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i want to speak about the meaning of life because i don't understand it

reply here if you are interested

Comments
  • 9
    “The meaning of life is to give life meaning.” - Viktor E. Frankl
  • 4
    all I can tell you is that the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is in fact 42.
    Now, we only need to figure out what the question was.
  • 3
    @irene I don't think so. If life has meaning, this doesn't mean that it has a single meaning or that this meaning is the same for everyone. This also doesn't mean that everyone knows what the meaning of their life is.
    Besides, when you are lost or when you have lost something, your life may not have a specific meaning and you need to give it some meaning, e.g. some people see the meaning of their life in their kids and if they lose a child they also lose the meaning of their life and need to give new meaning to their life.
  • 3
    @irene Your all-inclusive meaning of life is your vision which is not necessarily true for everyone. We are different from bacteria as we have intelligence, will and probably a soul. We can give our life another meaning except taking care of ourselves and our descendants.
  • 4
    @irene Living just for survival and procreation is piteous.
  • 4
    "A life is not important except for the impact it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson

    "I mean, they say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time." - Banksy

    Two of my favourites. Accomplishing our biological and other selfish goals is totally irrelevant once we die. Improve another's life and we know our work will survive our mortal bodies.

    Cheers.
  • 0
    @irene Yep, but it can mean everything for the life of a puny human.
  • 2
    @M1sf3t I've never said that survival and procreation are easy or given or not important. My idea is that the meaning of life is not limited to these two things (or at least not always limited to them).
  • 0
    @irene One particular human can't think up the definition of the meaning of the whole life and say that it's correct for everyone and the entire universe. You can only define the meaning of your own life. As for the meaning of the life as a whole, you can only try to guess.
  • 1
    @irene Your definition is not wrong it's just not complete.
  • 3
    @irene The meaning of life (unlike mechanics) is a philosophical question. Philosophy is not an exact science and it doesn't provide "all-inclusive" definitions that are "definitely" correct.
  • 2
    Life has a simple meaning: survive
  • 0
    @irene That's it!
  • 2
    Jeez, this again? :D

    tl;dr: Language is a bitch

    Meaning is a subjective opinion by definition even if agreed upon by many others. Meaning is malleable. Thus you can't define the meaning of life universaly. That is something that each of us creates. When you speak about it you speaking about the meaning of *your* life, what drives you and what makes you wake up the next morning. Biologicly speaking what @irene is describing is a goal in our instincts but for most of us its not enough so we add to it.

    Sooo, about the universal definition: maybe the goal of life would be a better expression. Life (as we know it right now) has the two goals defined by @irene but the meaning is something you define for yourself to motivate yourself in the time of need
  • 2
    @irene Oh, not being bothered with such questions is awesome. But life is full of horrible, distructive and illogical things ... and at some point you can't escape asking yourself 'what's the sense of all this?' And the answer 'surviving' doesn't work as what happens contradicts with it and this is where you come to the conclusion that either there should be some other meaning or there is no sense at all.
  • 0
    @Dasha man's search for meaning ?
  • 0
    We pretty much develop ourselves, excel at things we do only to turn into dust one day.
  • 0
    @Nanos FUCJVK NANOS

    i was floating in depression because i was expecting a different notification and after 300ms when i saw a new notification appear i got overhyped to 3,000,000% and then realized its a devrant notification so i fell down to -3,000,000% below the seas of depression i was floating on
  • 0
    Do what you love ♥
  • 1
    @lazysnail 💁‍♀️ && 💰
  • 0
    Life is chaos. Everyone and everything is drafting in the void until it doesn't.

    Everything happens for a reason and destiny does exist, but you will never have all the data to figure out any of it.

    Life meaning is to give meaning to life.
    This means it can mean whatever you want with the limited knowledge you have, the more you know the harder it gets.
  • 2
    @Dasha mentioned Viktor Frankl, and I feel the need to share the effects his writings had on my life.

    Frankl taught me so much about finding meaning in this seemingly uncaring universe, and the mindset needed to survive when life gives you nothing but lemons.

    The guy survived a concentration camp and wrote about his experiences, very enlightening stuff. An outstanding psychiatrist, he later went on to found a form of psychotherapy called Logoteraphy. If you want some ideas on how to relate to hardship and suffering, check out his book Man's Search for Meaning.

    Other than that I get inspired by Nietzsche (even though I let autocorrect spell his name for me) because he spent a lifetime thinking about how man can find meaning in a world where God has been disproven and man left with nothing to fill that void. It's fucking exactly what we're dealing with here. Why not give it a chance? It's like people in general WANT life to be meaningless because of the simple mental model (we're atoms, the universe is a deterministic mechanism and we're all fucked) and don't even bother investigating other points of views and philosophies. It's like sticking to the first programming language you learned so now you're stuck writing COBOL for the last 30 years, wondering why programming sucks.

    Personally, I find comfort in the thought that for some unexplainable reason the universe made it so that I am here, aware of some kind of weird experience that I can't even begin to make sense of. Some day I'll be whatever I was before I was born and all the hardship I endure, no matter how horrible, will be less than a bad dream. So I might as well experience this life in all it's (from a human perspective) beauty and tragedy.

    With a strong religious, spiritual, or philosophical foundation you might just get the peace of mind you need to be able to tackle the practical parts of life in a way that feels meaningful.
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