Gambit
Well-Known Member
What is the meaning of life? What is the purpose of existence?
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What is the meaning of life? What is the purpose of existence?
- Thread starter Gambit
- Start date
I left my dictionary in my other pants
"Im Moment, da man nach Sinn und Wert des Lebens fragt, ist man krank, denn beides gibt es ja in objektiver Weise nicht; man hat nur eingestanden, daß man einen Vorrat von unbefriedigter Libido hat, und irgend etwas anderes muß damit vorgefallen sein, eine Art Gärung, die zur Trauer und Depression führt...Vielleicht weil ich selbst zu pessimistisch bin. Mir geht ein 'advertisement' im Kopf herum, das ich für das kühnste und gelungenste Stück amerikanischer Reklame halte: "Why live, if you can be buried for ten Dollars?"
["The moment one questions the meaning and value of life, one is sick, since objectively neither has any existence; by asking this question one is but demonstrating to a store of unsatisfied libido to which something else must have befell, some fermentation leading to sadness and depression..Perhaps because I am too pessimistic. I have an advertisement floating about in my head that I hold to be the boldest and most successful work of American publicity: Why live, if you can be buried for ten dollars?"]
(Sigmund Freud in a letter to Marie Bonaparte, 13 August 1937)
["The moment one questions the meaning and value of life, one is sick, since objectively neither has any existence; by asking this question one is but demonstrating to a store of unsatisfied libido to which something else must have befell, some fermentation leading to sadness and depression..Perhaps because I am too pessimistic. I have an advertisement floating about in my head that I hold to be the boldest and most successful work of American publicity: Why live, if you can be buried for ten dollars?"]
(Sigmund Freud in a letter to Marie Bonaparte, 13 August 1937)
Gambit
Well-Known Member
So, do you believe life is meaningless and valueless?
I would not put it so. As Hamlet says, "that is the question." Or as Camus put it (and I have quoted many times)
"Il n'y a qu'un problème philosophique vraiment sérieux : c'est le suicide. Juger que la vie vaut ou ne vaut pas la peine d'être vécue, c'est répondre à la question fondamentale de la philosophie. Le reste, si le monde a trois dimensions, si l'esprit a neuf ou douze catégories, vient ensuite."
["There is only the one truly important philosophical problem: there is suicide. To decide that life is worthwhile, or is not worth the trouble of living, is to answer the fundamental question of philosophy. The rest (whether the earth has three dimensions, whether the "mind" has nine or twelve categories) follow after."]
I do not know the answer to this question, but I consider it to be the question: to determine is life is meaningful or pointless and if it pointless then there's no reason for living.
Looncall
Well-Known Member
Category errors: these questions are meaningless.
Life is not the sort of "thing" that has meaning, existance is not the sort of "thing" that has purpose. Neither is a thing.
1) All concepts have meaning, ergo your "category error" argument is unfounded in at least this respect.
2) It is an assumption that existence "is not the sort of 'thing' that has purpose" not an argument, truism, fact, or even prima facie correct. Were it so blatantly obvious, one wonders why so many of the greatest minds today as over the past few thousand years have asked this question.
3) Define "a thing". Having done done so, realize the arbitrary nature of your definition and its incompatibility with usage.
Ultimatum
Classical Liberal
How long is a piece of string?
I would not say that it has any as such. The expression, popular as it is, makes a few unlikely if implicit assumptions.
1. Lives usually have a solid meaning of some sort.
2. It is fairly constant in nature among different lives.
3. Yet somehow most people don't notice or fully understand what that meaning is.
Instead, I would say that sentience (not life proper) has not a meaning, but an opportunity. And the existence of that opportunity creates a matching duty.
Existence apparently lacks a purpose entirely. Again, it has instead a precious opportunity. That of building something of value with our resources.
sandandfoam
Veteran Member
I think that the purpose of my existence is for me to learn to let go.
Sultan Of Swing
Well-Known Member
John 14:6 - Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Jesus is "the life". Its purpose and meaning is found in Him.
Rick O'Shez
Irishman bouncing off walls
Pegg
Jehovah our God is One
Life will mean different things to different people. But seeing life is created by God, we should be asking what it means to him. The Bible reveals that we are here for a reason and the Creator took years to prepare the earth for our arrival so he obviously has a plan for us.
If you ask me, the meaning to our life is linked to our Creator's purpose.
If you ask me, the meaning to our life is linked to our Creator's purpose.
Looncall
Well-Known Member
Please define life, existence, meaning and purpose.
By a thing, I mean something that can have properties. Life and existence are abstractions.
Only minds have purposes. It is nonsense to speak of existence as having purpose. Historically, great minds have usually been tainted by religion.
You are the one who cited a fallacy dependent upon the semantic content of the terms in question. Apart from assuming your claims about what is or isn't meaningful, your claim that the question is a category error is based upon an argument that makes categorical errors impossible. If the questions are meaningless, then this particular fallacy is obviously wrong as it requires the statements to possess the meaning you explicitly state they lack.
1) So are "rocks", "trees", "books", "mass", etc. These are all concepts and therefore necessarily abstract.
2) So what? Abstractions have properties. Take your "category error" nonsense. This is an abstract concept. Were it lacking properties, then there is no possible way you could even in principle use it in any sound argument.
3) I specifically stated the importance of understanding these terms, not defining them. You categorized them definitively (and paradoxically) without a hint of evidence.
The mind is an abstract concept (as is "purpose).
According to you, minds exist and have purpose. You are contradicting yourself again.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
I'd say to the basic of all things, the meaning of life is to survival; the purpose is to survive. It is to give gratitude that you are alive and that you have a family (right?) that you have some type of ties to. It's being one with humanity.
If you want to throw in religion, of course there are many answers to this question. That's the basics, though, that all religions I assume would support to one extent or another.