Ok, walking out of my Philosophy class today, we had briefly discussed the meaning of life. According to Aristotle the meaning of life aims at some end or goal, trying to reach that highest ‘good’ (whatever that may be). Suppose that we eventually reach that point, this perfect world in say like 2 million years or however long it takes us. My question is that once you have reached that highest good…what then? what’s the reason to continue? For me, and i would assume for many others, its the challenge to reach that ‘highest good’ that keeps me goin in teh first place. So if/when we reach that point, what purpose would we have to continue living?
Surely you realize that this quesiton depends a lot on what that “goal” is, and also on what further discoveries we make about what the world we live in. For instance, if the goal is for the human race to gain knowledge, then it will never be reached because there’s always more knowledge to be gained. To me it just seems contradictory to human nature that we’d ever sit down and stop working because we all agreed that we’d reached whatever our goal is.
I really don’t think that life has any essential ‘meaning’, but I DO believe that life has a purpose . They are quite different things. While the ‘search for meaning’ can be an entertaining one, I must admit for me it has been a fruitless and sometimes depressing exercise in futility. The question 'Why Am I Here?", when approached from the ‘purpose’ perspective, is a lot more productive! Life’s ‘meaning’ implies that there is some sort of extra symbolism that needs to be understood before one can understand the life itself. I personally believe that ‘life’ is one of those things that stands alone, that is ultimately necessary (to put it into a philosophical frame).
It’s like asking “What does a cow mean?” A cow is a cow, but a cows purpose (depending upon your dietary predelictions etc) is something else again.
Or, what is the meaning of a car? A car has no meaning, but again, it has a purpose. Why should life be any different?
So to ask the meaning of life is meaningless, IMHO.
You may not jjimm. I will not countenance the 42 cop-out (even though this is not my thread).
So take it back before Wowbagger comes to sling insults at you for, just being .
You seem to be using purpose as meaning * to serve* a purpose. You can make certain things serve a purpose but that doesn’t mean it has purpose in itself. A tree does not have a purpose, in that it exists to be turned into planks. It simply exists.
Well, I think you’re presupposing there is some over-riding ‘purpose’ in life that applies to all people everywhere. And I think that’s a fallacy.
Each persons ‘purpose’ can only be assigned by that individual only. Even if an one takes ones purpose from another (a priest, a boss, a politician, what-have-you) the individual is still the one making that root election.
Purposes can vary enormously. Some people want to succeed in business, others are content to raise a family regardless of financial success, others see meaning in helping others. There are as many different approaches as there are people make the approach.
So asking after one solid ‘purpose’ seems to be a fools errand. I don’t think it can be done.
And, because I think I’ve sounded way too serious. Here’s a quote from Rush for you…
First of all…what does ‘42’ mean??
Ok well some of you said that each person has their own purpose, but couldn’t you say, that along with each individuals personal goals or purpose, that there would be or should be a unified goal that man kind should work towards. Either for our sakes, the planets sake, for us to evolve further, etc??
I don’t think there’d be an easy way for us to determine what that should be. You ask 200 people where you think we should go as a species and you’re going to get 200 answers.
So even if there WAS an over-riding purpose behind human existence it would still likely end up being the vector sum of all of those individual opinions.
If I’m not mistaken, 42 is the meaning of life, the universe, everything in Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
As for the rest, I don’t think there really is any meaning to life other than a smart ass answer from the dictionary (life is a noun, and so forth). What’s the meaning of gravity, shrimp cocktails, or earwax?
Now, you can debate the meaning of a life after the fact. Most of us know (or think we know) what the lives of Hitler or Buddha or Jim Morrison meant now that they’re gone and we can evaluate their impact on the rest of the world.
So, what do you want your life to mean? I want mine to mean, among other things, that the world became a better place for my being here. Some of the ways I’m going to accomplish that are with the various creative endeavors I’m engaged in and by raising my daughter into somebody that will hopefully make the world a better place as well (I think the world’s already a better place because of her presence, but you know how new parents can be . . . ).
Regarding whether or not we should all have a unified goal to strive for as a race or society or whatever, well, yeah, that would be nice. But what could it possibly be? Who would decide? My idea of utopia might be a planet-wide orgy of sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll, whereas yours might be some Star Trekkian millieu where everybody lives a life of boring leisure. Some might want to rip that distracting veil of illusion away from reality in the name of enlightenment. Others might think that “becoming at one” is stupid and that we should shoot for something more material.
Okay, I haven’t said much that hasn’t been said by other people, but I decided to give my two cents worth anyhow.
I don’t know that one is trying to reach a definite highest good under Aristotle’s ethic… I think it was more that good things would happen to you if you lead a virtuous life, and rejected vice…some sort of ethical meritocracy. I suppose the end goal would be whan all people everywhere eschewed all vices and practiced only virtues. Such a state is not inherently permanent. At any moment a person could always return to vice. Apart from that, of course, it would require a strict understanding of what, exactly, are virtues and what, exactly, are vices… something that was always a thorn in the side of Aristotle’s ethics (and other followers of virtue theory, including myself!).
So, the world of vice is never removed as a threat to those who practice virtue.
Depressing?
Not in the least!
You are now free to enjoy and explore life to its fullest.
No moral burdens, no waiting for some better afterlife.
Don’t waste time with such nonsense, your life will be over before you know it, make the best of it.
you brought up the idea of afterlife…who’s to say that there is an afterlife? I mean for many, the meaning of life is to be good yadiyada etc. so that in the afterlife you will be allowed to spend eternity in heaven as opposed to hell. Now as mentioned in the opening post…I’m not a religious person, therefore I do not believe in heaven or hell. I do however believe that after our deaths we move onto a different form of existence. Whether that is based on your actions here on earth while you were alive i cannot say. One interesting way that I think this was portrayed was in FFTSW (Final Fantasy), with the whole earth spirit and how our spirits get united with the earth ( i know kinda weird, hehe, but i like that idea)
).