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What Is The Meaning of Life and Humans?

PricelessTrifle said:
the meaning of life is to find/create some sense of joy/peace significant enough to make you forget, or at the least not perpetually fret over the fact, once it is done, it will be as though it never even happened; to spit in that face of irremediable, unavoidable futility, essentially. that is all there is, all there really could be.
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Well, there’s cheerful. :)
 
There is no inherent meaning to life. Meaning is something created by humans and imposed upon the universe in an attempt to make some sense out of the fundamental absurdity of existence. It is a sweater which we all have to knit for ourselves.

Some people would say that a meaningless and absurd universe is a bleak and hopeless one. On the contrary, it means that we have the ultimate freedom in this life, unsurpassed by any in which our collective fate or purpose is forced upon us by some cosmic will or entity. As a species we are alone and unprotected from the vastness of nature's indifference, but we also enjoy the benefits that come with not being the playthings of some inscrutable celestial overlord.
 
NoXion said:
There is no inherent meaning to life. Meaning is something created by humans and imposed upon the universe in an attempt to make some sense out of the fundamental absurdity of existence. It is a sweater which we all have to knit for ourselves.

Some people would say that a meaningless and absurd universe is a bleak and hopeless one. On the contrary, it means that we have the ultimate freedom in this life, unsurpassed by any in which our collective fate or purpose is forced upon us by some cosmic will or entity. As a species we are alone and unprotected from the vastness of nature's indifference, but we also enjoy the benefits that come with not being the playthings of some inscrutable celestial overlord.
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Almost poetic
 
I don't think we do get entire freedom, I think the patterns of cause and effect do bind us and set the parameters (and indeed are what made us and something we remain just one part of). Those still leave a lot of room for manoeuvre as we subjectively experience life but not a lot in terms of how the whole shebang is going to keep rolling on and I do think the ancients were on to something when they suggested something along the lines of going along with those patterns where you can. I'm not sure if that's the same as the problem of free will as I'm not very well versed in those arguments but the framing of it I've seen in early Chinese thought like in the Zhuangzi where it's suggested you can live more or less at ease with yourself strike me as a useful approach. So something larger going on but not in any sense of will, design or personality.
 
Why does it have to mean anything?
It only has meaning if humans assign it meaning using their imaginations. Stuff still exists without us there to assign it meaning.
 
Socrates said that it is only in death that we are truly cured of the sickness of life. I rather agree with this.
 
We're dragged into being in a most unsolicited manner. Then after basic schooling we spend the next five or so decades arguing about the damned thing amongst ourselves and then we're offski again.
Great dystopian plot but considered normal so maybe not.
 
girasol said:
I know the meaning of my life... Every life has its own meaning, or no meaning, for those unfortunate enough not to find it.

We're all going to die, so it doesn't matter that much either way.
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Out of interest, what meaning did you come to?
 
Agent Sparrow said:
Life has no meaning, but it needs to feel meaningful so we don’t dissolve into a puddle of ennui and/or despair.

What feels meaningful? YMMV…
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Does it need to feel meaningful? We do not all have either the leisure, inclination nor indeed the ability to reflect on things like this. Some of us just muddle on through without feeling the need to seek some kind of meaning or significance
 
Orang Utan said:
Does it need to feel meaningful? We do not all have either the leisure, inclination nor indeed the ability to reflect on things like this. Some of us just muddle on through without feeling the need to seek some kind of meaning or significance
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It is freeing, there is no meaning, there is no purpose, there is just shit that happens. How good is that.
 
Orang Utan said:
Does it need to feel meaningful? We do not all have either the leisure, inclination nor indeed the ability to reflect on things like this. Some of us just muddle on through without feeling the need to seek some kind of meaning or significance
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Depends on how you’re defining it really. There’s a strong correlation between contentment/life satisfaction and having something in life, no matter how seemingly small, which feels meaningful and important to you. It’s been suggested that even when certain groups have faced horrific experiences, those who were able to endure tended to find meaning in small somethings. There are psychological therapies which are largely about identifying what you value and find meaningful, and doing more if it even if it’s not wholly pleasant.
 
newme said:
Out of interest, what meaning did you come to?
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Things I enjoy doing, family, friends, the usual... Nothing extraordinary. Not money or success though, those don't mean much to me, probably because I'm fortunate to have enough.
 
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Agent Sparrow said:
A huge example for me is having children. For me, personally, they absolutely bring meaning to my life. Yet as much as I love them, raising them is not wholly pleasant 😬😭:D
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amen to that... an atheist amen, because I found that religion hasn't changed or added anything to my life, but it can mean so much to other people and add meaning to their lives.

Let's not forget that the more generic & biological meaning of life is to pass down genes so that the species can keep on doing the same... Not very romantic or exciting and also so simple it's kinda boring.
 
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girasol said:
amen to that... an atheist amen, because I found that religion hasn't changed or added anything to my life, but it can mean so much to other people and add meaning to their lives.

Let's not forget that the more generic & biological meaning of life is to pass down genes so that the species can keep on doing the same... Not very romantic or exciting and also so simple it's kinda boring.
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True on both points , I guess.
“Man-made” religion can give meaning to a lot of people.
And also having children can give people meaning and purpose.
Which has probably been the case for a majority of people , globally and historically.
Can that leave a bit of a “void” for those without either…?
 
Agent Sparrow said:
A huge example for me is having children. For me, personally, they absolutely bring meaning to my life. Yet as much as I love them, raising them is not wholly pleasant 😬😭:D
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I nearly became a father in my early 20s and was relieved, despite everything (it wasn't pleasant for either of us), when it didn't happen, and am pleased that I eventually found a partner who was equally uninterested in becoming a parent. The reason being that I could never see the purpose of bringing somebody who didn't have to be here into a world of suffering, where pleasures and satisfactions are fleeting even for the most positive of people, while the disppointments and heartaches last a lifetime. A world where they have only a very limited amount of control over their own life, and none whatsoever over what happens in the world at large. And where death makes a mockery of everything that went before, which occurred in a world where nobody can help but partipate in regurgitating the mistakes and resulting horrors of the past, and everybody, no matter how optimistic, can really believe that a definitive break with this tragicomedy will or can be made. And where the consciousness of impending death means psychic torture no matter how uncomfortable with the world an individual may be.

I fully recognise that this is a minority viewpoint, and how having kids gives meaning and structure to life, and how children bring joy to the parents. Without kids life has no clearly defined stages, and you continue to think as if you are still young even when your body and increasingly cynical mind tell you you're not. But having an ever- dwindling number who will grieve for me is a comfort. Grief is just another one of the tortures life offers.

Peter Wessel Zapffe and Thomas Ligotti are the guides...
 
Orang Utan said:
Why does it have to mean anything?
It only has meaning if humans assign it meaning using their imaginations. Stuff still exists without us there to assign it meaning.
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The notion that life has to have meaning is a modern concept. Even obedience to God's will is a relatively new, and already declining idea.

It's a horrible thought, but maybe humans were designed to exist in conditions of mindless subsistence. And even then it was a world of horror.
 
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