Essays on Meaning of Life

Death is one of the controversial and feared issues in society. It is worth noting that death part of uncertainties in life that all human beings will go through. There are broad and complex beliefs about death in society. Beliefs about death and dying are based on religious, individual, and cultural ideologies. Death and dying is a process that is inevitable. Dealing with the death of loved one is associated with spiritual inquiry and thoughts. Ethics influence the way individuals, religions, and cultures define death and dying. The meaning of life pertains the importance of human existence. The meaning ...

Catcher in the rye brings out the anguish and confinement in a teenage boy called Holden, in the mid-1950 (Bratož 95). Holden is faced with disparities in life, which makes him to reconsider the meaning of life. Similarly, Charlie, in perks of being a wallflower is faced with problems that Holden encounters in life. Despite living in different social, economic and cultural confinement, ideologies represented in the two pieces of literature are uncanny. Holden was a victim of the World War 2 post-war trauma in the United States of America. The post-war conditions had forced Holden to give up ...

BODY AND SOUL RELATIONSHIP FROM GREAT THINKERS

Body and Soul relationship The relationship between body and soul has been the main concern for many thinkers since the beginning of the history of philosophy. In this paper, we will be exploring this relationship from the perspective of three great thinkers: Plato, Aristotle, and Saint Agustin. They were all interested in this relationship, and as they do have common views, they also differ in many areas. The main concern that these three thinkers have is that the humans are made of both body and soul. They can see and touch the body, but they cannot touch the soul. ...

Introduction

The significance of life is an existential question that many people find troubling through the course of their lives. People engage in different activities in the pursuit of what is significant in their lives; the meaning of life; the one thing that surpasses all. The subject has been explored extensively in many scholarly and works of film. The subject of the significant in one’s life has been explored extensively in the Woman in the Dunes, a film directed by Teshigahara, The Plague, a novel authored by Camus, Ikiru, a film by Kurosawa, and A Doll House, a play ...

Countless debates have ensued concerning the supposed importance of how life began, why it was created, and of course if it has any fundamental purpose. Some would argue that life has no meaning, that it is a randomized hodgepodge of experiences that when placed together create the sum of a life. Others would claim that there is meaning behind every experience, a driving goal that allows an individual to keep going when it would be easier to stop. Whether it is because of personal belief or fundamental truths that can be measured and verified the meaning of life remains ...

Depression is a psychiatric illness that is prominent with regard to incidence throughout the world (Marchand, 2012). This is a painful condition of despair, which is accompanied by dullness of thought and slow movements. A person feels deeply unhappy and completely unable to experience pleasure, has lost the purpose and meaning of life. There are also other symptoms such as disturbed appetite (overeating or malnutrition), problems with sleep - early waking up at 4-5 in the morning or oversleeping. However, the main criterion of depression is suicidal thoughts. Depression usually worsens overall health and wellbeing. Depression is often accompanied ...

Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), Buddha, Jesus Christ, and Confucius are enjoying a meal of steamed dumplings and Kung pal chicken at P.F. Chang’s Restaurant. They are discussing the question: “What is the meaning of life?” I happen to be sitting on a table near them and I can overhear their conversation. Buddha begins the conversation by posing the question to the other three.

Buddha: What is the meaning of life?

Mohammed: (Looking up from his meal and putting on a serious face) I believe that life is sacred and a gift entrusted to humans by God. Every human being should live his life with skill and ...

English

Life is an extraordinary gift given to us and which should not attach or attract a monetary factor to it. However, the view of life is a wide and skeptic topic, but from a personal viewpoint, it is a gift that is ultimately given to us humans by a supreme source or higher being. According to State of Mind Books (2016), “For the meaning of life differ from man to man, From day to day, and hour to hour. What matter, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s ...

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The meaning of life is the motive of human life, the future, in which person lives. Search for the meaning of life is like finding like-minded friends: for someone it is important to find one real friend, someone has some true friends. No animal needs to understand the meaning of life. A desire to understand the purpose of his coming into the world distinguishes a human from animals. A human is the highest of living beings, it is not enough for him only to eat and reproduce, therefore, he tries to understand the meaning of life. ...

