The Meaning of Life

[Eudaimonist]

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?

I want to agree in that I don't think that monotony would be any fun, but I'm not sure I agree with your reasoning. A life could be filled with varied activities, and yet still aim at, or even express, the same goal.

For instance, Aristotle, who presumably lived to contemplate wisdom, did such different things as teach Alexander the Great to going to the Isle of Lesbos to hang out with the Lesbians (in this case, the animal life there.)

So, I'm not sure that one needs to worry about a single meaning of life as long as this is an abstract goal. A specific goal is much more likely to lead to monotony.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Star Adept]

A goal implies purpose, not meaning. A broad goal of mine is to take care of those around me, but what meaning does that have? You could have the exact same goal, but would the meaning be any different to you?

 

[Eudaimonist]

A goal implies purpose, not meaning.

Meaning in life and purpose in life are pretty much synonymous.

A broad goal of mine is to take care of those around me, but what meaning does that have?

That you will be taking care of those around you. You will see this as activity as making a difference to your life.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Star Adept]

Meaning in life and purpose in life are pretty much synonymous.

That you will be taking care of those around you. You will see this as activity as making a difference to your life.

eudaimonia,

Mark

Consider the concept of sentimentality. If I set a cat collar on a table and you walked in, what purpose would you say that collar had? And what would it mean to you?

I had a cat who was my bff since I was a child, she died years ago. I keep her collar around still. That was the collar I set on that table. To me, it's purpose would be to remind me of her. What it means to me is near indescribable.

 

[Eudaimonist]

Consider the concept of sentimentality. If I set a cat collar on a table and you walked in, what purpose would you say that collar had? And what would it mean to you?

The question wouldn't be what purpose it had for me, but what purpose it had for you, since it's not my cat collar.

I had a cat who was my bff since I was a child, she died years ago. I keep her collar around still. That was the collar I set on that table. To me, it's purpose would be to remind me of her. What it means to me is near indescribable.

I believe you. I still have the tiny key to my pet cat's ash box that I had buried in my backyard. Its purpose for me is to have a keepsake and reminder of my beloved cat. Its meaning to me is pretty much that.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[GrowingSmaller]

"Rational attaction to being"... for a start its intelligent autoopoeisis.



"Autopoiesis" (from Greek αὐτo- (auto-), meaning "self", and ποίησις (poiesis), meaning "creation, production") refers to a system capable of reproducing and maintaining itself.

from Wikipedia

 

[GrowingSmaller]

Secondly, in addition to that, "rational attraction to being" is (it is this, and activitis which lead to this) ... to find "Being" (existence) worthwhile, attractive etc, or at least to try to.

- either reflexively (in a self reflecting manner) or pre-reflectively (without specific metaphysically reflecting consciousness, eg during "flow" like washing the car, chatting, sudoku etc )...

For me rationality is not just about cold, disinterested math and logic, it is about intelligent pursuit of the interests of the person or group. And every intelligent sentient being, or life form, posesses RAB to some degree.

 

[Colter]

For me the meaning and purpose of life is to find my creator and become more like him. I am a slave to infinity of experience and eternity of life.

“Urantia mortals can hardly hope to be perfect in the infinite sense, but it is entirely possible for human beings, starting out as they do on this planet, to attain the supernal and divine goal which the infinite God has set for mortal man; and when they do achieve this destiny, they will, in all that pertains to self-realization and mind attainment, be just as replete in their sphere of divine perfection as God himself is in his sphere of infinity and eternity.” UB 1955​

 

[ananda]

The purpose of life is to experience death.

 

[Eudaimonist]

The purpose of life is to experience death.

Um. Why would that be?


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[ananda]

Um. Why would that be?


eudaimonia,

Mark

Death compels transformation and growth.

 

[Received]

I want to agree in that I don't think that monotony would be any fun, but I'm not sure I agree with your reasoning. A life could be filled with varied activities, and yet still aim at, or even express, the same goal.

For instance, Aristotle, who presumably lived to contemplate wisdom, did such different things as teach Alexander the Great to going to the Isle of Lesbos to hang out with the Lesbians (in this case, the animal life there.)

