You make it mean something. You can help others, find your passion, support your family, or create your own family. Life does not have to be meaningless, it's all up to you :-)
It’s a big question this time of year, at least for me. My last deep thinking on it left me with the idea that it’s better to refuse to think of life in that term; happiness lies within.
Why are you so sure there is no meaning of life? We cannot know it, because we do not know everything about the world.
Maybe we just did not find it yet? It's not inside the knowledge we have, so it might be beyond it. To find it, we may need to expand our knowledge about the world, i.e., do science. This is how science may (temporarily) replace the meaning of life.
And you don't have to be a scientist yourself. Instead you may help it in any way you like: spreading knowledge in humanity, preventing conflicts, providing necessary services, etc.
Accept fully that it’s completely meaningless and cold and harsh. Then from that perspective, open your eyes and look around at the beauty that’s around you all of the time, from the laughter of your friends or family to a drop of rainwater on a blade of grass that catches the sunlight.
Find purpose even in the most "menial" of task or actions, and best to lower expectations. Same struggle has perplexed man since self consciousness. "Man's Search for Meaning".
By accepting that knowledge and focusing on things that make you happy.
The fact that life is inherently meaningless means that you're not doing it wrong, rather, that you can't do it wrong, and is therefore more free to explore and do what makes you happy.
Just imagine how sucky it'd be if the meaning of life was to carve this giant figure in a mountain, but you'd much rather go swimming..
I have a small fear that life turns out NOT to be meaningless, because if that was to be the case, humanity is wasting time not doing what it was meant to do, and we should have a meeting (all of us, on the planet), coordinate and work towards the correct goal, and, oh damn.. that'd be really hard work.
By finding meaning in the meaningless... I like to give myself purpose or pretend I have one. In 2020, I began a project and turned it into a book, collecting the stories and gaining insight into the lives of 530 women from every country in the entire world. And well, it is now historical to have done it. Is it so meaningless to get a perspective of what life is like for a woman living in that country? You can tell a lot about a country by the way it treats its women. Looking back on this project in 2120, a hundred years from now, will it have been so meaningless? Or will the way these women describe their lives be exactly the same? https://mylifeasawomanproject.com
Ask yourself just what it is you think "meaning" might mean, and why you're so interested in it. What is the actual problem that you're hoping "meaning" will solve?
The answer is going to be a lengthy dialogue that's personal to you, but I'll give you a bit of a shortcut pointer: you're unhappy, and you want to be told a route that will make you happy in some long term. Acknowledge the unhappiness, and start to work on yourself.
Ideally you'd do that with a professional therapist, if possible, though finding the right therapist is a challenging task in itself. They're not there to give you answers, but to help you frame the question and encourage you to think seriously about it. It's easy to think you have, but instead just wear ruts in your existing thinking patterns.
So I've hopefully given you a new way to think about the question. Start there. Forget about "meaning"; it's a red herring. Ask yourself why you think that red herring is important, and maybe by looking sideways at the question you'll find some answers that are useful. Good luck.
> Ask yourself just what it is you think "meaning" might mean, and why you're so interested in it. What is the actual problem that you're hoping "meaning" will solve?
The actual problem is finding the reason to overcome the life challenges and not giving up, helping other people and not choosing a more simple path by cashing on people. If the meaning is lacking, then the latter are probably the most reasonable behaviours in life, aren't they?
You don't really need an external arbiter to enforce a "meaning" on living well with other people. Social connections are essential to happiness[1], at least for most people. The number and kind of connections vary, but the "abuse people and grow rich" model doesn't make most people happy.
That may be counterintuitive, but it's a mis-extrapolation from the fact that being poor really sucks. There are diminishing returns. More things are required, which for many people is some kind of connection.
Those connections are not sufficient, even if necessary. One may still want to give up, and there's no easy answer to the nihilist question. All I can offer is to note that you haven't given up already and therefore have some intution that there is some emotional state you might look for -- even though I assert that "meaning" isn't actually it.
[1] I'm actually using "happiness" as a shortcut for some generally positive emotional state, the kind where you don't feel morose and ask plaintively about "the meaningless of life". That state may not actually be "happy". "Satisfied" or "content" may be more accurate, but still incomplete, and "happy" conveys the notion better.
> That may be counterintuitive, but it's a mis-extrapolation from the fact that being poor really sucks.