Introduction: “A course in religion is ideal as synthesis of liberal arts. It is no longer the Queen of Sciences, but it is still the Queen of Humanities” (Burton, “Study Theology even if You don’t Believe in God”). In 2006, 37 US states limit public funds spending on religion as a consequence of the separation of the church and the state. Another drawback is the withholding of a promised funding for a qualified student because he decides to take theology as his major subject at a local Bible College. Today, some people think that removing REL 103 in ...

What is real?

Real is a philosophical term used in different ways: as existing at all; objectively manifested world; a fragment of the universe, constituting an appropriate subject area of science; objectively existing phenomena, facts, that is really existing. There are objective (material) and subjective reality (phenomena of consciousness) reality.

What are the nature and limits of knowledge?

There are two main types of human knowledge: pre-scientific, everyday, art (aesthetic assimilation of reality) scientific knowledge and expertise (theoretical and empirical). Everyday knowledge is based on common sense and ordinary consciousness. It is formed under the influence of everyday life. Moreover, it is associated with the experience of a limited circle ...

Julian Young is one of the most prominent philosophers of the United States and a prominent researcher of the German philosophy of the 19th and 20th centuries. He is the author of more than 10 philosophical books and numerous articles awarded the highest honors in the field of philosophy. In his book The Death of God and the Meaning of Life, Young explores the most relevant question in the postmodern era. The question of the meaning of life has been studied by many philosophers, but each of them has their own ideas about what makes sense and what God ...

Introduction

Evolutionary psychology (EP) is a theoretical approach in natural and social sciences which examines the psychological structure from a modern evolutionary perspective. This topic deals with natural selection in human evolution or sexual selection. In psychology, this is one of the most important topics where people are trying to understand how evolution might have impacted the people into doing certain or having a certain behavior. Adapting to the environment is an important aspect of survival in this world. By understanding evolutionary psychology, such elements of adaptation such as identifying and preferring healthier mates can be studied and identify how ...

The book presents the crisis of the 1920s as difficult for individuals to define themselves as well as create an original and personal meaning of their life. It reflects the crisis as one where the society expects a person to live up to their standards and expectations which are almost impossible for self-realization (Arnestrand 50). The society deprives one of his or her options through the mandate for conformity and standardization. As far as there are limited options people get from the community, Babbitt’s conflicts with himself reflect the fact that people are living in life where they ...

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Indian philosophy is unique for its valuable interpretation of life, soul and rebirth. Doctrines of Bhagavad Gita to a great extent reflect the spiritual insight of Indian philosophy. Gita is also known as Gitopanisad, which is one of the several books of Mahabharata, the great Indian epic. The setting of the Bhagavad Gita is that when Kurukshetra begins (the great battle between Pandavas and Kauravas), the great Pandava warrior Arjuna gets confused with the ethic of fighting against his cousins and relatives. Lord Krishna, his friend and charioteer, clarifies this point to him. Notable one among ...

In the present paper, we are to discuss the significance and essence of Gildamesh epic and the way it addresses questions of the meaning of life. Before we directly proceed to the questions, however, we think it to be necessary to provide some background information. Gildamish is the oldest surviving epic – and as this it is an important historic document. Furthermore, the epic is deeply philosophical. According to the book, life is more than death for Gildamesh, life is of the utmost value. This simple answer contains all the experiences the person came to evidence and lived through. He ...

Writing that person it's more than just a product of heredity and environment, Frankl pointed out that people are gifted with the ability to shape themselves and their life experiences. The man is influenced by nature (heredity) as well as by nurture (environment). But as Frankl emphasizes, a person always has freedom of choice. People can choose how to deal with what nature and environment “offer” them. On the one hand, I find it difficult to agree with the statement that Frankl, that man - is more than just the result of genetic and environmental influences. I believe that ...

Abstract

Hindu culture is very diverse. There are many different facets to their religious beliefs. Many of the beliefs are so varying, they differ from person to person. The most agreed upon beliefs within Hinduism appear to be the four life objectives, such as the Dharma and Moksa. These objective allow individuals to set goals in order to stay moral and one day attain enlightenment in hopes of escaping Samsara, or physical life. Karma, familiar to many Westerners, is also a belief in Hindu culture. It helps explain an individual’s current situation by examining their past behavior. Furthermore, it ...

