10/11/2014 What Is The Meaning Of Life?

| Issue 59 | Philosophy Now

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2. The Death of
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Question of the Month
What Is The Meaning Of Life?
The following answers to this central philosophical question each win a
random book. Sorry if your answer doesnt appear: we received enough
to fill twelve pages
Why are we here? Do we serve a greater purpose beyond the pleasure or satisfaction
we get from our daily activities however mundane or heroic they may be? Is the
meaning of life internal to life, to be found inherently in lifes many activities, or is it
external, to be found in a realm somehow outside of life, but to which life leads? In
the internal view its the satisfaction and happiness we gain from our actions that
justify life. This does not necessarily imply a selfish code of conduct. The external
interpretation commonly makes the claim that there is a realm to which life leads
after death. Our life on earth is evaluated by a supernatural being some call God,
who will assign to us some reward or punishment after death. The meaning of our
life, its purpose and justification, is to fulfill the expectations of God, and then to
receive our final reward. But within the internal view of meaning, we can argue that
meaning is best found in activities that benefit others, the community, or the Earth
as a whole. Its just that the reward for these activities has to be found here, in the
satisfactions that they afford within this life, instead of in some external spirit realm.
An interesting way to contrast the internal and external views is to imagine walking
through a beautiful landscape. Your purpose in walking may be just to get
somewhere else you may think theres a better place off in the distance. In this
case the meaning of your journey through the landscape is external to the
experience of the landscape itself. On the other hand, you may be intensely
interested in what the landscape holds. It may be a forest, or it may contain farms,
villages. You may stop along the way, study, learn, converse, with little thought
about why you are doing these things other than the pleasure they give you. You
may stop to help someone who is sick: in fact, you may stay many years, and found
a hospital. What then is the meaning of your journey? Is it satisfying or worthwhile
only if you have satisfied an external purpose only if it gets you somewhere else?
Why, indeed, cannot the satisfactions and pleasures of the landscape, and of your
deeds, be enough?
Greg Studen, Novelty, Ohio
A problem with this question is that it is not clear what sort of answer is being looked
for. One common rephrasing is What is it that makes life worth living?. There are
any number of subjective answers to this question. Think of all the reasons why you
are glad you are alive (assuming you are), and there is the meaning of your life.
Some have attempted to answer this question in a more objective way: that is to
have an idea of what constitutes the good life. It seems reasonable to say that some
ways of living are not conducive to human flourishing. However, I am not convinced
that there is one right way to live. To suggest that there is demonstrates not so
much arrogance as a lack of imagination.
Another way of rephrasing the question is What is the purpose of life? Again we all
have our own subjective purposes but some would like to think there is a higher
purpose provided for us, perhaps by a creator. It is a matter of debate whether this
would make life a thing of greater value or turn us into the equivalent of rats in a
laboratory experiment. Glosters statement in King Lear comes to mind: As flies to
wanton boys we are to the gods they kill us for their sport. But why does there
have to be a purpose to life separate from those purposes generated within it? The
idea that life needs no external justification has been described movingly by Richard
Taylor. Our efforts may ultimately come to nothing but the day was sufficient to
itself, and so was the life. (Good and Evil, 1970) In the why are we here? sense of
the question there is no answer. It would be wrong, however, to conclude that life is
meaningless. Life is meaningful to humans, therefore it has meaning.
Rebecca Linton, Leicester
When the question is in the singular we search for that which ties all values together
in one unity, traditionally called the good. Current consideration of the good
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demands a recognition of the survival crises which confront mankind. The threats of
nuclear war, environmental poisoning and other possible disasters make it necessary
for us to get it right. For if Hannah Arendt was correct concerning the banality of evil which affected so
many Nazi converts and contaminated the German population by extension, we may agree with her that both
Western rational philosophy and Christian teaching let the side down badly in the 20th century.