I don't think it is so simple. Consider a totalitarian country. The people in the government have no skills which would help them achieve anything in a democratic country, but they are loyal to their leader and therefore are paid very well and do whatever they want. In a world without a meaning, such people chose the best path, because nothing else would make them (and their families) live so well. The oppressed people are suffering and revolting, but the police is also paid well and keeps them from changing the political situation.
In a world without a meaning, the best strategy here would be to join the oppressive government and get the profit, but some people still choose to revolt, even endangering their own lives. Are they stupid? (This is of course just one example of many similar ones).
> All I can offer is to note that you haven't given up already and therefore have some intution that there is some emotional state you might look for -- even though I assert that "meaning" isn't actually it.
Actually, I believe in the meaning of life, see my other post here. I cannot imagine why I would struggle through life otherwise...
I'm glad you believe in a meaning of life, and it's certainly not my intention to dissuade you. I don't wish to call anybody stupid. I'm offering the OP an alternative approach, on the assumption that they're asking because they've tried and failed to find that meaning themselves.
Any approach that gets you up and out of bed in the morning is a good approach. I'd prefer that it be one that also helps other people get up and out of bed, and I think under most circumstances, those two goals coincide. There are circumstances where they don't, as you outline, and I'm not sure how to advise people in that state. I've found that their mental states are such that they end up asking completely different questions.
The one caution I'd give -- and I apologize that I'm probably reading incorrectly between your lines -- is that if your meaning of life incorporates requiring me to accept your meaning of life, then it may not be working as well for you as you believe. There are other ways to struggle through life and my only concern is to find one that works for each person.
Jordan Peterson has some great lectures and interviews on establishing meaning. His main thesis is that responsibility gives life meaning, but listening closely reveals something more nuanced and amorphous than mere responsibility. https://youtu.be/AYNzafKkLpU
I am a Christian. I believe that God is actually there - not just an idea, but a Person who truly exists. To me, life is very much not meaningless. I was made to know God, to love Him and be loved by Him.
But maybe you don't agree with that. Maybe you think that's just a fantasy, a nice game of pretend that I play to keep the meaninglessness at bay. Even so, I think that our human nature is to need to love and be loved. If God isn't there, well, people are. Love them. Be loved by them.
Thanks for offering a balanced view. I wish more believers would see things your way instead of constantly trying to convert everybody to their specific flavour of religion. I personally believe that religion is denialism (denying the reality of our ultimate non-existence). But I also acknowledge that it can be a positive force in people’s lives, giving meaning and purpose.
I think that you will find that the very concept of "meaning of life" is meaningless. There is no concrete, real-world thing that it refers to. However, some people do attain a certain bodily and mental state where they feel they are missing something, they feel like life is incomplete. This sometimes manifests itself as a nihilistic worldview (among other effects). It is also almost always accompanied by a feeling of disconnection from others, from society.
Now, for someone who is not in this particular bodily (and mental) state, life itself is a joy. The concept of meaning of life doesn't even come into question, because if you love waking up in the morning, love the work you're doing, the people you interact with and society and the world itself, you don't feel like you're lacking anything. There is no need for further meaning.
Also, this state, like all other bodily functions, is not a discrete, binary switch, but a continuous biological mechanism that takes a spectrum of values. It can be measured by simple tools such as the activation of the vagus nerve, brain activation pattern revealed on an EEG and so forth.
As for how to change this bodily function, unfortunately that is still a bit of a mystery. Some find that seeing a therapist helps, changing of your personal circumstances often helps as well. There are other promising mechanisms such as neurofeedback, but none of them have a perfect track record.
I don't think life is meaningless, I just think existence as a human being is ultimately so overwhelmingly sad that it's enough to turn anyone nihilistic. The proper way is to accept the sad state of affairs voluntarily and then try to make the best of it and that'll provide you with enough meaning to bear your existential suffering. That's the best you can hope for, really.
(This is what you do if you get diagnosed with terminal illness btw: you get your affairs in order, you gather your loved ones and you try to make the best of your limited time left, and it'll be good enough)
I think one of the things that lead to feeling life is meaningless is watching too much "News". News media tends to focus on negatives and they tend to blow those out of proportion in regards to how events affect one personally.
In the `80s I realized that watching the evening News left me feeling depressed. I was being barraged with news about violence, murders, rapes and robberies, deadly accidents (autos, planes, trains, etc), wars, racial strife, poverty, disease.
