Meaning
- Sy Borg
- Site Admin
- Posts: 14992
- Joined: December 16th, 2013, 9:05 pm
Re: Meaning
What people call "meaning" is a playpen, a sand pit in which "adult children" play. Sometimes they take their games very seriously, but they ultimately are no more meaningful than the power and social games played by any social species. Human exceptionalism is a vanity. We are just another species.
"Meaning" is a survival and thrival-based motivation mechanism people need because their heads tend to be too busy to rely on instinct in the moment. Failing the reliability of strong instincts, they program themselves with algorithms, eg. "I believe X" or "Y is the kind of person I am" or "I want Z for my family/friends/club/suburb/city/region/nation/religion/humanity". Choose your cause and treat it as critically important.
Yet everyone can only stay alive through the suffering and death of other organisms. Everyone suffers deeply, often for prolonged periods, and then they will die, quite often in great pain (and for some, meaning involves preventing dying people finding relief from their suffering). Everything anyone loves, thinks, says, plans or does will turn to dust. Yet we behave as though these things are forever.
If the issues about are solved, then perhaps something worthy of the usual semantic for "meaning" will emerge. For now, though, the semantics behind the word "meaning" are an anthropocentric highfalutin conceit applied to animal survival, treated as special because it is human. I see no reason to take meaning seriously, rather as as an efficacious delusion.
- Pattern-chaser
- Premium Member
- Posts: 8268
- Joined: September 22nd, 2019, 5:17 am
- Favorite Philosopher: Cratylus
- Location: England
Re: Meaning
For things like the "meaning of life", and similar hi-falutin' nonsense, I agree.
"Who cares, wins"
- Sy Borg
- Site Admin
- Posts: 14992
- Joined: December 16th, 2013, 9:05 pm
Re: Meaning
We are links in the evolutionary chain, from the big bang onwards. That is grand enough.Pattern-chaser wrote: ↑February 5th, 2021, 11:10 am
For things like the "meaning of life", and similar hi-falutin' nonsense, I agree. 👍
-
- Posts: 711
- Joined: February 6th, 2021, 5:27 am
Re: Meaning
-
- Posts: 1110
- Joined: October 22nd, 2020, 2:22 am
- Favorite Philosopher: Alfred North Whitehead
- Location: canada
Re: Meaning
2023/2024 Philosophy Books of the Month
Mark Victor Hansen, Relentless: Wisdom Behind the Incomparable Chicken Soup for the Soul
by Mitzi Perdue
February 2023
Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature: How Civilization Destroys Happiness
by Chet Shupe
March 2023