Have there been any significant philosophical arguments made for the idea that everything must have a purpose? Human life in particular. I have been thinking about this. An entity with a purpose is the means and its purpose is the end. How can you have a means, but no end?

Who says our life has to be the means? Perhaps it's the ends...

LionHearted,

Are you refering to something like determinism (http://www.xrefer.com/entry/501958)?

Can you not decide what you want to live for? Personally it would mean more to me then a cosmic assignement. If I was Designed to be a weapon would I allways be limited to being a weapon?

I started a thread like this a while back called purpose of purpose check it out.

Have there been any significant philosophical arguments made for the idea that everything must have a purpose? Human life in particular.

Human life does have a purpose. It is a purpose shared by all life on earth. It is to pass desirable genetic code to its offspring. Everything else is gravy on the potatoes. Whether its good gravy with sausage chunks or that watery gravy you get in county jail is up to you.

What is the purpose of passing on your genetics? Lately I've been questioning my purpose of living. I have been thinking that your purpose in life can't be to serve yourself because when you die, it is all lost. It could not be to serve others because when they die, it is lost. I've been reasoning that for life to exist with purpose, one or two of these two things must be true:

1. There must be a God that does not die for you to serve
2. There must be some sort of life after death that lasts forever

Otherwise what is the point of life? If there is no point to life, why does it exist?

Life is absurd. That doesn't mean there is no point to it. Mabye there might not be some cosmic point to existance and we are all nothing but space dust formed into humans.

Hey who can you calll yourself, is there any constant in the brain. In the sea of wirlwind thoughts and emotions who makes you? How is it that we are consious? Do wefind this all so amazing and think thre must be a higer purpose? But there just as well might not be a point, it is a possible. Even if that were to be true how would that take the meaning out of existance? Society will allways issuing the standered meaning of life which any can blindly follow if they want. But what about the individual what is the meaning for him/her, does some one have to assign you a meaning for your existance?

lionheart, i disagree that our purpose cant be to serve ourselves or others. simply because something is finite doesnt make it void of meaning. some physicists are saying that the universe will expand outward ad infnitum and that matter itself will cease to be. in that case, those of us who dont believe in an afterlife or a god would be SOL on a meaning to out lives. i live to be happy, and it works most of the time. i try not to worry what the purpose of my life is, and just go and live. it is much more fulfilling.

Originally posted by LionHearted


Otherwise what is the point of life? If there is no point to life, why does it exist?

I shall explain it to you again:

1. the purpose of life is to reproduce (at least if you want to have lived for a reason)

2. the point of life is that it exists.

http://members.truepath.com/sapphoo/horse.gif

the purpose of life is to reproduce (at least if you want to have lived for a reason)

As I am probably never going to reproduce I see now that I have no reason to live and will throw myself off the nearest appropriately high thing.

Oh no wait,

Maybe I should say goodbye to all the people who I've helped to stay alive in the last 15 years first, that could take some time.
The cardiac arrests I've been involved in alone could take a month or so.

Then there's the people I've spent time talking to in therapy who can live again now that their demons don't haunt them so much.

Then of course the women I've stopped from becoming infertile. They may be able to reproduce now so maybe that'll help my cause?
Heck I don't know:rolleyes:

you could try to make sure that your relatives reproduce a lot...then some of your genes might still be spread around...
buy them all condoms with holes in them or something

http://members.truepath.com/sapphoo/horse.gif

It would appear that my point went so far over your head we could bounce T.V. signals off it!!
Why do I bother??:rolleyes: :confused:

And bbcboy it would appear you missed the original point all together. The point of any life, by evolutionary terms, is to continue the species.

I allwys felt the meaning of life was to create more life...

If the purpose of life is to produce more life, we're not doing a very good job. In my life of eating meat, I will cost hundreds of cows, chickens, etc their lives and I will only have three or four children. Even a vegetarian will cost a countless number of plants their lives. Plant and animal life is still life. Do humans deserve life more than plants and animals? If an animal's life is just as important as a human's and the purpose of life is to produce more life, then we would be doing the greatest good by not existing. Is human life of higher importance than plant life? If so, what makes it higher? Perhaps our life has a higher purpose than plant and animal life. Then how can the purpose of the plants and animals, to reproduce, be the same as our purpose?

Purpose of life.

When we create something it is usually because we have a purpose for it. For example if we build a chair it clearly has a purpose. This is true for everything we create including art whose purpose is to invoke pleasure.

