Philosophy Now Forum

duszek wrote:Perhaps by the meaning of life they mean ...

What do I live for ?
Shall I just eat, drink, make merry, procreate and die ?

To most living species that is the end all be all. Is man more than that?

thedoc wrote:

duszek wrote:Perhaps by the meaning of life they mean ...

What do I live for ?
Shall I just eat, drink, make merry, procreate and die ?

To most living species that is the end all be all. Is man more than that?

No.

I took it from the angle of a personal meaning.

reasonvemotion wrote:Does this credit go to you or me.

Gibran also said something like" "You ask me whether I love you more than I love myself, and you may walk away embittered when I answer 'no'.
But you are myself."

The meaning of life revolves around the philosophical as well as religious concepts of social ties, existence, happiness and consciousness. Also, In Platonism, the meaning of life is in attaining the highest form of knowledge, which is the Idea of the Good, from which all good and just things derive utility and value. Human beings are duty-bound to pursue the good.

thedoc wrote:

Impenitent wrote:42

-Imp

NO, that is the answer to the 'ultimate question of life, the Universe, and everything' which may include 'meaning', but it was not stated in the rather vague question as presented. This was all hashed out on another thread.

indeed...

fish for everyone...

-Imp

The Meaning of Life?

DNA consuming DNA in a twisted bid to propagate a close match to its own DNA...

The Meaning of Life:

The condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.

vegetariantaxidermy wrote:I've never been able to work out what the superstitious mean by 'meaning of life'. Why should it have any 'meaning'?

Because we want it to. Is that not reason enough? Everybody wants to live a meaningful life one way or another.

Notvacka wrote:

vegetariantaxidermy wrote:I've never been able to work out what the superstitious mean by 'meaning of life'. Why should it have any 'meaning'?

Because we want it to. Is that not reason enough? Everybody wants to live a meaningful life one way or another.

You did not want to be born, so would you want Life to have meaning?
There is a difference between "The Meaning of Life", and you making your life meaningful to youself.

chaz wyman wrote:There is a difference between "The Meaning of Life", and you making your life meaningful to youself.

I'm aware of that.

But even if such an obective, absolute (The) Meaning of Life somehow exists, you have to find it yourself. And once you found it, how can you be sure that you didn't just make it up?

Notvacka wrote:

chaz wyman wrote:There is a difference between "The Meaning of Life", and you making your life meaningful to youself.

I'm aware of that.

But even if such an obective, absolute (The) Meaning of Life somehow exists, you have to find it yourself. And once you found it, how can you be sure that you didn't just make it up?

You know you make it up because you thought of it.
How would you find such a thing; where would such a thing be.

A wonderful book Man's search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, outlines his theory that there is a strong relationship between meaningless and depression. He argues that in the absence of meaning, people fill the void with hedonistic pleasures, power, materialism, hatred, boredom or neurotic obsessions. He concluded that the philospher Nietzsche had it right, "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how", (Nietzsche, quoted in 1963, p. 121).

In Man's Search for Meaning, he says this: "...everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." (1963, p. 104)

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reasonvemotion wrote:A wonderful book Man's search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, outlines his theory that there is a strong relationship between meaningless and depression. He argues that in the absence of meaning, people fill the void with hedonistic pleasures, power, materialism, hatred, boredom or neurotic obsessions. He concluded that the philospher Nietzsche had it right, "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how", (Nietzsche, quoted in 1963, p. 121).

In Man's Search for Meaning, he says this: "...everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." (1963, p. 104)

.

For many hedonism, consumerism, materialism can all provide enough meaning and are selected in preference to religion, or pursued along with it.
Obviously they are 'empty', but they fill a gap.
In 100 years time whatever it might be that we had chosen to make our life meaningful, shall be meaningless.
I think the real link in not between void filling meanings and depression, but the realisation that whatever it is we had once pursued thoughtfully or thoughtlessly, is shown to be absurd.
However, according to Camus, the engagement with that absurdity is the first step to living an authentic life. The trick is to overcome the depression, as on the other side is your authenticity.
If you never realise that you life is absurd you will never live it fully. The realisation of mortality is the root of living a courageous life, knowing that it will end in death is empowering, enabling risk and adventure.

and love