Sigmund Freud was a medical doctor and neurosurgeon from Austrian, whose served at the University of Vienna and laid a solid foundation in the field and area of psychoanalysis.

1.Binswanger, Ludwig. Sigmund Freud; Reminiscences of a Friendship: Reminiscences of a Friendship. Grune & Stratton, 1957. While perusing through the electronic books on the internet, I discovered that there was an informative source that articulated the kind of friendships that Sigmund Freud had in his lifetime. It a beneficial source because it points to the social life and aspect of a person. (Category II since it was put forth by an acquaintance or a protégé)

2. ...

Question 11 - New World for the Puritans

What is now called the USA was initially the discovered new world of Columbus. Many people decided to build a new life there and travel hundreds of kilometers from their home in the UK or somewhere else in Europe. Some left in search of religious freedom, some – for seeking a new and better life, other were forced to go there either by someone or by the circumstances of their life. This was a new start for all. A new and better world was to be built. Puritans decided it was their calling to build and purify the existing social standards. Small ...

Hinduism, which remains the oldest surviving religion known to man was also the religion practiced by the royal family of Siddhartha Gautama, which confers that the Hindu philosophy of Samsara is the truest and most profound for its spiritual effect on the people of India. Although the Buddha is a wise man who has contributed greatly to humanity with a simplification of the concepts and ideals of the Hindu philosophy; the Buddhist philosophy comes from the ancient teachings of the Hindu religion and texts. One must consider Buddhism as the less complex and elementary version of the Hindu religion, which has ...

Dividing cultures into the eastern (oriental) and western captures not only their geographical location, but also description of methods and ways of knowing the world, values, basic lifestyle, socio-economic and political structures. In contemporary culture by western there is meants European, American and Australian culture, under the eastern - the culture of the countries of Central, South-East Asia, Middle East, North Africa. West is diverse, while East is even more varied; however, these two "opposite" types of culture can have common inherent features. The western and eastern cultures differ in development dynamics. Sociodynamics of the Western culture is ...

The Bhagavad Gita, translated into “Song of the Divine One,” and also sometimes called, “Love Song to God,” is an ancient Sanskrit text. Passed on from the Mahabharata, it consists of a lengthy 700 versus spoken primarily by Krishna, attempting to explain the meaning of life to Arjuna. According to the text, which could also be referred to as a poem, the meaning of life is to find enlightenment, ultimate knowledge of the universe, and inner peace. The poem seeks to pass on the understanding that God is infinite. All beings and things are essential to his energy, and once one ...

“O Me! O Life!” is a free verse poem written in the traditional Walt Whitman style. It explores the old age question that has pre-occupied human existence for ages, the question of life and its meaning. Whitman manages to weave together his free verse form with a dark imagery that portray an individual at odds with their self and their purpose in life. This paper seeks to analyze how Whitman uses his free verse form and literary devices to create a vivid imagery of an individual on a quest to find satisfaction in their existence. The title “O Me! O Life!” has ...

Wit was written by Margaret Edson. This one-act play has won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. It is a story which deals with the medical profession as well as with the culture of education at universities. Both sides are brilliant in this story. Vivian Bearing is represents brilliant academic staff whereas, Doctor Kelekian and Dr Jason Posner represent the brilliant side of medical research. None of them have emotions when it comes to work. The only character which feels empathy for Vivian is the nurse, Susie. She is the only character who is acting humane. Whereas Vivian is strict ...

What is the meaning of life? This question has pre-occupied human existence for ages. This quest for meaning is reflected in scientific expeditions, art, and in most religious gatherings. In “O Me! O Life!” Walt Whitman mocks this human pre-occupation with finding meaning. The fear of not knowing what life is and of being dissatisfied with one’s contribution cripples the spirit of life. Not only does he see human folly in people around him but also in himself. Life has become a “recurring” and “endless” lamentation on sorrow, sorrow that is induced by constant self-flagellation. This paper seeks to ...