But all of these things that have purpose were created by an intelligence, i.e. us.

Clearly we did not create life. If life has a purpose then it must have been created by a super intelligence that has a purpose of life in mind.

Alternatively if life is the result of natural universal attractive forces that had no guiding intelligence then there can be no purpose to life.

In the first case you can never discover the purpose of life until the creator tells you what it is.

In the second case, where no purpose exists, you should feel free, due to your own intelligence, to create your own purpose.

We are creating more of OUR brand of life. More people and all the life forms needed to support those people.

Though we are in debt at the moment if we ever get our useless buts off this planet and place colonies out there we will repay with intrest.

Have there been any significant philosophical arguments made for the idea that everything must have a purpose? Human life in particular. I

THE ORIGINAL POINT!

And bbcboy it would appear you missed the original point all together. The point of any life, by evolutionary terms, is to continue the species.

I see no mention of evolution in this passage either in the quote above or in its entirity. I fail to see what point I missed aside from some bigot telling me that because I will not reproduce my life is meaningless.
It's a crock of shit!!

bbcboy...you like to manipulate quotes I see. If you go through the posts it is clear that...you responded to my post in which i told my opinion on the purpose of life: to reproduce. You said you couldn't reproduce...i said then make sure your immediate family does...then you claimed your point wasn't understood. but it clearly was, since i told you what to do if you couldn't reproduce yourself in order to give evolutionary meaning to your life. Then you misread the next post...in which the poster refered to the original claim (the meaning of life is to reproduce)...which you (for some reason) thought it must have been the very first post in this topic (although you never posted about that).


if you are just trying to be a trol then find a cave. And If you just lack the attention span to remember your own posts then i apologize for this post because everybody makes mistakes. and i certainly make a lot.


and clearly you didn't think about what was being said. On a grand scale (an evolutionary scale) the only thing that matters is to reproduce and have lots of offspring. This is the only way you can live on (if there is no heaven, hell or god). Your genes will carry on your genetic legacy. You share your genes with your immediate family. Brothers and sisters would be the closest genetic match. If you can't, but they do reproduce nicely your genes will still be passed on. This has nothing to do with your personal thoughts on the meaning life for you personally. We are talking about the evolutionary big picture. If evolution is true (considering all the evidence it is) then this could be the grand philosophical meaning of life. You might not like the message, but that is your problem. And it certainly doesn't mean that people can't give another meaning to their lives.

from a philosophical perpective this actually means that your personal (death) end isn't the biological end at all. Your biological end would be if you are on the end of the evolutionary true, not passing on anyting to the future generation.

http://members.truepath.com/sapphoo/horse.gif

I see no manipulation of any post. My first post in this thread concerned the belief by a certain monkey that is expressed in the quote at the top. I was answering that particular tennant alone
Let's hear it again shall we, just for the hard of thinking...

the purpose of life is to reproduce (at least if you want to have lived for a reason)

My arguement was against the sweeping statement that those who do not choose to reproduce have no reason to live.

Maybe if your ideas were a little better thought out and displayed here not necessarily along the lines of
"pierceing holes in condoms" :confused: :confused: :confused:

since i told you what to do if you couldn't reproduce yourself in order to give evolutionary meaning to your life.

A really well thought out piece of philosophy. I'm shamed by thinking anything otherwise and bow to your obvious talent for sorting out the lives of lesser mortals like myself. Where would we be without you?

Monkey... You're out your feckin tree!!

And Tyler you mention the "point to life" something having a point is not the same as having a reason I have many reasons to be alive and dragging a litter of shit machines around is far and away from any of them.

You heterosexuals are far better with that sort of clutter.
Just remember when they're screaming for food at 3am and it's your turn... That's the whole reason you're on this ball of rock

Quite sad:rolleyes:

Does the universe have any special affection for evolution? What start with nothingness will return to nothingness. Right? Mabye? I Dunno?

Is it possible that you (yes YOu) are reading this message but it is really jsut a creation of your subconscious mind? :D
Right now are you in a mental institute interacting with a world inside your own head? Right now is it not possible for you to be banging your head against the wall? While the doctors are screaming "Come back to reality" (Thanx Notme)

How can we assign any meaning to life if the truth is not realized?

bbcboy...your just trying to argue for the sake of arguing...

i don't have to spell out everything for you since i assume that most people are intelligent. If i just put a statement there saying...the purpose of life is to reproduce, then you are actually allowed to think about this yourself. You might have come to the conclusion yourself that this statement was based upon philosophical extensions of the theory of evolution. If not then you could have asked why i said it. Instead you are just trying to make people argue with you.

