Meaning of Life

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

What is the meaning of life?

[Ele'ill]

There is no meaning.

[Sinister Intents]

There is no meaning except the meaning you create. Creamus veritatem proprium.

[The Intransigent Faction]

Wasn't there another thread about this?

But seriously, what Sinister Intents said (sorry, too lazy to figure out the keys for that new name!). At least that's the answer I've grown comfortable with and that comes to mind.

Now that I actually think about it, though, as great or romantic as that kind of existentialism sounds, "you" as an isolated individual don't really "create", your life's meaning, do you? It's a social thing we don't just create out of nothing, outside of all the things that determine or make up our lives. To put it another way, to what extent is it subjective? For example, is the meaning you think a peasant's life in medieval Europe had, or a Native American's life prior to colonization had, more or less or just as valid as their own views of their lives' meaning?

I've wondered lately exactly to what degree psychologically 'healthy' people are meant to ponder that question. People are bound to ask it, but at some point we all get caught up in far more 'mundane' things.

So, it's a bit of a tentative answer, as I guess I was arguing any answer might be, but I'd say there is no meaning, we're just here, and at some point we have to just satisfy ourselves with an incomplete answer and live.

To paraphrase a good friend, there are so many possibilities and it's liberating yet unnerving.

[The Feral Underclass]

To give me money and drugs.

[Sasha]

42

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

hakuna matata

[Red Son]

"Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations." :)

(But seriously, I don't think there is any purpose or meaning and certainly no end goal that's prescribed by a superior being / god. The quote above isn't far of the mark really; just try and leave the world better than you found it, be happy, don't be a fuckhead / asshole etc)

[(A)]

Judo.

[cyu]

* The state that follows birth, and precedes death; the state of being alive and living.

* The span of time during which an object operates.

See also http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/life :laugh:

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

There is no meaning.

Even worse; the question doesn't really make sense.

[Rafiq]

What is the meaning of life?

Because human consciousness did not precede the mechanisms from which human consciousness was developed, to posit that there is a conscious meaning to our existence is ridiculous. We don't exist for any designed reason, we actively define our existence through things like history, and as any Marxist knows, not as we please.

One thing that distinguishes Marxists from existentialists is simple: Our existence is rational whether it can be fully explained by the present standards of reason or not (which It arguably can). We can identify why we exist because we can conceptualize the universe as existing before, and independently of us. We do exist for a reason, what we need is to re-approach our understanding of our relationship to the universe. In that sense existentialism is painfully and almost disgustingly arrogant - it pre-supposes that there is only one possible posited explanation for our existence (in religious terms, of course, no matter how they want to slice it), and then denies it like a confused anti-Christian would worship satan and deny that god is just. Marvelous.

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

I appreciate all responses thus far. I will also want to be asking this, what exactly is 'meaning'?

[Slavic]

So many living people in this thread; so biased.

The very word life necessitates death for it to even exist, so you can go on to say that the meaning of life is to die which would prove that you had in fact lived. You can not live unless you die.

"Meaning" is a human's inability to exist for existence-sake. The universe is nothing but a collection of particles that we arbitrarily impose boundaries on in order appease our consciousness and tell ourselves that "we" have a "self" instead of a collection of particles.

[VCrakeV]

The meaning of life is simply to exist and to operate, or basically, to live. But as in operate, do what? Well, that doesn't matter. That's up to us to decide. Humanity can define its own meaning, or rather, the meaning of life, but no matter how deep we think about or look in to things, the only reason why anything lives is because it lives.

[Црвена]

To use your amazing creativity and entrepreneurial skill to start a business and employ people to produce money for you, exploit them as much as you can to generate more profit, expand your business, rig the market by buying up more businesses, get rich, donate huge sums of money to political parties in favour of privatising everything, send your kids to private school to be indoctrinated into members of the ruling class, use discrimination to divide the workers underneath you and of course, be a dutiful citizen to your country by consuming, consuming, consuming!

[consuming negativity]

I am not sure if it is possible for us to know if there even is a meaning, but if anyone alive knows for certain, I doubt they visit this website. However, my answer would simply be love. It is much more complex than that, but the most complete conceptual single-word explanation would be love. And this is a hypothesis I share with a lot of people I consider very intelligent. And also with a lot of people I think have done way too many drugs. So you can probably trust us to either be onto something or completely out in the dark. :rolleyes:

[motion denied]

Serve and build the Party.

[RedWorker]

"Meaning" is not even applicable here. That is a human-invented notion which has no connection to reality. Furthermore, it is completely subjective, there can be no objective "meaning". We're human beings who are enticed to pursue certain activities by impulses and later feel good because of a reward circuit, which came into existence because of natural selection. That's all. There's no secret here.

[Palmares]

General: Well, of course, warfare isn't all fun. Right — stop that! It's all very well to laugh at the military, but when one considers the meaning of life (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Meaning_of_life), it is a struggle between alternative viewpoints of life itself. And without the ability to defend one's own viewpoint against other perhaps more aggressive ideologies, then reasonableness and moderation could, quite simply, disappear. That is why we'll always need an army, and may God strike me down were it to be otherwise.
[A lightning bolt destroys the general. Cut to outside, where the Hand of God rises into the clouds. Outside, a Sergeant Major stands before his troops.]
Sergeant Major: Don't stand there gawping! Like you've never seen the Hand o' God before.