It finally hit me one day when the "News" wrapped up with graphic video of a deadly car accident somewhere in Africa. I realized that when I got up that morning I felt fine, but after watching the "News", which began with local news (I was living in Los Angeles), then National News, then World News, I felt as though the entire planet was filled with awfulness.
After sitting there pondering that I realized that in my own personal life things were not near so awful and that led to the epiphany that I needed to focus on that instead, and to do that I had to stop taking on the weight of the entire planet's terrific events. I had to put that in perspective.
The "News" channel I was watching was an independent TV channel that became one of first to be purchased by Rupert Murdoch to form the "FOX" network. Tuning out provided immediate relief. But I didn't tune out just them, I pretty much stopped watching TV "News" altogether.
That was "Step 1". The next step was to begin focusing on things I enjoyed. I could list some of those here but this is something we all must figure out for ourselves.
I can watch the News now and maintain a much better perspective of how it affects me personally. and for the most part it doesn't.
Right now, today, people all around me are stressing out about what's going on in Washington DC. I am not. I cast my votes last year. My 1st choice lost. I'll deal with what comes as it comes but I will not fret about what may or may not come. I'll enjoy what I can instead.
I believe if there is a "meaning" to it, it's to learn how to appreciate it. If you can do that living becomes amazing.
The Stoic way of thinking works for me: stop wasting energy/thoughts/actions on things you can’t change and focus 100% on things you can do. What makes you happy? Do that more. What makes you sad? Do that less. Your feelings will guide you to make the right choices. Your feelings “know” what the meaning of life is for you.
You can try contemplating about why there ought to be any meaning in the first place. Once you come to terms that the universe isn't obligated to provide anything to you, I think you'll possibly appreciate life more, at least that's how I see it.
Truly accept the meaninglessness of life. Then choose a meaning for yourself. Here’s a good one: help reduce the amount of suffering in the world. Millions of people around the world are in a constant state of suffering (poverty, homelessness, war, mental issues, etc.); they’re not lucky enough to have their fundamental needs met in order to contemplate the meaning of life. Help just one of them to have a better life (donate, volunteer, mentor, ...). It shouldn’t be too hard; look around you.
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[ 0.21 ms ] story [ 76.3 ms ] threadMany a time, I get engulfed with the same feeling of meaninglessness.
That's why I asked this question.
Find it very hard to express this feeling to others, or to face others.
Maybe we just did not find it yet? It's not inside the knowledge we have, so it might be beyond it. To find it, we may need to expand our knowledge about the world, i.e., do science. This is how science may (temporarily) replace the meaning of life.
And you don't have to be a scientist yourself. Instead you may help it in any way you like: spreading knowledge in humanity, preventing conflicts, providing necessary services, etc.
The fact that life is inherently meaningless means that you're not doing it wrong, rather, that you can't do it wrong, and is therefore more free to explore and do what makes you happy.
Just imagine how sucky it'd be if the meaning of life was to carve this giant figure in a mountain, but you'd much rather go swimming..
I have a small fear that life turns out NOT to be meaningless, because if that was to be the case, humanity is wasting time not doing what it was meant to do, and we should have a meeting (all of us, on the planet), coordinate and work towards the correct goal, and, oh damn.. that'd be really hard work.
The answer is going to be a lengthy dialogue that's personal to you, but I'll give you a bit of a shortcut pointer: you're unhappy, and you want to be told a route that will make you happy in some long term. Acknowledge the unhappiness, and start to work on yourself.
Ideally you'd do that with a professional therapist, if possible, though finding the right therapist is a challenging task in itself. They're not there to give you answers, but to help you frame the question and encourage you to think seriously about it. It's easy to think you have, but instead just wear ruts in your existing thinking patterns.
So I've hopefully given you a new way to think about the question. Start there. Forget about "meaning"; it's a red herring. Ask yourself why you think that red herring is important, and maybe by looking sideways at the question you'll find some answers that are useful. Good luck.
The actual problem is finding the reason to overcome the life challenges and not giving up, helping other people and not choosing a more simple path by cashing on people. If the meaning is lacking, then the latter are probably the most reasonable behaviours in life, aren't they?
That may be counterintuitive, but it's a mis-extrapolation from the fact that being poor really sucks. There are diminishing returns. More things are required, which for many people is some kind of connection.
Those connections are not sufficient, even if necessary. One may still want to give up, and there's no easy answer to the nihilist question. All I can offer is to note that you haven't given up already and therefore have some intution that there is some emotional state you might look for -- even though I assert that "meaning" isn't actually it.
