P A
Bluelighter
"Life without pain has no meaning."
-Arthur Schopenhauer
-Arthur Schopenhauer
-
P&S Moderators: JackARoe | Cheshire_Kat
The meaning of life
- Thread starter Pagey
- Start date
revolve
Bluelighter
these are great words
xxsicknessxx
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2008
- Messages
- 1,014
I would say the meaning of life is to leave this world a little bit better then you left it ... though do people follow that of coarse not
missmegandelaney
Bluelighter
zLife has no meaning. The meaning of life is for you to decide.
We are born. We grow older. We become adults. We grow older. We become elderly. We die.
Anything in between the lines is up to you. You can do anything with your life. If I touched the lives of one person while i’m still breathing, even if it’s just one person, I will be completely satisfied with my time here on earth.
We are born. We grow older. We become adults. We grow older. We become elderly. We die.
Anything in between the lines is up to you. You can do anything with your life. If I touched the lives of one person while i’m still breathing, even if it’s just one person, I will be completely satisfied with my time here on earth.
Quantum Perception
Bluelighter
The meaning of life is to have meaning. Simple
Once in a while I start getting these really scary thoughts where I can't stop thinking about how short life is and how there will have been no point to it in the end. I'm agnostic so even though I'd like to, I don't really believe that there is anything after death - which makes it even scarier
So ever since I've started thinking about such things, I've become a bit obsessed with giving life a meaning. Until now I think I would have said the meaning of life was finding happiness, but that doesn't really satisfy me anymore. Now I'm leaning towards maybe leaving a (positive) mark on this world and on its people. But I dunno, it's a tough question. What do you think is the meaning of life? (if you think it has a meaning)
I struggle with this so much. I'm so glad I ran across this post... I've been wanting HELP... some nights I'll lay there and start thinking about death, that it's just around the corner, that my family, friends, or I, can die any day now and I shudder at the thought of it! Death has scared me since I was in middle school, I remember tearing up thinking about this... I've been wondering if I'm actually depressed or something is wrong with my head? I wish, like you, I got obsessed about helping my life find meaning, but instead, every day I can't help but think "what the hell are we living for" ... When I was smoking weed a lot, I would think about this every night, the moment I thought about death and BEING here anymore I'll curl up and almost wanna burst with tears. How do I find motivation or inspiration, how the hell can I stop thinking so foolishly like this?! It's one reason I'm almost looking for a "high" everyday... though I'm 6 weeks clean right now (rehabbed) and just aimlessly wandering about day to day... I wish I'd stop thinking like this.
I think and strongly believe there is no meaning...only illusions which can have "meaning" by ignoring a truth.Take for example someone who all his life struggled to do something great in order to be remembered forever.It worked for him,he died believing,but for me it doesn't:after 100 years some will remember him,but what about after 1000 years?He will be archived somewhere and forgotten.
Sometimes I wish I was a religious fanatic...it's better than anything else...to die happy cause you know there is life after death.But once you know humans are just flesh and bones it is hard to believe again.
This scene from Matrix is one of my favorite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YC7TMi0l68 ...It is easy to choose a meaning,but how do you enforce it?How do you make it your "truth" through logic,cause believing is unstable...
Sometimes I wish I was a religious fanatic...it's better than anything else...to die happy cause you know there is life after death.But once you know humans are just flesh and bones it is hard to believe again.
This scene from Matrix is one of my favorite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YC7TMi0l68 ...It is easy to choose a meaning,but how do you enforce it?How do you make it your "truth" through logic,cause believing is unstable...
class-a-team
Ex-Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2011
- Messages
- 877
Life has no meaning, and what we do during our lifetimes are merely distractions from this reality and the inevitability of death -- Me.
P A
Bluelighter
i'm all for a meaningless life
Hear hear
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
PhenethylTrypta
Bluelighter
Example Sentence:
How can you interpret my meaning when every word I use requires a pre-requisite definition consisting of more words from a limited supply of lexical combinations?
1) How
2) can
3) you
4) interpret
5) my
6) meaning
7) when
8) every
9) word
10) I
11) use
12) requires
13) a
14) pre-requisite
15) definition
16) consisting
17) of
18) more
19) words
20) from
21) a
22) limited
23) supply
24) of
25) lexical
26) combinations?
