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> Some rephrase the question: ‘What’s the point or purpose of life?’ I don’t find this helps. It seems like asking ‘What’s the point or purpose of the universe?

> Some rephrase the question: ‘What’s the point or purpose of life?’ I don’t find this helps. It seems like asking ‘What’s the point or purpose of the universe?’ and I think the answer to this question is plain. ‘It has none.’ It has countless possible meanings - whatever we make of it; because meanings are made in the mind. Saying it has no meaning is as silly and non-helpful as saying it has one particular meaning.

poikroequ 2y ago
I agree with you. I like to flip the question and ask the opposite, what would make life meaningless? When you ponder that question, you come to realize it's a very personal and subjective thing. For some people, religion weighs very heavily and would find life meaningless if there is no God. Others may find life meaningless if there were no others, without friends, family, loved ones, all alone. For me personally, life would be meaningless without happiness or joy, positive experiences, if life were nothing but suffering, what would be the point of living? The meaning of life is very much whatever we make of it.
- nathan_compton 2y ago
  I think this is just as useful as nihilism except nihilism has the advantage of being more honest and simpler. People seek meaning in life almost precisely to reduce their freedom to act or not act or to think or not think. Meaning is a constraint on possible action and the desire for meaning is a desire to have that constraint imposed on us by external standards of behavior and thought, by god, by reason, whatever. You can't choose this kind of meaning because you can always choose it differently from one moment to the next. Neither is such a definition of meaning useful for intermediating between human beings in conflict. I don't see the point of answering the question this way.
slothtrop 2y ago
They're saying meaning is not endemic to any such thing. Colloquially when invoking "meaning" the idea that we are the arbiters of it, while true, seems less popular than one where it's absolute, whether discoverable or otherwise. That's not surprising because it's downstream from religion, where we don't get to decide what's meaningful: we are told. It's neither here nor there because what it's really about is a feeling, not a rationalization.

poikroequ 2y ago

I agree with you. I like to flip the question and ask the opposite, what would make life meaningless? When you ponder that question, you come to realize it's a very personal and subjective thing. For some people, religion weighs very heavily and would find life meaningless if there is no God. Others may find life meaningless if there were no others, without friends, family, loved ones, all alone. For me personally, life would be meaningless without happiness or joy, positive experiences, if life were nothing but suffering, what would be the point of living? The meaning of life is very much whatever we make of it.

nathan_compton 2y ago
I think this is just as useful as nihilism except nihilism has the advantage of being more honest and simpler. People seek meaning in life almost precisely to reduce their freedom to act or not act or to think or not think. Meaning is a constraint on possible action and the desire for meaning is a desire to have that constraint imposed on us by external standards of behavior and thought, by god, by reason, whatever. You can't choose this kind of meaning because you can always choose it differently from one moment to the next. Neither is such a definition of meaning useful for intermediating between human beings in conflict. I don't see the point of answering the question this way.

slothtrop 2y ago

They're saying meaning is not endemic to any such thing. Colloquially when invoking "meaning" the idea that we are the arbiters of it, while true, seems less popular than one where it's absolute, whether discoverable or otherwise. That's not surprising because it's downstream from religion, where we don't get to decide what's meaningful: we are told. It's neither here nor there because what it's really about is a feeling, not a rationalization.