When most people think about philosophy they think of stoners pondering their existence as they pass the bong. Philosophy is rigorous and as objective as the logic that structures it. Because of the precise nature of philosophy, a huge majority of those stoner conversations are illogical to begin with. Take for example the most cliché one that might pop in your head: What is the meaning of life?
“Dude, the meaning of life is to chilllll... and like help others or some shit” – Some stoner who forgot his own name
Unfortunately, that is not the right answer; in fact, there can’t be a right answer! The question itself is ill defined. Asking, “What is the meaning of life,” presupposes that there is a meaning to life. So lets change the question around:
“Is there a meaning to life?” – Slightly smarter stoner
The answer to this question is a big no because it too presupposes something, but more implicitly than our previous question. Before I reveal what it falsely assumes, we need to exam what ‘meaning’ means.
Humans have evolved categorical memory, i.e. they have the ability to categorize objects in their memory in a hierarchal manner. Your memory of things looks something like this:
Stuff I do when Hungry --> Eat Food --> Cheeseburger --> No Onions
This is obviously a very rough outline of how we think, but it illustrates how we perceive objects meaningfully. A Cheeseburger is meaningless without a human to assert meaning onto it. In my example, the meaning of the cheeseburger is a food I want to eat because I am hungry. There is no one meaning for an objects and varies between person to person. For example, some people might categorize a cheeseburger as something they like to draw instead.
The key insight from this example is that meaning is a human perception of objects. The meaning of an object doesn’t exist without a human to impose that meaning onto the object. Going back to our question, we ask if there is a meaning to life. The question asks if there is something beyond humans that imposes meaning for our lives. Meaning is a human perception of objects. Assuming there is a meaning to our lives is also assuming there is an omniscient being that asserted a meaning for the lives of humans. Unless you believe in God, you will agree that there is nothing out there in the universe that can impose meaning on our lives.
Yup, life is meaningless.
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8 comments:
I do believe there is a God, so I guess that means there is meaning for my life. However, what do you think about people imposing meaning on each other. I mean, if we can impose meaning on a cheeseburger, what is to stop us from doing the same to our fellow humans? I kind of liked what you wrote, yet, I can't help but think you did not finish the thought.
Well of course we can impose meaning on others, just like we do to a cheeseburger. But remember, imposing meaning is just the way you perceive that friend. The same way you can smell, feel, or hear him, you can also impose meaning on him. The meaning you impose on others is artificial (made by you) and could be different through someone else's point of view.
If you believe in God it only means you *think* there is a meaning to life. Contradicting that assumption I would have to get in the discussion of why there is no God, but I guess I'll leave that for another blog entry.
Of course Life has meaning.
It has the meaning you give it, the meaning you bestow it when you breath life into the things you care about.
You create your own life, and you are responsible for how meaningful or meaningless your own life is, by your own actions, by your own interactions with other people, and the greater world around you.
If you do not give meaning and value to the world around you, the the world WILL be meaningless and valueless for YOU.
Your world is what you create for yourself, and others, even if you start with a god-forsaken desert, or a blasted and deserted battlefield.
Unfortunately for some, the world only has meaning if they destroy and kill and murder and pillage and plunder their fellows. The path through such madness and transcending such madness means creating something worthwhile for all
Ema,
I think you are missing the point of my article. You cannot even begin to answer the question of whether life has meaning. You might think that you can answer, but you are only giving yourself an illusion that your life possess meaning. Just like you give meaning to a cheeseburger, you can give meaning to yourself. The meaning for the cheeseburger is just as artificial as the one you give for your life!
I think you're leaving out a quite big aspect here. I do agree with you about your cheeseburger-reasoning, and you seem like a reasonable guy about objective reality. Therefore, don't forget that everything that exist also exist as something. Everything has and acts according to it's nature, including life.
Every living organism struggles to preserve it's nature, i.e. it's life, although humans have the choice not to, meaning every human being should struggle to preserve it's life. Every action, when we're speaking of moral volition, is morally and practically acceptable when it's beneficial for our nature.
When an individual has her life intact, she's also able to value. This is where I agree with you, since without reasoning life, no values can exist. To choose to live, and to have reasonable values from there, is the moral goal of our actions, which also makes it the philosophical guide through life. Agreed, nobody else (i.e. God) has put a meaning to our existence, but still it's in our nature to live, which is why I see sustaining life itself and to act beneficial for yourself from there as the meaning of your existence. That's all from me.
guice,
It seems as if you are describing a justification for your moral code. Just like any behavior or choice has no divine meaning to it. The only meaning you bring to your actions in the backdrop of a goal or objective you constructed. For example, if I am playing soccer, dribbling the ball has meaning, in that it will lead me to win the game.
Why should moral behavior stand out from any other action we have? As humans we have an innate survival instinct. Our bodies want us to survive, the actions we do to keep us alive are meaningful in that sense. Being an ethical person may not directly affect your survival, but it does so indirectly. With common ethics in a society, the society has a better chance of surviving, and man cannot exist without a society. Ethics could just be something we evolved with; societies that don't kill each other don't die out.
I couldnt agree with you more. I do feel there is no meaning to life except what you give it. Like in the cheeseburger example, any object has a purpose as long as something else gives it use. for instance my telefone is for speaking. but if i dont know how to speak or if there is no one to use it or able to, then that object is useless. Therefore, useless for me, meaningless because its meaning, the way it was created was for a use. no use, no meaning. Now, we were created for just the use of being alive, and that should be it.
Get a meaning if you'd like, but i see that there is no meaning to life if you define meaning in the same sense you would define a telephone.
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