If we then turn away from Platos philosophy, balanced in justice, courage, moderation and wisdom; from
Jewish justice and Christian self-denial; if we recognize Kants failure to convince populations to keep his
three universal principles, then shall we look to the moral relativism of the Western secular minds which
admired Nietzsche? Stalins purges of his own constituents in the USSR tainted this relativist approach to the
search for the good. Besides, if nothing is absolute, but things have value only relative to other things, how
do we get a consensus on the best or the worst? What makes your social mores superior to mine and why
should I not seek to destroy your way? We must also reject any hermit, monastic, sect or other loner criteria
for the good life. Isolation will not lead to any long-term harmony or peace in the Global Village.
If with Nietzsche we ponder on the need for power in ones life, but turn in the opposite direction from his
superman ideal, we will come to some form of the Golden Rule [Do unto others as you would have them do
unto you]. However, we must know this as an experiential reality. There is life-changing power in putting
oneself in the place of the other person and feeling for and with them. We call this feeling empathy.
Persons who concentrate on empathy should develop emotional intelligence. When intellectual intelligence
does not stand in the way of this kind of personal growth, but contributes to it, we can call this balance
maturity. Surely the goal or meaning of human life is therefore none other than finding oneself becoming a
mature adult free to make ones own decisions, yet wanting everyone in the world to have this same
advantage. This is good!
Ernie Johns, Owen Sound, Ontario
Meaning is a word referring to what we have in mind as signification, and it relates to intention and
purpose. Life is applied to the state of being alive; conscious existence. Mind, consciousness, words and
what they signify, are thus the focus for the answer to the question. What seems inescapable is that there is
no meaning associated with life other than that acquired by our consciousness, inherited via genes,
developed and given content through memes (units of culture). The meanings we believe life to have are
then culturally and individually diverse. They may be imposed through hegemony; religious or secular,
benign or malign; or identified through deliberate choice, where this is available. The range is vast and
diverse; from straightforward to highly complex. Meaning for one person may entail supporting a football
team; for another, climbing higher and higher mountains; for another, being a parent; for another, being
moved by music, poetry, literature, dance or painting; for another the pursuit of truth through philosophy;
for another through religious devotions, etc. But characteristic of all these examples is a consciousness that
is positively and constructively absorbed, engaged, involved, fascinated, enhanced and fulfilled. I would
exclude negative and destructive desires; for example of a brutal dictator who may find torturing others
absorbing and engaging and thus meaningful. Such cases would be too perverse and morally repugnant to
regard as anything other than pathological.
The meaning of life for individuals may diminish or fade as a consequence of decline or difficult or tragic
circumstances. Here it might, sadly, be difficult to see any meaning of life at all. The meaning is also likely to
change from one phase of life to another, due to personal development, new interests, contexts,
commitments and maturity.
Colin Brookes, Woodhouse Eaves, Leicestershire
It is clearly internet shopping, franchised fast food and surgically-enhanced boobs. No, this is not true. I
think the only answer is to strip back every layer of the physical world, every learnt piece of knowledge,
almost everything that seems important in our modern lives. All thats left is simply existence. Life is
existence: it seems good to be part of life. But really thats your lot! We should just be thankful that our
lifespan is longer than, say, a spider, or your household mog.
Our over-evolved human minds want more, but unfortunately there is nothing more. And if there is some
deity or malignant devil, then you can be sure theyve hidden any meaning pretty well and we wont see it in
our mortal lives. So, enjoy yourself; be nice to people, if you like; but theres no more meaning than
someone with surgically-enhanced boobs, shopping on the net while eating a Big Mac.
Simon Maltman, By email
To ask What is the meaning of life? is a poor choice of words and leads to obfuscation rather than clarity.
Why so?
To phrase the question in this fashion implies that meaning is something that inheres in an object or
experience that it is a quality which is as discernible as the height of a door or the solidity of matter. That
is not what meaning is like. It is not a feature of a particular thing, but rather the relationship between a
perceiver and a thing, a subject and an object, and so requires both. There is no one meaning of, say, a
poem, because meaning is generated by it being read and thought about by a subject. As subjects differ so
does the meaning: different people evaluate ideas and concepts in different ways, as can be seen from
ethical dilemmas. But it would be wrong to say that all these meanings are completely different, as there are
similarities between individuals, not least because we belong to the same species and are constructed and
programmed in basically the same way. We all have feelings of fear, attachment, insecurity and passion, etc.