Chairman: Item six on the agenda, the Meaning of Life (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Meaning_of_life). Now Harry, you’ve had some thoughts on this.
Harry: That’s right, yeah. I’ve had a team working on this over the past few weeks, and what we’ve come up with can be reduced to two fundamental concepts. One, people are not wearing enough hats. Two, matter is energy. In the Universe there are many energy fields which we cannot normally perceive. Some energies have a spiritual source which act upon a person’s soul. However, this soul does not exist ab initio as orthodox Christianity teaches; it has to be brought into existence by a process of guided self-observation. However, this is rarely achieved owing to man’s unique ability to be distracted from spiritual matters by everyday trivia.
[Pause.]
Max: What was that about hats again?

But on a more serious note:


You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.

[cyu]

I guess what you're trying to say is that the meaning of life was a 1983 British musical comedy film written and performed by the Monty Python troupe, and directed by one of it's members, Terry Jones. Apparently the meaning of life is loosely structured as a series of comic sketches about the various stages of life.

It seems the meaning of life was produced on a budget of less than $10 million. Palin later said that the budget, and not making the meaning of life for the BBC, allowed it be more daring and dark. :laugh:

http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs49/f/2009/226/c/d/All_new_Team_Fortress_2_hats_by_evaldasmix.jpg

[Solarstone]

The meaning of life is understood according to the beliefs that people adhere to. However, all human belief systems are accurate or inaccurate to varying degrees in their description of the world. Moreover, belief systems change over time: from generation to generation; from culture to culture; and era to era. Beliefs that are held today, even by large segments of the population, did not exist yesterday and may not exist tomorrow. Belief systems, be they religious or secular, are therefore arbitrary. If the meaning of life is wanted, a meaning that will transcend the test of time or the particulars of individual beliefs, then an effort to arrive at a truly objective determination must be made. So in order to eliminate the arbitrary, belief systems must be set aside. Otherwise, the meaning of life could not be determined.

[Tim Cornelis]

So many living people in this thread; so biased.

The very word life necessitates death for it to even exist, so you can go on to say that the meaning of life is to die which would prove that you had in fact lived. You can not live unless you die.

"Meaning" is a human's inability to exist for existence-sake. The universe is nothing but a collection of particles that we arbitrarily impose boundaries on in order appease our consciousness and tell ourselves that "we" have a "self" instead of a collection of particles.

Wrong. You cannot live unless you were born. Death is irrelevant to life.

[Magón]

To fuck shit up, and have fun doing it in the process. Otherwise, there is no meaning.

[Slavic]

Wrong. You cannot live unless you were born. Death is irrelevant to life.

Death and life define each other. One can not understand one without the other.

Life is a concept that requires its negation to exist, it is applied to organisms when we can not comprehend the concept of, existence for existence-sake.

You can similarly compare it to other concepts that require a negation such as happiness.
Happiness can not exist as a concept unless sadness exits. If sadness does not exit, there is nothing to neccesitate happiness.

[Lord Testicles]

Death and life define each other. One can not understand one without the other.

Life is a concept that requires its negation to exist, it is applied to organisms when we can not comprehend the concept of, existence for existence-sake.

You can similarly compare it to other concepts that require a negation such as happiness.
Happiness can not exist as a concept unless sadness exits. If sadness does not exit, there is nothing to neccesitate happiness.

You're simply wrong. Life does not require death to exist.

Are biologically immortal animals not really alive because death isn't a inevitable aspect of their existence?

[BIXX]

You're simply wrong. Life does not require death to exist.

Are biologically immortal animals not really alive because death isn't a inevitable aspect of their existence?
I think what this individual means is that for life to be recognizable as something different from any other way of being there must be death, or else the concept of life would have never arisen. This doesn't mean that an immortal creature isn't alive, but that if all creatures were immortal, there would be nothing to contrast with life, and thus we wouldn't recognize it as life but just as being, like a rock or a bit of metal or whatever.

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

to crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women

[Tim Cornelis]

Happiness can exist without sadness. But appreciation for it may not.

[Sorcerer]

Quite seriously, I believe nihilism is the only true philosophy. Nothing is true; everything is permitted. Nihilism now!

[cyu]

I believe nihilism is the only true philosophy. Nothing is true


Nihilism is false.

[Slavic]

I think what this individual means is that for life to be recognizable as something different from any other way of being there must be death, or else the concept of life would have never arisen. This doesn't mean that an immortal creature isn't alive, but that if all creatures were immortal, there would be nothing to contrast with life, and thus we wouldn't recognize it as life but just as being, like a rock or a bit of metal or whatever.

Stop making my statements more understandable you ass.

[contracycle]

To eat and to shit.

All living beings exist by breaking complex matter down into less complex forms and exploiting the energy so released. We are all agents of entropy, reducing the universe to a flat, uniform distribution of energy.