+++You heterosexuals are far better with that sort of clutter. +++

these kind of statements kind of show the intention. You insinuate some kind of homophobic nature of my statement. I find this quite pittyful.
You may not agree with my opinion on the purpose of life, but don't assume you are intellectually superior just because you don't agree. Intelligence is highly overrated.

And if you are so desperate to hear a personal reason to live for some a complete stranger, maybe you should just live for the mere enjoyment that life brings us.
http://members.truepath.com/sapphoo/horse.gif

Yep, well out of your tree!!:rolleyes:

not all monkeys and apes live in trees...most don't

read a book..although Francis Crick once said that reading rots he mind. He probably meant to say that people should think for themselves...maybe that should be the purpose for th remainder of your life

http://members.truepath.com/sapphoo/horse.gif

I believe the purpose of life is to live and experience everything that it has to offer because its the only chance we have.
You have to form your own purpose I guess.

But own a deeper level,

Humans are blessed with intelligence, reason, self-awareness, and imagination. With these gifts, it would be natural for an intelligent being to wonder about the reason for its existance and origin of itself.

Are we divine in origin? or are we some random cosmic accident that occurs every blue moon in the universe?

its all a mystery. Maybe God or some cosmic entity is responsible.

Old school, I couldn't agree more!
Monkey... Nuts! :D

+++its all a mystery. Maybe God or some cosmic entity is responsible.+++

not all mysteries have a supernatural cause at its roots. Doesn't make it less mysterious, doesn't make it less interesting.

the great 'mystery' of nature might therefore be a natural one. To assume that supernatural mysterious are somehow superior to the human intellect could be called pompous.

In fact if nature was not created by a supernatural being we might say that it makes it even more admirable and wondrous.

open your mind...bboy...tear down the barriers that prevent you to see the true beauty in nature...it is not too late...you can still become a monkey...join the great tree of life and see what we really are...

http://members.truepath.com/sapphoo/horse.gif

I think my last statement was misunderstood. I say maybe as a possibility. And when I refer to God or some cosmic order, I dont believe its supernatural as far a spirit man.I believe it is a natural part of existence that is beyond our comprehension. In a way you can say SUPER-NATURAL. But thats wordplay.

I would say the purpouse of life is, as the agreement seems to be, to evolve. Now this isn't neccesarily limited to knocking up every girl you meet. But should be more about learning, gathering knowledge about the universe so that we may at some point understand it.
So the meaning of life could be to learn the meaning of life.
hmm, Ironic...

I wouldn't be surprized if i did infact wake up one day and find that I had spent all my life interacting with a padded wall.

I don't think we have a purpose. All the conditions were right for life to form, so it did. Then we evolve and ponder these questions.

Monkey, you're a tit!"
you think srange thoughts and I want no more of you!
until we meet again yoou fool!!

Originally posted by bbcboy
Monkey, you're a tit!"
you think srange thoughts and I want no more of you!
until we meet again yoou fool!!

oh my...i think strange thoughts...how odd...but since when is human culture and thought homogenous? You must come from a strange place not to have been exposed by the vast intellectual and social differences that come with human society.

http://members.truepath.com/sapphoo/horse.gif

I assume it is natural for a self-aware, intelligent being to wonder
whether or not its life has some purpose for its existence and a part to play in creation. Maybe life is some rare, random act that occurs in different parts of the universe. But I dont believe it. This world is too complex and wonderful to be an accident. I think humanity has a purpose that is unknown. But one a personal level, I'm a firm believer in creating your own reason for living.
That's all that really matters. Because if you dont have a purpose in live, then all you're doing is just living and dying instead of truly living.

Originally posted by machaon

Human life does have a purpose. It is a purpose shared by all life on earth. It is to pass desirable genetic code to its offspring.


Rubbish.
As long as you have a developed consiousness you can take to the next level.

Think of the life as a start point of a plant in a pot. What you do is put a seed in a pot and let it grow for some time until it's ready to be planted outside. What happens is most people never get outside of this pot and simply die off.
If it helps you better think of us as of semen. You perform an intercourse and millions of little fellows are released. Only the fittest, smartest and the luckiest will accomplish the prilimenary goal.
Just like in the real life life.

The world is for the smart, Machaon.