Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[cynicallyinsane]

What's the meaning of life? What's the purpose?

[captain_crunk]

At this point, I think the meaning of life is for every individual to give [his/her] life its own meaning. I don't know why. I'm taking a class right now here at psu subtitled "The Meaning of Human Existence" so maybe I can get back to you with a better answer at some point down the road (not that I expect our class to provide a straightforward answer or anything, but still).
What do you think?

[Bk2Kant]

The purpose of life would be to fulfill you're purpose. I suppose that probably sounds a little circular. All I mean is that I think everyone was put on eath to acomplish something and with that in mind everyone has a purpose they are intended to fulfill and should strive for. How do you know your purpose? I think God (or whatever higher power you may believe in) gives you hints and you are born with a passion for something. It may not be something that chages the world in a drastic way and you may not be famously sucessful butI do beleive everyone has a purpose and life is intended to strive for it and leave the impression on the world in some way.

[SyKo]

I think the purpose is to give back to mother earth as she has given to us. Haha I know sounds weird but just look at all the animals and plants out there. They all help eachother out which inturn helps this planet survive. We seem to have drifted away from helping and started taking it all to ourselves. So I say the meaning of life is to live in peace while helping all living things around you.

[MyshiningOne]

What's the meaning of life? What's the purpose?

This is a difficult question. Everyone has his or her
idea about what life is all about. A Christian's
view of life is definitely different from an
atheist's. The meaning of life for a Christian is
to follow God and serve Him in every part of life.
For an atheist, the purpose of life may be to
strive for success in this life--just because a person may not believe in a higher power doesn't mean is
life is devoid of purpose. In a universal sense,
I think the best was to live life to it's fullest
is to experience what you love, and to feel passion for the things that you love. I'm not talking about just material wealth. I'm not talking about happiness. I'm talking about having a feeling of accomplishment in your life, even if it means that
you have to pass through some areas of darkness to get it. We must make mistakes in order to learn from
those mistakes, and so people should not approach life thinking every skeleton in their closet will
come out to haunt them. Move on, and see what happens. Without hell, there cannot be heaven, and
so we must pass through hell a few times to
achieve what we want to achieve. It's not
easy; it's not fun, but it'll be worth it in the long run.

[DanteAzrael]

To me, the meaning of life is simple...The meaning of life...is to live life. The only meaning one can get give it is to live it because it shows that one values life...instead of waiting for death to go to another plane of existence or some other idea about the "afterlife". To me, it's always been that simple. Life itself gives itself it's on worth...it's own meaning. So, to live it, is all one needs to do.

[MyshiningOne]

To me, the meaning of life is simple...The meaning of life...is to live life. The only meaning one can get give it is to live it because it shows that one values life...instead of waiting for death to go to another plane of existence or some other idea about the "afterlife". To me, it's always been that simple. Life itself gives itself it's on worth...it's own meaning. So, to live it, is all one needs to do.

You have a very optimistic outlook. Of course, it's always better to enjoy life instead of waiting for death as I used to do when I was younger. Being
miserable all the time didn't help matters; things just seemed to get worse, so I slowly started changing my attitude about all the bad that had happened to me, and things just started to get a lot better. It's really hard to do that; it's much easier
to swim around in self-pity, but after awhile
even that starts to lose it's luster.

[DanteAzrael]

I know how that feels. I did it from around ages 6-17. Then I turned 18 and I started to slowly develop out of it...Or at least begin to get over it. I still find myself sort of in that funk every now and then...but I've learned to battle it off now.

I've always had the outlook that living life is the only meaning to life. I've had it since I was around 14. I've always thought it in those terms and felt that it was most fitting.

[MyshiningOne]

I know how that feels. I did it from around ages 6-17. Then I turned 18 and I started to slowly develop out of it...Or at least begin to get over it. I still find myself sort of in that funk every now and then...but I've learned to battle it off now.

I've always had the outlook that living life is the only meaning to life. I've had it since I was around 14. I've always thought it in those terms and felt that it was most fitting.

I had a very happy childhood until I was 12. Then there was a dark period for three years. At 16, my life began to brighten a little bit, and also, when I turned 18, I felt a lot happier. I went to college and began to hang out with people who were fun and optimistic. I'm like you in a lot of ways. I also
get in the funk every now and then, but I can
transcend it now. Maybe it's because we're more mature now. Things affected us more when we were
younger.

[thestateimin]

I don't believe there can be a universal meaning to life. I believe humans enjoy putting meaning to life in order to make it seem significant. Therefor, I believe the meaning to life can be anything; its whatever keeps you going.

[MyshiningOne]

I don't believe there can be a universal meaning to life. I believe humans enjoy putting meaning to life in order to make it seem significant. Therefor, I believe the meaning to life can be anything; its whatever keeps you going.

That's true as well. Not everyone lives by the same
standards, so every interpretation of meaning is different.

[Etherealpoet]

The meaning of life is simple; it is survival. Everything else is social and secondary to the true meaning. We can discus and ponder and reflect all we want, but in duing this we only pass the time until the inevidible. There is only one true meaning of life, and all life forms on earth, including those that cannot recognize such things, share the same one. I suggest surviving with purpose though.

[MyshiningOne]

The meaning of life is simple; it is survival. Everything else is social and secondary to the true meaning. We can discus and ponder and reflect all we want, but in duing this we only pass the time until the inevidible. There is only one true meaning of life, and all life forms on earth, including those that cannot recognize such things, share the same one. I suggest surviving with purpose though.

Survival is a large part of life, and in order to survive we must be aggressive by nature. Some philosophers have gone so far to say that all actions
are driven by aggression, not love or affection.
I think this would prove your survival point.
In order to survive, people must compete.

[Bk2Kant]

A lot of people seem to be talking about creating your own purpose and creating and idea to give life purpose. To me there are two things going on some of you think that the purpose of life is whatevery you make of your life and others of you think that the there is not purpose of life, and we try to formulate all these theories to make ourselves feel significant.

Another suggested response was that the purpose of life is to survive. I think that seems more like a means that an end. That is I think survival is key to living and without which you could not fullfill a purpose but the purpose of life itself cannot be to remain living. It seems like saying the purpose of liveing is to stay living. uPurhaps you mean that the purpose of life is living, just to exist, a sort of purpose in the present but I do not agree that the purpose of life is a sort of survival game.

[MyshiningOne]

A lot of people seem to be talking about creating your own purpose and creating and idea to give life purpose. To me there are two things going on some of you think that the purpose of life is whatevery you make of your life and others of you think that the there is not purpose of life, and we try to formulate all these theories to make ourselves feel significant.

Another suggested response was that the purpose of life is to survive. I think that seems more like a means that an end. That is I think survival is key to living and without which you could not fullfill a purpose but the purpose of life itself cannot be to remain living. It seems like saying the purpose of liveing is to stay living. uPurhaps you mean that the purpose of life is living, just to exist, a sort of purpose in the present but I do not agree that the purpose of life is a sort of survival game.

I don't agree with the whole survival thing. I don't
believe that the entire meaning of life relies
solely on survival. I believe we are capable of
affection as well as aggression. I do think we are aggressive to a point, but I think the whole "kill
and eat" theory is just too brutal for some people.