They who need a reason to live, have no reason to live - Do you agree?

I dislike that expression and dispute it entirely.

How can anyone take true satisfaction simply from existing? If we did not seek reasons to live, don't you think this planet would be in a state of anarchistic dystopia? As the likes of Aristotle would have said, living is one thing but living well and flourishingly is something totally different.

If you're saying people don't enjoy life for what it is - what do you mean by that? What is life if it has no purpose? There might not be an innate purpose for humankind, but it seems entirely rational for humans to seek their own purposes. The modern world would be nothing like it is if everyone thought with such a nihilistic rationale.

Ah but you see this isn't a nihilistic rationale. It's a refutation of such. Why do we need a reason to enjoy life? Are the wonders and mysteries of life alone not sufficient to cure such nihilism? I do not dispute that things have meanings (like flowers are symbols for romance and love) only that the concept of life does not have to have a meaning, because life is meaning. To live is a purpose in its own right.

The wonders and mysteries of life involve terrible things. How can one not be nihilistic when horrible things happen to those who live as honestly and truly as they can? The wonders and mysteries of life would only be sufficient if humans did not have emotion to become nihilistic from and / or bad things didn't happen.
Life isn't meaning; it is a state of existence which bears little significance unless something is done with it. If we all lived and did literally nothing at all in our lives, we would have achieved nothing and proven that existence is meaningless without purpose. Humans don't function properly without structure and purpose. Every little choice someone makes is with something in mind: a purpose.

If we went back to the beginning of time and were told that simply living was a human's purpose, what would humans then spend their lives doing? Merely existing but doing nothing?

What's wrong with just existing? It seems you don't value nature for what it is, it may be terrible and beautiful at the same time, but I don't see why one needs a purpose to live.

So do you, yourself, consider your only purpose being to live? You would have to be a total free spirit to live in the way you're suggesting which is totally impractical and idealistic. What makes you get up in the morning?

Nothing and why should it. Why should I not just get up because I like living? What a revolutionary idea.

You're being so vague and indirect, though. What about living do you like? How do you spend your time?

Doing what I want to do, I go to work and college and then go home and play games / musical instrument / read / a multitude of other things like speaking to people (also revolutionary). I don't need a reason to do these things, I enjoy them for what they are.

If you take away all those things, then what do you have left? You'll still live, just without everything you know and love. Then what would make you get up in the morning?

Well that's a silly trick question because it wouldn't be living would it? Some people have terrible conditions and might need a reason to live yes, but most people don't need a reason to live, they simply get on with their lives.

Of course it would. It might not be a nice or pleasant way of living, but it would be living. Just by existing and breathing you are living.

Where do you draw the line between acceptable and bad living conditions which warrant people to seek purpose? Your idea of life only seems to work for those in fortunate circumstances. You're not describing life as a universal concept.

Yes those who actually enjoy life don't need a reason to live despite philosophers constantly speaking about the 'meaning of life'. Like I said remember, those who need a reason to live have no reason to live, those who starve in Africa don't really have a reason to live because they don't live and there's no justification for their conditions.

I think you need to make a distinction between living and living well. Of course those who starve in Africa live - they just don't live well. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but what you have just said could be a justification of genocide.

No I don't agree. Everyone has a reason to live, just sometimes for some people it takes a while to find it or the reason gets lost.