Presentation and evaluation of three critical approaches to the poem ‘To His Coy Mistress’ by Andrew Marvell – Analysis of each one of these approaches according to the socio-historical context of the era in which each approach was developed – Reflections drawn upon these three approaches and personal conclusion upon their validity [The author’s name]

Abstract

This research paper will present you with three critical approaches of the existing ones as far as the analysis and interpretation of the poem ‘To His Coy Mistress’ is concerned. The poem was written by Andrew Marvell in the 1650s, which is a literary period ‘ ...

If we are going to search for the final answer of life, it means that we are searching for the purpose of our existence, for the meaning of life. The inquiry regarding the purpose of the life on Earth has been a central topic in our history. It is considered to be an insightful metaphysical inquiry. It is a problem that can affect everyone in upon inquiry in whichever aspect. Answers about the meaning of life can be ‘happiness’, ‘love’ or ‘to live truthfully’. However, if we are going to answer the question metaphysically, we should involve some philosophical principles. ...

In this paper, I will discuss the present-at-hand and the ready-at-hand in Heidegger’s philosophy. Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) is a German philosopher who is often thought of in terms of the Existentialist movement in Continental philosophical tradition, but who did not prefer to be classified as an existentialist (McBride 131). Heidegger concerns himself with the deep metaphysical question of being in his book Being and Time — a job he never completed in his lifetime (Blattner 9). Heidegger has an ambitious project in his book — that is fundamentally to investigate being, a project he feels has been forgotten by philosophers (Heidegger 1). Theologians ...

Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi is a visionary Islamic Persian who lived in the 13th century. His family are known as scholars and spiritual leaders. He was born in a Persian town called Wakhsh which is now part of Tajikistan. He lived his life searching for inner peace, love and purity of the soul which are the contents of almost all of his poems. Although he is an Islam by religion, his writings showed his advocacies in religious pluralism. Rumi did not write any poem suggesting the hierarchy of truths. Rather, his poems are mostly about finding peaceful life by being pure at ...

The issue of the deeper meaning of life in the world of a book or story can easily be gleaned through a story’s tone. In the case of some works of Gothic horror, tone is an excellent way to indicate the helplessness and inexorable darkness at the heart of life. William Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much With Us,” Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein all create dark, sinister tones in their works in different ways, evincing a distinct heaviness and sense of terror lying at the deeper meaning of ...

Every person has its own concept of a good life. It is individual for everybody. In America, there is a notion ‘the American dream’. According to Mark Robert Rank, “it is a road map for the way we often envision the course of our lives” (Rank 1). According to this idea, every American has opportunities to achieve success. The essence of the American dream is that each person has the ability and energy to succeed in life in an honest way. In my opinion, the desire to succeed is one of the main drivers of the good life. In my opinion, ...

Analysis of Selections from Nagel, What Does It All Mean?

Thomas Nagel’s 1987 book, What’s It All Mean?, offers an introduction to philosophical thought. He directs this book toward a person who has never studied philosophy before. He bases his introduction not in the writings of the great philosophers or great thinkers, but instead he offers nine categories of questions for his reader to think about. As he puts it, “The main concern of philosophy is to question and understand very common ideas that all of us use every day without thinking about them” (Nagel 5). By laying out these problems and his ideas about them, Nagel encourages ...

Introduction

It is always nice for an individual to reckon that he has lived a meaningful and purposeful life. This is a statement that most of hope to qualify at one point in our lives, whether presently or later. However, in looking forward to this moment, it is important t comprehend what it entails to live a meaningful and purposeful life. It has been argued that this answer is as varied as the number of people you seek answers from. Nonetheless, this has not stopped philosophers, political leaders and even religious leaders from pondering on the matter. Over the ages, it has been ...

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the aspect of realism in religion. This paper appreciates the coexistence of realists and non realists with respect to their entitled views. However, this tries to examine the aspects of religion that makes it real. These aspects are explained in a way to help one understand the realism in religion. Therefore, this paper in its findings tries to answer the question: Should we be realists or non-realists about religious claims? This paper is guided by the following questions: does realism in religion exist? How can we prove that realism exists in religion? Why should we accept ...

What is the meaning of life for Scrooge at the beginning of the novel, what is the meaning of life for the Bob Cratchit family, what makes them happy; What seems to be Marley's message about freedom, what ways was Scrooge free, was there a progression, what message does this novel have about personal freedom of choice; what is Scrooges' moral character

Introduction:

‘A Christmas Carol’ is perhaps the best known novel by Charles Dickens and is full of incredible comparisons and motifs which permeate it and fill it with a great beauty. The redemption of Scrooge and the comparison with Tiny ...