[1] I'm actually using "happiness" as a shortcut for some generally positive emotional state, the kind where you don't feel morose and ask plaintively about "the meaningless of life". That state may not actually be "happy". "Satisfied" or "content" may be more accurate, but still incomplete, and "happy" conveys the notion better.
I don't think it is so simple. Consider a totalitarian country. The people in the government have no skills which would help them achieve anything in a democratic country, but they are loyal to their leader and therefore are paid very well and do whatever they want. In a world without a meaning, such people chose the best path, because nothing else would make them (and their families) live so well. The oppressed people are suffering and revolting, but the police is also paid well and keeps them from changing the political situation.
In a world without a meaning, the best strategy here would be to join the oppressive government and get the profit, but some people still choose to revolt, even endangering their own lives. Are they stupid? (This is of course just one example of many similar ones).
> All I can offer is to note that you haven't given up already and therefore have some intution that there is some emotional state you might look for -- even though I assert that "meaning" isn't actually it.
Actually, I believe in the meaning of life, see my other post here. I cannot imagine why I would struggle through life otherwise...
Any approach that gets you up and out of bed in the morning is a good approach. I'd prefer that it be one that also helps other people get up and out of bed, and I think under most circumstances, those two goals coincide. There are circumstances where they don't, as you outline, and I'm not sure how to advise people in that state. I've found that their mental states are such that they end up asking completely different questions.
The one caution I'd give -- and I apologize that I'm probably reading incorrectly between your lines -- is that if your meaning of life incorporates requiring me to accept your meaning of life, then it may not be working as well for you as you believe. There are other ways to struggle through life and my only concern is to find one that works for each person.
Works for me.
But maybe you don't agree with that. Maybe you think that's just a fantasy, a nice game of pretend that I play to keep the meaninglessness at bay. Even so, I think that our human nature is to need to love and be loved. If God isn't there, well, people are. Love them. Be loved by them.
Now, for someone who is not in this particular bodily (and mental) state, life itself is a joy. The concept of meaning of life doesn't even come into question, because if you love waking up in the morning, love the work you're doing, the people you interact with and society and the world itself, you don't feel like you're lacking anything. There is no need for further meaning.
Also, this state, like all other bodily functions, is not a discrete, binary switch, but a continuous biological mechanism that takes a spectrum of values. It can be measured by simple tools such as the activation of the vagus nerve, brain activation pattern revealed on an EEG and so forth.
As for how to change this bodily function, unfortunately that is still a bit of a mystery. Some find that seeing a therapist helps, changing of your personal circumstances often helps as well. There are other promising mechanisms such as neurofeedback, but none of them have a perfect track record.
(This is what you do if you get diagnosed with terminal illness btw: you get your affairs in order, you gather your loved ones and you try to make the best of your limited time left, and it'll be good enough)
Being responsible to provide for them is meaningful.
Friendships can be meaningful.
In the `80s I realized that watching the evening News left me feeling depressed. I was being barraged with news about violence, murders, rapes and robberies, deadly accidents (autos, planes, trains, etc), wars, racial strife, poverty, disease.
It finally hit me one day when the "News" wrapped up with graphic video of a deadly car accident somewhere in Africa. I realized that when I got up that morning I felt fine, but after watching the "News", which began with local news (I was living in Los Angeles), then National News, then World News, I felt as though the entire planet was filled with awfulness.
After sitting there pondering that I realized that in my own personal life things were not near so awful and that led to the epiphany that I needed to focus on that instead, and to do that I had to stop taking on the weight of the entire planet's terrific events. I had to put that in perspective.
The "News" channel I was watching was an independent TV channel that became one of first to be purchased by Rupert Murdoch to form the "FOX" network. Tuning out provided immediate relief. But I didn't tune out just them, I pretty much stopped watching TV "News" altogether.
That was "Step 1". The next step was to begin focusing on things I enjoyed. I could list some of those here but this is something we all must figure out for ourselves.
I can watch the News now and maintain a much better perspective of how it affects me personally. and for the most part it doesn't.
Right now, today, people all around me are stressing out about what's going on in Washington DC. I am not. I cast my votes last year. My 1st choice lost. I'll deal with what comes as it comes but I will not fret about what may or may not come. I'll enjoy what I can instead.
I believe if there is a "meaning" to it, it's to learn how to appreciate it. If you can do that living becomes amazing.