So to speak of the meaning of life, is an error. It would be more correct to refer to the meanings of life,
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but as there are currently around six billion humans on Earth, and new psychological and cultural variations
coming into being all the time, to list and describe all of these meanings would be a nigh on impossible task.
To find meaning in life is a better way of approaching the issue, ie, whilst there is no single meaning of life,
every person can live their life in a way which brings them as much fulfilment and contentment as possible.
To use utilitarian language, the best that one can hope for is a life which contains as great an excess of
pleasure over pain as possible, or alternatively, a life in which as least time as possible is devoted to
activities which do not stimulate, or which do nothing to promote the goals one has set for oneself.
Steve Else, Swadlincote, Derbyshire
The meaning of life is not being dead.
Tim Bale, London
The question is tricky because of its hidden premise that life has meaning per se. A perfectly rational if
discomforting position is given by Nietzsche, that someone in the midst of living is not in a position to discern
whether it has meaning or not, and since we cannot step outside of the process of living to assess it, this is
therefore not a question that bears attention.
However, if we choose to ignore the difficulties of evaluating a condition while inside it, perhaps one has to
ask the prior question, what is the meaning of meaning? Is meaning given by the greater cosmos? Or do we
in our freedom construct the category meaning and then fill in the contours and colours? Is meaning always
identical with purpose? I might decide to dedicate my life to answering this particular question, granting
myself an autonomously devised purpose. But is this identical with the meaning of my life? Or can I live a
meaningless life with purpose? Or shall meaning be defined by purpose? Some metaphysics offer exactly this
corollary that in pursuing ones proper good, and thus ones meaning, one is pursuing ones telos or
purpose. The point of these two very brief summaries of approaches to the question is to show the hazards
in this construction of the question.
Karen Zoppa, The University of Winnipeg
One thing one can hardly fail to notice about life is that it is self-perpetuating. Palaeontology tells us that life
has been perpetuating itself for billions of years. What is the secret of this stunning success? Through natural
selection, life forms adapt to their environment, and in the process they acquire, one might say they
become, knowledge about that environment, the world in which they live and of which they are part. As
Konrad Lorenz put it, Life itself is a process of acquiring knowledge. According to this interpretation of
evolution, the very essence of life (its meaning?) is the pursuit of knowledge: knowledge about the real world
that is constantly tested against that world. What works and is in that sense true, is perpetuated. Life is
tried and proven knowledge that has withstood the test of geological time. From this perspective, adopting
the pursuit of knowledge as a possible meaning of ones life seems, literally, a natural choice. The history of
science and philosophy is full of examples of people who have done just that, and in doing so they have
helped human beings to earn the self-given title of Homo sapiens man of knowledge.
Axel Winter, Wynnum, Queensland
Life is a stage and we are the actors, said William Shakespeare, possibly recognizing that life quite
automatically tells a story just as any play tells a story. But we are more than just actors; we are the
playwright too, creating new script with our imaginations as we act in the ongoing play. Life is therefore
storytelling. So the meaning of life is like the meaning of the play in principle: not a single play with its plot
and underlying values and information, but the meaning behind the reason for there being plays with
playwright, stage, actors, props, audience, and theatre. The purpose of the play is self-expression, the
playwrights effort to tell a story. Life, a grand play written with mankinds grand imagination, has this same
purpose.
But besides being the playwright, you are the audience too, the recipient of the playwrights messages. As
playwright, actor, and audience you are an heir to both growth and self-expression. Your potential for
acquiring knowledge and applying it creatively is unlimited. These two concepts may be housed under one
roof: Liberty. Liberty is the freedom to think and to create. Give me liberty or give me death, said Patrick
Henry, for without liberty life has no meaningful purpose. But with liberty life is a joy. Therefore liberty is the
meaning of life.