Example:
1How 2(the question 3[a subject 4{generalized summation 5(an act of consolidating information 6[knowledge communicated or received concerning a particular fact or circumstance obtained through various modes of study, communication, research, instruction or experience] for the purpose of brevity or succinctness) of a series of related themes or ideas} of dispute or controversy] 2concerning [to be of interest or importance to] the way or manner in which something is done can implying whether or not one has the qualifications you the person being addressed here and now) interpret (by rendering through one’s own understanding) my (or the lexical form of the possessive ‘I’ utilized here as an attribute adjective) meaning (the sense, lexical or semantic content or significance of a word, or sentence, or symbol underlying or intended by the aforementioned lexical structures) when every (or all inclusive) word (a unit of the self-reflective variety among the constructs of language required to impart meaning through means of association with other words representative of shared observations, experiences, feelings, qualitative essences and other varying degrees of subjective experience transformed into vocalizations and morphemic structures in order to communicate between disparate agents) I use requires a pre-requisite definition consisting of more words from a limited supply of combinations?
All human languages are closed systems and thus abide by the laws of general systems theory. The nature of the content of a given system will determine what laws apply. So for instance, with the system of language, the content (we’ll call them units or lexical units when referred to individually) must be associated with a series of connotations and denotations obtained through the only means available within the closed system—self-referential reorganization.
The subscripted numbers preceding the different colored words, sentences and phrases in varying brackets denote the order of semantic iteration. Since the sentence begins with, “How can I interpret…” The first semantic iteration is the sentence itself and it individual components or lexical/semantic units. But in order to comprehend the words being communicated, a listener or reader must know the definitions of the words which he or she reads as one goes along interpreting the semantic data encrypted in alphabetic amalgamations.
So, when the word ‘How’ is encountered, while the person interpreted the word may not retrieve the Oxford Dictionary’s definition verbatim, the mind must still correctly approximate the meaning of each word one reads. Adults, be they avid readers or reluctant to read books, are capable of instantaneously grasping the meaning of word after word in quick succession without the need for intellectual retrieval, review or the need to consciously take time out to go over the definition word for word. We recognize words, our neural pathways efficiently network the word observed with the various associations embedded within the brain, by passing the need to actively define each word being read.
However, just because the mind works in this way and clearly reading is an ability nearly all human being have, it does not follow that there isn’t an enormous paradox with the nature of language itself.
In truth, despite the fact that language is a closed loop or closed system of self-referential signifiers and signs which attempt to articulate the elusive nature of “meaning”, it is, as I mentioned before, much akin to Xeno’s paradox. In truth, the sentence is infinite. Hell, even the single word is infinite. They are infinite regressions of self-referential meaninglessness.
I carried this sentence out to the 6th iteration. I could have gone on forever and never have fully defined the meaning of the sentence. It is an impossible task just the same as it is theoretically impossible to get from the numeral 1 to the numeral 0. If one divides 1 in half one gets 0.5. Imagine these figures as distances. In order to traverse 1 mile you must first complete half a mile. But in order to go a half mile you must first go a quarter mile, 0.25m. And to complete a quarter mile one must first complete 0.125, or one eighth of a mile. If one carries the division out for all eternity one will NEVER arrive at the number zero, only infinitesimally near to it.
In a similar way, human language requires than a word be constructed connotatively and denotatively with the use of other words. But these words too need definitions of their own. And the words that define the initial words also need definitions. Unlike Xeno’s paradox, it is not a matter of being unable to theoretically arrive at the end of the sentence. Speaking is perfectly doable. However, meaning is absent. No matter how articulate we try to be, no matter how many words we use, no matter how much we express ourselves vocally or with the written word it remains humanly and physically impossible to achieve a meaningful idea, sentence, opinion, etc.
However, I am in a sense contradicting myself because the most fundamental tenet of this concept (a meaningless one) is that meaning is an intuitive sensation, a desire, something we lust after and seek out even though it has no fundamental reality. Well, here’s where I contradict myself:
What is meaning? The achievement of meaning, it can be argued, is possible in the subjective realm of inner experience. The meaning of music in general could be said to be the provocation of celebration, the recollection of memories and emotions from the past, the desire to harmonize your body rhythmically to the groove or beat in a song, the desire to release sexual energy and so on. But returning to the meaning of ‘life’, subjectivity isn’t an option in the search for meaning. While it can suffice so far as it may be able to get one through their life day to day if they find fulfillment in various occupations wherein they find themselves experiencing meaningful sensations as in when a surgeon saves a patient’s life or a teacher helps a struggling student with his studies. But this sort of “moral fulfillment” has nothing to do with ontological meaning. The purpose for our existence must be universal for one to believe in a meaningful existence. And the notion that human life is inherently meaningful insofar as it has a collective teleological destination is absurdity at its finest.
The word “meaning” connotes “finality”. Once something has allegedly acquired meaning, the process of becoming or discovery has ended. This goes against the very notion of cosmological evolution in every single way. And language isn’t the only closed system wherein the non-existence of meaning can be adequately and definitively demonstrated. Identities, personalities, histories, ecological symbiosis…the list could go on forever.
Some will find this difficult to grasp. Some might ask,
“So what if a sentence can infinitely regress?” I would have to reply with something along the lines of,
“Well then you admit it’s true.”