[Comrade #138672]

The meaning of life is the meaning life assigns to life. In other words, life gives itself meaning.

[Comrade #138672]

Wrong. You cannot live unless you were born. Death is irrelevant to life.How is death not relevant to life? Life is all about not dying.

[Tim Cornelis]

Life is all about being alive. Nothing more.

"To eat and to shit.

All living beings exist by breaking complex matter down into less complex forms and exploiting the energy so released. We are all agents of entropy, reducing the universe to a flat, uniform distribution of energy."

Teleological. Nature has no meaning and goals. It's purely accidental that we do this.

[contracycle]

Well, it's "accident" in the same sense that the Big Bang is "accident". All I've done is describe how living beings actually work; I have not imposed some "meaning" on it.

You can say nature has no "goals", and this is true in the sense that it has no deliberate intent; but that does not it that it has no direction. Cosmic inflation happens. Entropy happens. These are active processes, with inherent direction, like it or not.

[Diirez]

"You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life." - Albert Camus

[cyu]

The purpose of life is replication. Even if any individual organism has no real desire to replicate, it is the nature of life to replicate. Organisms that fail to replicate will be replaced by organisms that do not fail.

The same can be said of ideologies.

Kind of off topic, but regardless of whether the theories of Malthus are correct or not, life will ignore his theories. Any group that intentionally limits their own growth will be replaced by those that do not limit their own growth. Personally I think the answer to Malthusian concerns is to seek out new frontiers - like organisms have always done - sometimes leading to divergent evolution.

As for what should a person do to be happy, I think that's a completely different question. Ascetics can be happy with just about anything. It is more than simply having psychological control over your own mind though - if you don't have sociological control over what society defines as "this should make you happy" then those who regularly come into contact with other people will have greater difficulty controlling their own happiness.

[Redistribute the Rep]

The purpose of life is replication. Even if any individual organism has no real desire to replicate, it is the nature of life to replicate. Organisms that fail to replicate will be replaced by organisms that do not fail.


While it's true that organisms with less reproductive success generally contribute less to the allele pool, and thereby see their phenotypes decrease in frequency, it does not follow that there exists a 'purpose' to reproduce. Nature is not a concious entity that acts with purpose or meaning. Reproductive success is a common trait among organisms because it happens to increase the allele frequency of the alleles that confer this advantage, not because nature intends for organisms to reproduce.

That evolution is end-driven bears a resemblance to the teleology of intelligent design.

[Mass Grave Aesthetics]

To develop the productive forces of course!



Yeah and sacrifice as many human lives as you possibly can in the name of some some abstract ideal.:thumbup1:

[Redistribute the Rep]

You're simply wrong. Life does not require death to exist.

Are biologically immortal animals not really alive because death isn't a inevitable aspect of their existence?

Well, biologically immortal organisms are described as such because they have negligible senescence. Theyre not really immortal, as they can and will inevitably die from other means other than aging. They will die as the useable energy in the universe depletes, which the 2nd law of thermodynamics dictates. Eventually, in an estimated 10 raised to the 100th power years, maximum entropy will be reached and no energy gradient will exist to allow any matter to exist. Complex life will cease to exist long before this point. Actually, highly advanced interplanetary intelligent life systems can easily be wiped out by a single gamma ray burst.

Although I think I still agree with the point you're trying to make if I understand it correctly, but I dont have time to read this whole thread right now.

[Vogel]

Existence is experienced through the mind.
We are contrasting the meaning of life with nothing, and if you've ever read vol 1 capital, you know Marx says 2 of the same thing cannot show their value.
So, let's compare. There's Concous life with unconscious life(dreaming coma), life and death, etc. But, I think we already know, instinctively. I believe in a philosophy that says many events and actions can build up to a specific event or action, and that things affect each other on different levels. Its kind of like applying the law of enertia in a moral sense.
The meaning of life is on some level determined by the conditions we live in, and on another level by our thoughts and actions, collectively and individually.

[FarewellToKings]

I personally feel like being able to decide your own meaning is more pleasing than being forced into a predetermined one. However, it is a general human goal to be as happy as possible, so I suppose you could call that a "meaning of life".

[Ilstar]

What is the meaning of life?

The film These Final Hours (2013) answers on your question and disproves many comments on this thread.

And kudos to the following two comments!


I am not sure if it is possible for us to know if there even is a meaning, but if anyone alive knows for certain, I doubt they visit this website. However, my answer would simply be love. It is much more complex than that, but the most complete conceptual single-word explanation would be love. And this is a hypothesis I share with a lot of people I consider very intelligent. And also with a lot of people I think have done way too many drugs. So you can probably trust us to either be onto something or completely out in the dark. :rolleyes:

Happiness can exist without sadness. But appreciation for it may not.

[TheBigREDOne]

I think a better question is, why must there be a specific meaning?

[HampshireGirl]

To make the world a better place, by helping our fellow human being :)

[Bala Perdida]

Make the best out of your horrible situation, fuck some shit up. Make your mark and what not. No time for thinking! Do it before you convince yourself not too!
(Didn't hear it from me..... :glare: )