It is argued that one will never be happy if he/she remains searching what happiness entails. It is further argued that one will never live if he/she is looking what life means. Happiness could be perceived as a spiritual thing. Many of us seek to get this treasure and store and keep it permanently in a safe box. When we think of happiness, we think about having good feeling inside ourselves, or sometime we express our feeling about happiness by describing a range of positive emotions, including joy, pleasure, contentment, and satisfaction (Monkton, 23). Happiness is something that makes life seem significant, ...

The human reality is influenced by the struggles of the human race. These struggles are on the basis of remote forces of necessity and fate. The forces are unresponsive to the human expectations and uncertainties. As such, it is a situation that leads to a conclusion that human beings are ultimately alone and by themselves. Issues of human existence and the meaning of life are pegged on two fundamental paradigms of hero and saint. These archetypes are distinctive paths upon which human beings have traditionally pursued and continue to pursue in their bid to seek answers to the meaning of life. ...

Introduction

Human beings exhibit different traits and react to different situation in as varied ways as there are people. It is hard to describe anyone into a category of human behavior as everyone tends to exhibit varying degrees of each of the big five traits in their behavior. The big five behavior traits, Agreeableness, Extraversion, emotional stability, Conscientiousness, Openness to experience occur in my personality in varying degrees.

Question 1

Extroversion - I would describe myself as extroverted since I like to be assertive on my viewpoints on a majority of issues. I also tend to be talkative and able to start a conversation on ...

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What is the ultimate reality? What is the source of everything?

The problem of the meaning of life - it is a problem of the desired ideal, or the truth. Her understanding of the defined purpose , direction and nature of all human activities . However, the very solution to the issue , if we essentially due to the existential -personal setting man: his freedom , his spiritual and moral condition . On the historical stage three main forces claim to address these issues: religion, philosophy and science. Summarized their responses can be expressed as follows. Religion, which refers to a complete system of beliefs, where the idea of ​​God ...

Life concerns: why is evil happening to good people? What is the meaning of life if good people are rewarded with evil? What’s the essence of living a righteous life when we end up with evil? Existence of evil is an absurd fact. It is contradicting that God exists and lets his people suffer. Evil is anything that is morally objected or undesired and is considered to bring harm or bad feelings among people. Evil ranges from natural calamities to diseases. Logically, evil is supposed to happen to bad people according to Paterson (1998). The fact that bad ...

I was wounded the one first time I considered Why are we here? When I wasn’t concern with The Meaning of Life, I was content. My comfortable state ignorance was reserving prayers for Christmas Eve, and Fantasy creatures peopling my imagination. I questioned nothing and accepted nearly anything for what it was. In short, I took the absurd seriously. Possibility was my rock. It would be the heaviest pebble I should ever keep as I experienced a moment too soon in my adolescence that there was no meaning in life. I became conscious. The adults around me lacked self-meaning, ...

One question that the world will perhaps never stop asking is “what is the meaning of our life?” Every philosopher in one way or another centers their career around answering this question. Is not literature and art just an attempt at either answering this question or of making the case for one possible answer? One common theme is that the answer is not a static turn of phrase, but one that is found through a journey that endeavors to understand. This essay analyzes how that question becomes answered through the journey’s of protagonists in four contemporary novels: Pauhlo Coelho’s “ ...

Appeal to the main stages of development of ethics is reasonable both due to importance of moral issues in the history of human culture and respect for the past, the desire to understand the essence of the moral and ethical issues at the level of current knowledge. The history of ethical ideas shows how the range of ethical issues was created, how their development changes and approaches to their solution, as understanding of the nature of morality gets deeper, as well as its purpose, and functions in life. Ethics originates from ancient times in the epoch of establishing ...

Many of us get easily depressed, frustrated and even overwhelmed by the most inconsiderable misfortunes because we are unsuccessful in finding meaning in the everyday activities of our lives. Even in the situations that make life unbearable, we can find the perseverance to continue and pursue a more fulfilling life if we understand the meaning to our life, learn to love others and find value in our suffering. In his book Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl shows us that for own our mental and physical well being it is necessary that we find our life’s meaning. What makes ...

