2 ms·

Who ever invented this idea that life has "meaning"? What even does anybody mean, when they say "meaning"? We grew out of the pond scum, why does that imply t

by johnea 3y ago

Who ever invented this idea that life has "meaning"? What even does anybody mean, when they say "meaning"? We grew out of the pond scum, why does that imply that it has any "meaning"? This is just another symptom of the pathological primate. A consequence of the first act of any (marginally) self aware entity: to believe it is at the center of the universe...

nh23423fefe 3y ago
So first you say that life having a meaning is some invented idea. So you admit the words are pointing at some idea. Meaning has a very common definition in this context: value or importance. I dont see why a fact from history: life evolved from non-living precursors, implies "there is no subjective value to any life because it evolved" which seems to simply be the inverse of the argument, "humans are special because they are made in God's image" (humans not special because not made in Gods image) We know what "meaning" points at. The idea that there is more than one way to live and some ways are better than others. Better is obviously a collective value judgement. Just like any judgement of beauty. A meaningful life is one that you would happy to have lived, a thing you wouldn't trade away, something you would be proud of. It's not reasonable to make an appeal to materialism and say, "these feelings are hollow vibrations of atoms" thats a category error.
almatabata 3y ago
> A consequence of the first act of any (marginally) self aware entity: to believe it is at the center of the universe... Your existence can have meaning without thinking you belong in the center of the universe. People can give meaning to events in life to make it easier to deal with them. While the meaning we give to things do not have any objective reality they still have a subjective value to the individual human that perceives it.

2 ms·

Who ever invented this idea that life has "meaning"? What even does anybody mean, when they say "meaning"? We grew out of the pond scum, why does that imply t

by johnea 3y ago

nh23423fefe 3y ago
So first you say that life having a meaning is some invented idea. So you admit the words are pointing at some idea. Meaning has a very common definition in this context: value or importance. I dont see why a fact from history: life evolved from non-living precursors, implies "there is no subjective value to any life because it evolved" which seems to simply be the inverse of the argument, "humans are special because they are made in God's image" (humans not special because not made in Gods image) We know what "meaning" points at. The idea that there is more than one way to live and some ways are better than others. Better is obviously a collective value judgement. Just like any judgement of beauty. A meaningful life is one that you would happy to have lived, a thing you wouldn't trade away, something you would be proud of. It's not reasonable to make an appeal to materialism and say, "these feelings are hollow vibrations of atoms" thats a category error.
almatabata 3y ago
> A consequence of the first act of any (marginally) self aware entity: to believe it is at the center of the universe... Your existence can have meaning without thinking you belong in the center of the universe. People can give meaning to events in life to make it easier to deal with them. While the meaning we give to things do not have any objective reality they still have a subjective value to the individual human that perceives it.