So, I'm not sure that one needs to worry about a single meaning of life as long as this is an abstract goal. A specific goal is much more likely to lead to monotony.


eudaimonia,

Mark

Great thoughts!

My immediate response (because I'm not quite up to thinking now, seeing how my epinephrine levels are higher because of a disagreeable staff meeting I just went to) is that you can, more or less, have a most high goal that you commit yourself to, and this would even define your identity to the highest degree. How does this look like for most people in the West? Their jobs, which define their identity. What do you do? I'm a counselor. Boom, there's your biggest goal.

At the same time, you can't really aim at an abstract goal, such as being happy; you can only do other things and let happiness show up or not. Contemplation, for Aristotle, was the highest aim for the self. But contemplation, although it involves abstraction, is a concrete thing: you can see it and note when you're doing it at such-and-such a time.

 

[Received]

Secondly, in addition to that, "rational attraction to being" is (it is this, and activitis which lead to this) ... to find "Being" (existence) worthwhile, attractive etc, or at least to try to.

- either reflexively (in a self reflecting manner) or pre-reflectively (without specific metaphysically reflecting consciousness, eg during "flow" like washing the car, chatting, sudoku etc )...

For me rationality is not just about cold, disinterested math and logic, it is about intelligent pursuit of the interests of the person or group. And every intelligent sentient being, or life form, posesses RAB to some degree.

Does this exclude emotional intelligence? Because by itself emotional intelligence would, IMO, result in a happier, more meaningful life than just rationality -- if you had to choose.

 

[Star Adept]

...

eudaimonia,

Mark

I agree that both are subjective but, the dictionary would disagree with your definitions of purpose and meaning. I'm not gonna harp on definitions, so I'll just change terms.

If I agree that goal is your definition of purpose, could you agree that value is my definition of meaning?

What is the Goal and Value of life?

 

[ToddNotTodd]

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

The meaning of life:

"To crush your enemies -- See them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women!"

 

[Received]

The meaning of life:

"To crush your enemies -- See them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women!"

The real meaning of your life:

 

[agua]

Does this exclude emotional intelligence? Because by itself emotional intelligence would, IMO, result in a happier, more meaningful life than just rationality -- if you had to choose.

Good point ! The lack of emotional intelligence can bring any rational person low.

 

[Received]

Good point ! The lack of emotional intelligence can bring any rational person low.

And emotional intelligence (your ability to label, recognize, and regulate emotions in yourself, recognize them in others, etc.) predicts general well-being and success much more than "regular" intelligence. The latter will bring you truth, but the former will make you happy. And life is more than thinking about life.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

Of course emotional intelligence, and also "ethical intelligence" too are involved. Not sure if I borrow from Mark (Eudaimonist) but I think that raitonality - or behaving rationally - encompasses the interests of the whole person, and or group, society etc at all levels.

Rationality - and I got this from a reference textbook - is doing what ought to be done, or believing what ought to be believed.

Because there are mental disorders like phobias, disordered thought and depression, its implicitally hinted that there are mental states of rationality or good order, at a personal level, for instance. How things ought to be for me and you.

Finding ones purpose is not necessarily aiming at one big life long party though, sometimes guilt and sadness, hard work etc, are appropriate to the person and circumstance etc.

And abstraction, well in an analogous case we have one the one hand "evolution" or "survival of the 'best fit'" and on the other "endless forms most beautiful" or "living entities" - the abstract law and the concrete manifestations.

The same with ethics or the meaning of life: rational attraction to being, this is both what we ought to choose and to some degree what we in fact are. A priori. The concrete details, our personal history and our life choices are expressions of this, better or worse.

Like Witgenstein said, philosophy leaves things as they are. The meaning of life in one sense is already being lived, more or less, skillfully or otherwise, by everyone anyway. Percisely because we are *alive*. For annihilation or the end of "rational attraction to being" is in fact death, the end of life itself.

 

[Star Adept]

To be fair, as someone with a mental disorder, there is a big push in psychology to eliminate the concept of a "good order." Mental disease is different because of biological or chemical differences. Mental disorder is the lack of those differences but, yet, a markedly different outlook and rationality from the "norm." That is to say that there is some sort of normal thought process which, if you compare genders in this regard, you realize that there clearly is no normal thought process or rationality.