Ronald Bacci, Napa, CA
The meaning of life is understood according to the beliefs that people adhere to. However, all human belief
systems are accurate or inaccurate to varying degrees in their description of the world. Moreover, belief
systems change over time: from generation to generation; from culture to culture; and era to era. Beliefs
that are held today, even by large segments of the population, did not exist yesterday and may not exist
tomorrow. Belief systems, be they religious or secular, are therefore arbitrary. If the meaning of life is
wanted, a meaning that will transcend the test of time or the particulars of individual beliefs, then an effort
to arrive at a truly objective determination must be made. So in order to eliminate the arbitrary, belief
systems must be set aside. Otherwise, the meaning of life could not be determined.
Objectively however, life has no meaning because meaning or significance cannot be obtained without
reference to some (arbitrary) belief system. Absent a subjective belief system to lend significance to life, one
is left with the stuff of life, which, however offers no testimony as to its meaning. Without beliefs to draw
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meaning from, life has no meaning, but is merely a thing; a set of facts that, in and of themselves, are silent
as to what they mean. Life consists of a series of occurrences in an infinite now, divorced of meaning except
for what may be ascribed by constructed belief systems. Without such beliefs, for many the meaning of life is
nothing.
Surely, however, life means something. And indeed it does when an individual willfully directs his/her
consciousness at an aspect of life, deriving from it an individual interpretation, and then giving this
interpretation creative expression. Thus the meaning in the act of giving creative expression to what may be
ephemeral insights. Stated another way, the meaning of life is an individuals acts of creation. What, exactly
is created, be it artistic or scientific, may speak to the masses, or to nobody, and may differ from individual
to individual. The meaning of life, however, is not the thing created, but the creative act itself; namely, that
of willfully imposing an interpretation onto the stuff of life, and projecting a creative expression from it.
Raul Casso, Laredo, Texas
Rather than prattle on and then discover that I am merely deciding what meaning means, I will start out
with the assumption that by meaning we mean purpose. And because I fear that purpose implies a
Creator, I will say best purpose. So what is the best purpose for which I can live my life? The best purpose
for which I can live my life is, refusing all the easy ways to destroy. This is not as simple as it sounds.
Refusing to destroy life to murder wouldnt just depend on our lack of homicidal impulses, but also on our
willingness to devote our time to finding out which companies have murdered union uprisers; to finding out
whether animals are killed out of need or greed or ease; to finding the best way to refuse to fund military
murder, if we find our military to be murdering rather than merely protecting. Refusing to destroy resources,
to destroy loves, to destroy rights, turns out to be a full-time job. Oh sure, we can get cocky and say Well,
oughtnt we destroy injustice? Or bigotry? Or hatred? But we would be only fooling ourselves. Theyre all
already negatives: to destroy injustice, bigotry, and hatred is to refuse the destruction of justice,
understanding, and love. So, it turns out, we finally say Yes to life, when we come out with a resounding,
throat-wrecking NO!
Carrie Snider, By email
I propose that the knowledge we have now accumulated about life discloses quite emphatically that we are
entirely a function of certain basic laws as they operate in the probably unique conditions prevailing here on
Earth.
The behaviour of the most elementary forms of matter we know, subatomic particles, seems to be guided by
four fundamental forces, of which electromagnetism is probably the most significant here, in that through the
attraction and repulsion of charged particles it allows an almost infinite variation of bonding: it allows atoms
to form molecules, up the chain to the molecules of enormous length and complexity we call as nucleic acids,
and proteins. All these are involved in a constant interaction with surrounding chemicals through constant
exchanges of energy. From these behaviour patterns we can deduce certain prime drives or purposes of
basic matter, namely:
1. Combination (bonding).
2. Survival of the combination, and of any resulting organism.
3. Extension of the organism, usually by means of replication.
4. Acquisition of energy.
Since these basic drives motivate everything that were made of, all the energy, molecules and chemistry
that form our bodies, our brains and nervous systems, then whatever we think, say and do is a function of
the operation of those basic laws Therefore everything we think, say and do will be directed towards our
survival, our replication and our demand for energy to fuel these basic drives. All our emotions and our
rational thinking, our loves and hates, our art, science and engineering are refinements of these basic drives.
