Philosophy Now Forum

I think this topic important enough to start its own thread...

the ''human condition''... that is the name we give to what it
means to be human...we call it a ''condition'', but what does
this ''condition'' mean, exactly?

We human beings are being looking to find, and hold, what is
the meaning of our existence.... that is the entire point of
Philosophy... and theology and such disciplines as history, economics,
science, biology.. to name a few... the question of being human is
the question of finding meaning in both our individual and collective lives....

and some existentialist, have suggested that there is no meaning in life,
and they have worked out some implications for that belief...Camus
for example...and Nietzsche... in a no-god world, where do we get
meaning from? Camus for example suggested that we can get meaning
from our own activities... that in our various actions, we can find meaning...

Capitalism is predicated on workers finding meaning in their daily work...
including the ''myth of Sisyphus'' aspect that is so prevalent in our modern
day workplace.. that I find meaning in my day-to-day life of ''Sisyphean''
or never ended work... there is no ending in my work... just a constant
grind of helping people, at self checkout, scanning their groceries...
my job is factory lite work... with a never-ending stream of groceries
and people...

and where do I find meaning in that endless movement of groceries
and people?
and many will say, but Kropotkin, you can find meaning if you try hard
enough.... but the fact is there is no meaning in my job.. just endless
drudgery...but Kropotkin, the pay or the honor or just having a job
should be enough.... and once again, we are reaching to find meaning
where none exists... the need to find meaning where none exists,
is a very, very human trait... not everything we do, has meaning or
purpose.... not everything that exists, has to have meaning or purpose....

for much of life revolves around this question of randomness and chaos...
we are, and I hesitate to use the word victim, but we are quite
often victims of randomness... my hearing loss was due to a series
of random events... we fall into jobs and meeting people who later
become very significant in our lives by chance, randomness...
this problem of our random universe creates some series
problems for the question of our finding meaning and purpose
in life.... when our lives can be so severely changed or modified,
by randomness, chance, I would be hard pressed to claim that
there is some meaning in our existence...

if your life can be upended by chance or randomness, what
meaning can we find in that randomness/chance?

now some say the biological imperative is to continue the human race,
to have children and continue the human species is the only meaning in
life...for that seems to be the only lesson we can learn from nature...
the drive to perpetuate the species seems to be a biological imperative...
implanted by biology, evolution...

if there is any type of meaning in our lives, that seems to be it...
at all costs, continue the species.. and now we are learning the bitter
truth from that commandment... that we are killing the planet with
overpopulation and worldwide genocide of animals, reptiles and plants..
our current age has been called the 6th extinction event in history...
and this extinction event has been caused by human beings...
does this extinction event give us any more meaning than we had before?

I don't see how.... look at the daily rat race around us.. around me, there
is massive amount of building office space and apartments and condos...
practically every block downtown has some new building going up...
and yet, the official office vacancy rate is close to 19% in my area...
how does that make any sense? everyone is throwing up condo's and
apartments but they do nothing for the infrastructure around those
condo's and apartments....I can see a future where my happy little
city will become problematic due to the lack of infrastructure...

and then we return to the question at hand.... how do these massive
building projects create meaning and purpose in our lives?

and the question still remains... how do we find meaning and
purpose in our lives? given the massive repetition in our lives..
in our work, in our daily routine.... think of your life, and note
that your days are simply repeats of yesterday and the day before
and the day before... how do we find meaning in the daily
repetition of our lives?

where in your life do you find meaning and purpose?

Kropotkin

many will find meaning in matters of spirit... in theological and
transcendent things...things outside of the physical, metaphysical
things that operate outside of our bodies and lives....

but how can I have faith in those matters that I cannot
see, hear, taste, touch or smell? If it lays outside of the senses,
how can I even imagine it to be true?

and the other problem is the fact much, much of our beliefs are
in things that don't have any bearing on meaning and purpose of
our lives.... a good deal of the human knowledge is knowledge like
Abe Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States...
but does that information give us any type of meaning or purpose?
I don't see how.... that the average human beings has roughly
206 bones is interesting but doesn't give us any type of meaning or purpose
about existence... much of science is facts about something, but
those facts don't lead us to a greater understanding of what it
means to be human or to our own meaning.....

(for me, philosophy was founded, discovered by doubt, not
wonder.. the very initial question of philosophy is, why am I here?
and theology and science and politics and government and every single
discipline of the schools, are all founded on this question of doubt, why am I here?)

for me, the only question worth asking is the question of, why am I here?
all other questions, and answers, stem from this one question...
and as there appears not to be a universal, common answer to all
human beings, as to our meaning, then the timeless answers usually
given, are not valid..

the question of meaning appears to be an individual one, not
a universal question... and the answer, if there is one, is
personal, individual, private....

Kropotkin

Peter Kropotkin wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 4:25 pm
where in your life do you find meaning and purpose?

Kropotkin

'meaning' in dictionaries and thoughts, and, 'purpose' in understanding and knowing.

the quest to find meaning and purpose often lead one to
what clearly cannot be proven, the hope of metaphysics giving
us meaning and purpose.. that the existence of god or some other
metaphysical response, can offer us some meaning or purpose....

to do so is to reduce us to nothing more than reading the entails of
sheep or finding our meaning in astrology or a bottle of Whiskey....
(and frankly given a choice, I would rather find meaning in a bottle
of Whiskey, then god)

and given the difficulties of navigating life, the terrible choices
we face as human beings, I just can't see our meaning and purpose
to be so easily found in some metaphysical being we can't
find with our senses... if life is difficult, then it would stand to reason,
that finding meaning and purpose would also be just as difficult...

but let us be bold and daring and suggest that finding meaning
and purpose is not part of the human agenda... that we can go
through life without knowing what our meaning and purpose is....

as we often told our daughter, just pick a direction and go...
right or wrong is irrelevant ... to just moving in a direction
is what matters... the meaning and purpose of existence will
find you if, if that is really true...or to say it another way,
we can create our own meaning and purpose....
but not in our current economic and political systems...

how can we find meaning and purpose in a system that is designed to
take away your very freedoms and choices... I have often wondered
how the slaves of the South, found meaning and purpose in their
slavery? How do slaves find meaning and purpose?

Kropotkin

Peter Kropotkin wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 7:22 pm how can we find meaning and purpose in a system that is designed to
take away your very freedoms and choices... I have often wondered
how the slaves of the South, found meaning and purpose in their
slavery? How do slaves find meaning and purpose?

Kropotkin

Whatever is purpose, meaning, reality, truths, facts, knowledge and objectivity is conditioned upon an embodied human-based Framework and System of Emergence & Realization of Reality and Cognition {Knowledge}. [FSRC]

The fact is the fundamental purpose and meaning of life are inherently programmed in the DNA within all humans, just like all other non-humans; the only difference is humans has [comparatively] the highest degree of self-awareness and self-consciousness [all that related to these].

As such, purpose and meaning spontaneously emerged within all living things involuntarily driven by an internal inherent neural algorithm but with none and different degrees of self-awareness from bacteria to insects to reptiles to animals to humans.
This is why even slaves under the worst conditions will strive to survive driven by the fundamental inherent meaning and purpose.
Any loss of purpose and meaning is due to the under-development or damage to the neural algorithm.

For humans with a higher self-awareness and cognitive power, they have the potential and ability to understand their inherent purpose and meaning and make life more meaningful toward the inherent purpose [biological teleology] with an effective FSRC.

Note
Maslow Hierarchy of Needs,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27 ... y_of_needs
Flow in Psychology, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)
Buddhism's 4NT-8FP is a Life Problem Solving Technique. [re purpose and meaning]
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=25193

etc.