“Yeah, but so what? It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Precisely.”
If you can understand this, then you can understand the waste of time ontology, theology, teleology and other fatalist and deterministic “omega-point-driven’ ideologies really are.
How can you interpret my meaning when every word I use requires a pre-requisite definition consisting of more words from a limited supply of lexical combinations?
1) How
2) can
3) you
4) interpret
5) my
6) meaning
7) when
8) every
9) word
10) I
11) use
12) requires
13) a
14) pre-requisite
15) definition
16) consisting
17) of
18) more
19) words
20) from
21) a
22) limited
23) supply
24) of
25) lexical
26) combinations?
Example:
1How 2(the question 3[a subject 4{generalized summation 5(an act of consolidating information 6[knowledge communicated or received concerning a particular fact or circumstance obtained through various modes of study, communication, research, instruction or experience] for the purpose of brevity or succinctness) of a series of related themes or ideas} of dispute or controversy] 2concerning [to be of interest or importance to] the way or manner in which something is done can implying whether or not one has the qualifications you the person being addressed here and now) interpret (by rendering through one’s own understanding) my (or the lexical form of the possessive ‘I’ utilized here as an attribute adjective) meaning (the sense, lexical or semantic content or significance of a word, or sentence, or symbol underlying or intended by the aforementioned lexical structures) when every (or all inclusive) word (a unit of the self-reflective variety among the constructs of language required to impart meaning through means of association with other words representative of shared observations, experiences, feelings, qualitative essences and other varying degrees of subjective experience transformed into vocalizations and morphemic structures in order to communicate between disparate agents) I use requires a pre-requisite definition consisting of more words from a limited supply of combinations?
All human languages are closed systems and thus abide by the laws of general systems theory. The nature of the content of a given system will determine what laws apply. So for instance, with the system of language, the content (we’ll call them units or lexical units when referred to individually) must be associated with a series of connotations and denotations obtained through the only means available within the closed system—self-referential reorganization.
The subscripted numbers preceding the different colored words, sentences and phrases in varying brackets denote the order of semantic iteration. Since the sentence begins with, “How can I interpret…” The first semantic iteration is the sentence itself and it individual components or lexical/semantic units. But in order to comprehend the words being communicated, a listener or reader must know the definitions of the words which he or she reads as one goes along interpreting the semantic data encrypted in alphabetic amalgamations.
So, when the word ‘How’ is encountered, while the person interpreted the word may not retrieve the Oxford Dictionary’s definition verbatim, the mind must still correctly approximate the meaning of each word one reads. Adults, be they avid readers or reluctant to read books, are capable of instantaneously grasping the meaning of word after word in quick succession without the need for intellectual retrieval, review or the need to consciously take time out to go over the definition word for word. We recognize words, our neural pathways efficiently network the word observed with the various associations embedded within the brain, by passing the need to actively define each word being read.
However, just because the mind works in this way and clearly reading is an ability nearly all human being have, it does not follow that there isn’t an enormous paradox with the nature of language itself.
In truth, despite the fact that language is a closed loop or closed system of self-referential signifiers and signs which attempt to articulate the elusive nature of “meaning”, it is, as I mentioned before, much akin to Xeno’s paradox. In truth, the sentence is infinite. Hell, even the single word is infinite. They are infinite regressions of self-referential meaninglessness.
I carried this sentence out to the 6th iteration. I could have gone on forever and never have fully defined the meaning of the sentence. It is an impossible task just the same as it is theoretically impossible to get from the numeral 1 to the numeral 0. If one divides 1 in half one gets 0.5. Imagine these figures as distances. In order to traverse 1 mile you must first complete half a mile. But in order to go a half mile you must first go a quarter mile, 0.25m. And to complete a quarter mile one must first complete 0.125, or one eighth of a mile. If one carries the division out for all eternity one will NEVER arrive at the number zero, only infinitesimally near to it.
In a similar way, human language requires than a word be constructed connotatively and denotatively with the use of other words. But these words too need definitions of their own. And the words that define the initial words also need definitions. Unlike Xeno’s paradox, it is not a matter of being unable to theoretically arrive at the end of the sentence. Speaking is perfectly doable. However, meaning is absent. No matter how articulate we try to be, no matter how many words we use, no matter how much we express ourselves vocally or with the written word it remains humanly and physically impossible to achieve a meaningful idea, sentence, opinion, etc.