The underlying drive for bonding inspires our need for interaction with other organisms, particularly other
human beings, as we seek ever wider and stronger links conducive to our better survival. Protection and
extension of our organic integrity necessitates our dependence on and interaction with everything on Earth.
Our consciousness is also necessarily a function of these basic drives, and when the chemistry of our cells
can no longer operate due to disease, ageing or trauma, we lose consciousness and die. Since I believe we
are nothing more than physics and chemistry, death terminates our life once and for all. There is no God,
there is no eternal life. But optimistically, there is the joy of realising that we have the power of nature within
us, and that by co-operating with our fellow man, by nurturing the resources of the world, by fighting
disease, starvation, poverty and environmental degradation, we can all conspire to improve life and celebrate
not only its survival on this planet, but also its proliferation. So the purpose of life is just that: to involve all
living things in the common purpose of promoting and enjoying what we are a wondrous expression of the
laws of Nature, the power of the Universe.
Peter F. Searle, Topsham, Devon
What is the meaning of life? is hard to get a solid grip on. One possible translation of it is What does it all
mean? One might spend a lifetime trying to answer such a heady question. Answering it requires providing
an account of the ultimate nature of the world, our minds, value and how all these natures interrelate. Id
prefer to offer a rather simplistic answer to a possible interpretation of our question. When someone asks
What is the meaning of life?, they may mean What makes life meaningful? This is a question I believe
one can get a grip on without developing a systematic philosophy.
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The answer I propose is actually an old one. What makes a human life have meaning or significance is not
the mere living of a life, but reflecting on the living of a life.
Even the most reflective among us get caught up in pursuing ends and goals. We want to become fitter; we
want to read more books; we want to make more money. These goal-oriented pursuits are not meaningful or
significant in themselves. What makes a life filled with them either significant or insignificant is reflecting on
why one pursues those goals. This is second-order reflection; reflection on why one lives the way one does.
But it puts one in a position to say that ones life has meaning or does not.
One discovers this meaning or significance by evaluating ones life and meditating on it; by taking a step
back from the everyday and thinking about ones life in a different way. If one doesnt do this, then ones life
has no meaning or significance. And that isnt because one has the wrong sorts of goals or ends, but rather
has failed to take up the right sort of reflective perspective on ones life. This comes close to Socrates
famous saying that the unexamined life is not worth living. I would venture to say that the unexamined life
has no meaning.
Casey Woodling, Gainesville, FL
For the sake of argument, lets restrict the scope of the discussion to the human species, and narrow down
the choices to
1) There is no meaning of life, we simply exist;
2) To search for the meaning of life; and
3) To share an intimate connection with humankind: the notion of love.
Humans are animals with an instinct for survival. At a basic level, this survival requires food, drink, rest and
procreation. In this way, the meaning of life could be to continue the process of evolution. This is manifested
in the modern world as the daily grind.
Humans also have the opportunity and responsibility of consciousness. With our intellect comes curiosity,
combined with the means to understand complex problems. Most humans have, at some point, contemplated
the meaning of life. Some make it a lifes work to explore this topic. For them and those like them, the
question may be the answer.
Humans are a social species. We typically seek out the opposite sex to procreate. Besides the biological urge
or desire, there is an interest in understanding others. We might simply gain pleasure in connecting with
someone in an intimate way. Whatever the specific motivation, there is something that we crave, and that is
to love and be loved.
The meaning of life may never be definitively known. The meaning of life may be different for each individual
and/or each species. The truth of the meaning of life is likely in the eye of the beholder. There were three
choices given at the beginning of this essay, and for me, the answer is all of the above.
Jason Hucsek, San Antonio, TX
Next Question of the Month
The next question is: What Is The Nature Of Reality? Answers should be less than 400 words. Subject lines
or envelopes should be marked Question Of The Month. You will be edited.
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