority on what is true, good or happiness, – only under the assumption of the autonomy of reason- can what we determine fail to provide a purpose for life. If we accept a reality apart from our reason upon which our reason depends for its correctness, then truth, goodness, happiness and love can be what we live for.