The Meaning of Life

TravisK · Mar 8, 2015

The meaning of life and finding your life's purpose.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txFxqzHEvqM

Star Adept · Mar 8, 2015

I like the girl in the darker green shirt and his statements at the end.

Philosophically, meaning is empirical and therefore subjective. There is no purpose to life, but one can give purpose to the life one's self leads.

Personally, the meaning to life is growth. To me that is growth in knowledge and growth in understanding. The purpose to my life, I have only in the past 2 years been able to finally start chipping an idea away at the limestone block of creation and definition of this purpose. So far, in the vaguest sense, it is to impart what I know humbly onto others that, by chance, they might impart what they know humbly onto me.

Ken-1122 · Mar 8, 2015

I believe only a slave has a predetermined purpose in life, and that is to serve his master. The free man chooses to bring or not to bring purpose to his own life.

Ken

Received · Mar 8, 2015

Ken-1122 said:
I believe only a slave has a predetermined purpose in life, and that is to serve his master. The free man chooses to bring or not to bring purpose to his own life.

Ken

Wow! Spoken like Nietzsche himself!

Paradoxum · Mar 8, 2015

I'm not sure there's a meaning to life. But I think there are more worthwhile and meaningful ways of living life, such as helping others, improving society and the world, and seeking truth.

Not that those are necessarily objective meanings to life.

Received said:
Wow! Spoken like Nietzsche himself!

Reminded me of Nietzsche too.

Ken-1122 · Mar 8, 2015

Received said:
Wow! Spoken like Nietzsche himself!

Who is Nietzsche? And do you agree with him?

Ken

Received · Mar 8, 2015

Ken-1122 said:
Who is Nietzsche? And do you agree with him?

Ken

19th century German philosopher, usually associated with existentialism (but way too unsystematic to fit this label), and says lots of smart things.

I agree with ideas, and people only insofar as they articulate specific ideas. Any idea in particular?

ETA: this is the material that sounded a lot like your earlier statement: Master?slave morality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ken-1122 · Mar 8, 2015

Received said:
19th century German philosopher, usually associated with existentialism (but way too unsystematic to fit this label), and says lots of smart things.

I agree with ideas, and people only insofar as they articulate specific ideas. Any idea in particular?

ETA: this is the material that sounded a lot like your earlier statement: Master?slave morality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

thanx for the info. Obviously I do not share those ideas; but perhaps because he lived in a different world than you and I might be responsible for his point of view on this matter.

Ken

BL2KTN · Mar 8, 2015

The meaning of life seems to be well-being.

BL

Chesterton · Mar 8, 2015

I'm suspicious of those two young girls toward the middle. Why do they giggle when asked the question?

"What's the meaning of life?"

<looking away>"Tee hee, I don't know, tee hee!"

I think they know the meaning, and they just think it's funny to withhold it from the rest of us. :o

Or maybe young girls are just prone to giggling.

Chesterton · Mar 8, 2015

Ken-1122 said:
Who is Nietzsche? And do you agree with him?

Ken

Seriously? Aren't you the Rand-y guy? A Randian who never heard of Nietzsche would seem like a burger lover who never heard of beef.

Ken-1122 · Mar 8, 2015

Received said:
ETA: this is the material that sounded a lot like your earlier statement: Master?slave morality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How does this sound anything like my earlier statement? I mean we both spoke of masters and slaves; but that is about it; my point seems totally different than his IMO, how do you see them as similar?

Ken

Ken-1122 · Mar 8, 2015

Chesterton said:
Seriously? Aren't you the Rand-y guy? A Randian who never heard of Nietzsche would seem like a burger lover who never heard of beef.

You must have me confused with someone else; I have no idea what you are talking about

Ken

Chesterton · Mar 8, 2015

Ken-1122 said:
You must have me confused with someone else; I have no idea what you are talking about

Ken

Sorry. Screen name looked familiar.

TravisK · Mar 8, 2015

Chesterton said:
I'm suspicious of those two young girls toward the middle. Why do they giggle when asked the question?

"What's the meaning of life?"

<looking away>"Tee hee, I don't know, tee hee!"

I think they know the meaning, and they just think it's funny to withhold it from the rest of us. :o

Good theory. You might be right.

Eudaimonist · Mar 9, 2015

Ken-1122 said:
I believe only a slave has a predetermined purpose in life, and that is to serve his master. The free man chooses to bring or not to bring purpose to his own life.

It's the Chosen One! He has arrived!

In any case, my answer is that the purpose of life is to flourish as the unique and irreplaceable individual that you are. That involves personal growth and the creation of values -- IOWs, self-actualization. We may reasonably call this well-being.

eudaimonia,

Mark

GrowingSmaller · Mar 9, 2015

Rational attraction to being. No one can deny that without crashing.

terryjohn · Mar 10, 2015

What is the meaning of life would depend on why we exist and how we came to be. If God created us for His own purposes then to seek our own meanung and purposes at His expense may actually lead to secondary meanings and less productive lives and ultimately wasted lives. What does God require of us? Micah 6:8 What are we that God is mindful of us?

Received · Mar 10, 2015

There's no such thing as the meaning to life. There are only meanings, and the most meaningful life has 1) meanings that provide the deepest sense of satisfaction and self-transcendence, and/or 2) continual meanings ideally like in stepwise fashion: after one comes another, then another, then another.

What does it mean to say that the meaning of life is to "be rational"? It means that being rational is, by itself and solely by itself, what should motivate us each waking moment of every day -- hence the meaning to life. What does that look like? Not life. Living in abstraction trying to patch up the sky castle of your reasoning is something that's actually antithetical to life, because life means to some degree doing things like, I don't know, walking, talking, looking at sunsets, playing an instrument (or not), and other things.

Precisely because any meaning to life is singular, it can't be adequate to provide a fulfilling and self-transcending life, which is what a meaningful life looks like. Saying there is a meaning to life means your life is very dull, monotonous, repetitive, and that's no life worth living. Therefore, reductio ad absurdum, life is multimeaning, polymeaning, strings of meanings, not singular meaning.

Dig it?

agua · Mar 11, 2015

Ecc 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
Ecc 12:14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

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