Gambit
Well-Known Member
You're evading the questions.
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What is the meaning of life? What is the purpose of existence?
- Thread starter Gambit
- Start date
You're evading the questions.
Gambit
Well-Known Member
Okay. So, does your personal life have a meaning? Does your existence have a purpose? If yes, what is it?
sandandfoam
Veteran Member
Everything. It started with my parents. I will have to let go of my children. Some day I will have to release my grip on this life.
Gambit
Well-Known Member
What is your "highest ideal?"
It means whatever you choose it to mean. Its purpose is whatever you decide it should be.
Sometimes someone else will tell you what its meaning to you should be and the purpose you should have. Up to you if you choose to listen to someone else. You don't have to.
The meaning of life is the existence of self. The purpose of existence is to support self (that's how self made it).
"Evasion" implies intent. To imply intent is either sloppy or uncharitable, and perhaps intellectually dishonest.
Quite true. Of course, there's also the oft quoted dictum (attributed to Socrates) about an unexamined life. Also, I suspect that many of us apes don't ask about the meaning of life because such philosophical questions (like most philosophical questions) never occur to us.
Gambit
Well-Known Member
I find this to be inherently contradictory. The idea that there is no meaning to life beyond what we give it presupposes a purpose in and of itself.
Gambit
Well-Known Member
If you want to talk about being uncharitable, then let's talk about your initial post on this thread. You stated: "I suspect that most of us super apes who ask what the meaning of life is do so because we do not feel intensely alive. If we felt genuinely alive, the meaning of it all wouldn't interest us."
The implication is fairly clear; Anyone who questions the meaning of life needs to get a life. And since I am the one who created this thread, I take that slight personally.
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I found it inherently contradictory because it asserted a purpose after asserting there was no meaning. I am not sure how "no meaning to life beyond what we give it" entails a purpose.
Gambit
Well-Known Member
Perhaps, I should have said "problematic," rather than "contradictory." If life has no meaning (no purpose, no telos, no final cause), then how is it possible for you to give it one?
Gambit
Well-Known Member
Just for the sake of clarity. Are you saying the purpose of existence is to create a self?
Gambit
Well-Known Member
So, you believe we live in a meaningless, purposeless world?
Gambit
Well-Known Member
As opposed to what other kind of attitude?
Bunyip
pro scapegoat
Our lives can have whatever meaning and purpose we choose, it is something that is not imposed upon us externally - but something that we can explore and define for ourselves.
To my mind, saying that 'there is no meaning or purpose beyond what we define for ourselves' seems an unnecessary reduction. What greater purpose or meaning could there be than to truly explore and define these important qualities yourself?
To my mind, saying that 'there is no meaning or purpose beyond what we define for ourselves' seems an unnecessary reduction. What greater purpose or meaning could there be than to truly explore and define these important qualities yourself?