Both P’Bitek and Rosaldo provide a prospective view of culture as a form of philosophy. The culture norms are formed on the basis of philosophy. P’Bitec believes that culture is “philosophy as lived and celebrated in a society. According to P’Bitek, human being are not like other non-living things like leaves that only depends on other things like wind to be moved. Human lives in organized groups such as clan and family, kingdom and chiefdom among others which adheres to certain religions. The author stand on culture and philosophy is supported by the fact that culture has principles on ...

‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ is a very much acclaimed book, written by internationally distinguished psychiatrist, Victor. E. Frankl who is an Austrian Jew. The author is a holocaust survivor and has witnessed the panic of Nazi rule as he spent several years in the Nazi death camps during the period of World War II. The author in this dark phase of his life learnt some very useful skills and traits of human behavior. He came to know how a man keeps searching the meaning that keeps him motivated in his life. The author as an eminent psychiatrist has developed his own ...

Sooner or later every person wonders what the meaning of life is. Often it happens when there are some troubles in life and when the person feels tired, but I prefer to think about it when everything suits me. I think that when you understand why you live, why your life was given to you, it becomes much easier to live with pleasure and to tale responsibility for your life. In this paper I want to describe my vision of the meaning of life and compare it to some other views on this problem. For me the meaning ...

Abstract

Philosophy can be considered as a kind of social science, e.g. sociology or psychology, because early on philosophy was mainly concerned with telling the best means to live and put the society in order. In this document, we will come across life and describe it in an individual’s own perspective. We will try to learn and understand on epistemology so as to have a clear understanding of how we know anything. The paper will also look at the benefits and meaning of life at our own life perspective so as to have a good image of life. In addition, the paper ...

This article from the Harvard Business Review looks at how the “ single-minded pursuit of wealth often leads smart people to do incredibly stupid things—things that destroy what money can't buy.” . It provides a list of poor decisions, unethical conduct, booms, busts bubbles and the documentary that chronicles some of these events. After that, it explores some of the concepts from book entitled “money and the Meaning of Life” which Jacob Needleman wrote about twenty years ago. In that book Needleman points out that an individual’s personality is basically the same with or without money. He then goes on ...

The internal corrosion of the human mind has fascinated writers from many cultures, but there are few cultures that produced such a broad spectrum of works that analyze the psyche during the nineteenth century as did Russia. When one thinks of tortuous conditions in Russia, one often thinks of the pogroms of Joseph Stalin, as he brutally brought the idealism of the Communist takeover to heel, making the country an immense network of fear and betrayal, as no one person wanted to be the one to inform on his neighborhood, but even less desirable than that was the role of ...

Camus was a philosopher who debated absurdity and the meaning of life. His basic premise is that human life is absurd. According to him, the choices we make as humans about the lives we lead are verging on the ridiculous. He theorises, however, that the combination of human beings and the universe are what make both absurd. While Camus has some valid points within this topic, the only solution appears to be abolishing the application of reason to the universe, which is impossible to do due to the intrinsic connection between human beings and reason and, therefore, absurdity seems impossible ...

Meaning of Life

I am sure that everyone thinks over the questions of life meaning from time to time, someone more seriously, while others just in a matter-of-fact way. One of the characteristic features of such questions is that answers to them are constantly changing along with the way a person evolves and develops. Moreover, this question is largely influenced by the person’s environment and the time period, in which he/she lives. Although there are major differences between different world views, it is possible to single out certain tendencies in the life meaning perceptions that are prevalent among people. And these tendencies don’ ...

How an Animal Cell Survives

Although the animal cell is similar in many ways to eukaryotic as well as some few eukaryotic cells, there are strikingly large differences between them, especially the requirements for survival in various environments (Baitsell, 2008). The animal cell is one of the members of eukaryotic cell category, whose structure is quite complicated by the organelles present as well as the diverse functions they play towards the survival of the cell and the organism in general (Solomon, Berg, & Martin, 2004). The cell structure is defined by a plasma membrane that bounds a number of organelles, all of which function towards the ...