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> Life is without meaning in and of itself. It falls to us to give life meaning. Art is a way of giving life meaning. I'd disagree, people find all sorts of me
by TOMDM 2y ago
> Life is without meaning in and of itself. It falls to us to give life meaning. Art is a way of giving life meaning.
I'd disagree, people find all sorts of meaning in life.
I'd argue that art doesn't inherently give life meaning, but is often an expression of the meaning people have found.
- troad 2y agoI think you and I are actually saying the same thing. Life is intrinsically without meaning. Emphasis on intrinsically: it can be given meaning, but it doesn't come with one included in the box. We can pick an arbitrary thing to imbue life with meaning. Art is one such thing. There are many others (children, religion, career, etc.) and they're not generally exclusive, though time constraints do apply.
- HKH2 2y agoObjective meaning doesn't exist, but pain receptors definitely come included in the box, along with a lot of other drives. You can override them with culture, but culture is not exactly arbitrary either.
- troad 2y ago> Objective meaning doesn't exist, but pain receptors definitely come included in the box, along with a lot of other drives. You can override them with culture, but culture is not exactly arbitrary either. You're conflating meaning with facts. The meaning you give your life is internal and inherently subjective. External reality is not.
- HKH2 2y agoMeaning depends on biology. We have a lot in common biologically, so a lot of meaning is intersubjective. Language is useful as far as meaning is intersubjective. You can explore meaning, but I don't think you get to choose what has meaning.