However, I am in a sense contradicting myself because the most fundamental tenet of this concept (a meaningless one) is that meaning is an intuitive sensation, a desire, something we lust after and seek out even though it has no fundamental reality. Well, here’s where I contradict myself:
What is meaning? The achievement of meaning, it can be argued, is possible in the subjective realm of inner experience. The meaning of music in general could be said to be the provocation of celebration, the recollection of memories and emotions from the past, the desire to harmonize your body rhythmically to the groove or beat in a song, the desire to release sexual energy and so on. But returning to the meaning of ‘life’, subjectivity isn’t an option in the search for meaning. While it can suffice so far as it may be able to get one through their life day to day if they find fulfillment in various occupations wherein they find themselves experiencing meaningful sensations as in when a surgeon saves a patient’s life or a teacher helps a struggling student with his studies. But this sort of “moral fulfillment” has nothing to do with ontological meaning. The purpose for our existence must be universal for one to believe in a meaningful existence. And the notion that human life is inherently meaningful insofar as it has a collective teleological destination is absurdity at its finest.
The word “meaning” connotes “finality”. Once something has allegedly acquired meaning, the process of becoming or discovery has ended. This goes against the very notion of cosmological evolution in every single way. And language isn’t the only closed system wherein the non-existence of meaning can be adequately and definitively demonstrated. Identities, personalities, histories, ecological symbiosis…the list could go on forever.
Some will find this difficult to grasp. Some might ask,
“So what if a sentence can infinitely regress?” I would have to reply with something along the lines of,
“Well then you admit it’s true.”
“Yeah, but so what? It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Precisely.”
If you can understand this, then you can understand the waste of time ontology, theology, teleology and other fatalist and deterministic “omega-point-driven’ ideologies really are.
PhenethylTrypta
Bluelighter
Edvard Munch
Bluelighter
I cant ever come up with a meaningful response to the "Meaning of Life" question, as I think it's a 'wrong' or 'misguided' question. The topography presents different, scattered areas of different and scattered questions. Without being more specific, no substantial progress of thought can be achieved and I THUS REFUTE YOUR QUESTION.
pwned.
pwned.
god
panic in paradise
Bluelighter
^but if god created you to experience your life, then you are the meaning of life to god.
gforgregarious
Greenlighter
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2008
- Messages
- 25
From a purely biological point of view, the meaning of life is to replicate. Your genetic programming exists because of the success of those beings who replicated before you, and because of this you've (likely) been programmed with instincts that promote further replication. Hence your sex drive, your ability to fall in love, your tendency to find puppies and kittens cute, your need to do well socially, your need for achievement, etc.
The beauty is that you really don't have to get involved in the replication game at all though, because your satisfaction will depend on fulfilling your instincts, which in the past naturally led to the end goal of replication but in the modern world doesn't have to.
So unless you're a very unusual person, the meaning of life is likely going to fall on fulfilling some or all of these instincts.
The beauty is that you really don't have to get involved in the replication game at all though, because your satisfaction will depend on fulfilling your instincts, which in the past naturally led to the end goal of replication but in the modern world doesn't have to.
So unless you're a very unusual person, the meaning of life is likely going to fall on fulfilling some or all of these instincts.
sapphiremoon
Greenlighter
i think the secret is to be one with the universe
AminoAcid
Bluelighter
The meaning of life varies depending on what perspective you take. From a purely biological point of view, our purpose is to reproduce and pass our genes on. In fact just about everything in biological systems (not just humans) is designed in a way to maximise the chance of passing on our alleles to the next generation. Hence we don't just have natural selection but sexual selection.
If you want to get all philosophical and shit, then I guess you could say "life is what you make of it". Your destiny is yours, and yours alone. Personally my aims are to leave a light footprint and contribute positively to society. I look at life as a training ground for the soul.
If you want to get all philosophical and shit, then I guess you could say "life is what you make of it". Your destiny is yours, and yours alone. Personally my aims are to leave a light footprint and contribute positively to society. I look at life as a training ground for the soul.
TheAppleCore
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2007
- Messages
- 5,510
I wonder if the word "meaning" is synonymous with "purpose" here. If so, I have a suggestion.
A purpose is a exclusively a property of things created by intelligent beings. More specifically, the purpose of something is the intent with which is was developed by its intelligent creator. A fork has the purpose of assisting us in eating food - it was created by man with the intent of eating.
To say that life has a purpose is to imply an anthropomorphic God - a conscious, intelligent being who creates life to satisfy its intention. And we must consider the possibility that life was not created by an intelligent being, but that life came into existence by some other completely incomprehensible mechanism.
A purpose is a exclusively a property of things created by intelligent beings. More specifically, the purpose of something is the intent with which is was developed by its intelligent creator. A fork has the purpose of assisting us in eating food - it was created by man with the intent of eating.
To say that life has a purpose is to imply an anthropomorphic God - a conscious, intelligent being who creates life to satisfy its intention. And we must consider the possibility that life was not created by an intelligent being, but that life came into existence by some other completely incomprehensible mechanism.