A thread is currently running that asks a seemingly equally convoluted question.
What is the meaning of life?

Is this distinct from what is the purpose of life? or are they intertwined so that they are the same question?

The meaning of life question can only exists to an entity that can appreciate meaning, thus intellect or sentience is required to facilitate this appreciation.

Is this a fair statement?

So the question is more about :

What is the meaning of life to a sentient being?

Now maybe I am over simplifying here but does not the question itself provide the answer?
The meaning of life is a question.

Lifes pursuit is a question. Life itself is a question an eternal question seeking an answer.

All of life is seeking meaning, to us sentient beings, so can it not be said that the meaning of life is a question which life and most importantly living can only answer.

So living life is the meaning of life.

To live life is to grant it meaning, as with out living life, life has no meaning.

hmmmmmm.......reminds me of that film Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy....hmmmm not a realy good film but I think it attempts to say more or less the same thing.
So the meaning of life is to find meaning....simple really......now if you can find meaning for the number 42 you have succeeded in finding the meaning of life and it is in the finding rather than the found that gives life meaning.

Care to discuss? :D

don't look at me, I can't even get pass the number 1

suppose whether meaning is meant to mean search, or QUALITY

whats you mood when yu see life as meaningless?.....do you do it cause you cantget what you want...like big house big car, etc? or are you maning tha the QUALITY of life hs gone from everything

should imagine a cat has a great sense of meaning when she ca wander around and flit here and there and have woods t explore and hunt in etc...but put here in a cage, the what? ...same with any animal

why do we assume they are robots with no feelings? isn't tis same shit doe with humans. making them life in souless concrete horrific grim fukin vile places. whatmeaning is there?.....

so meaning oflife for me is when tere is quality. NOT te shit rewards this brutal system hands out to te ones who are manically ambitious, and glued to cell phones 24 hours a day chit chatting chtter chatter chitter chitter chatter chatter....grab it off em an they'd moan on how life has no meeeeaning anymore

The reeeeally problematic term here is "meaning". People have been arguing about what the term "meaning" means for millenia. To no avail.

So ... if it's not clear what exactly the question is, then how could we answer it?

I think for me that the word mean/ing is defined as emotion and sometimes an inquisition to. So the answer to the meaning of life is a personal answer not universal.
by Quantum Quack
To live life is to grant it meaning, as with out living life, life has no meaning.
I don't agree with this. Life has meaning whether you live it or not. Technically you can't live life because life is to live.

The word Mean/ing actually does have many definitions according to the person using it just as life has different definitions to many people, but only one thing is true. Life has no answer and meaning will always have questions.

reminds me of that film Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
You should read the book. As a matter of fact, read any book by Douglas Adams. They're all hilarious.

The point of 42 wasn't to find meaning, though. It was just a joke, cuz humans were gullible enough to trust some supercomputer's calculations.

The reeeeally problematic term here is "meaning". People have been arguing about what the term "meaning" means for millenia. To no avail.


I can suggest a definition for the word "meaning." In fact, this is the only definition I've ever seen. Try it out in actual contexts! It works pretty well!:

Meaning is the relation between part and whole.

You should read the book. As a matter of fact, read any book by Douglas Adams. They're all hilarious.

The point of 42 wasn't to find meaning, though. It was just a joke, cuz humans were gullible enough to trust some supercomputer's calculations.

IN a way yes....ha

However could it not be seen from that example that it is the question itself that gives life it's meaning. After all they had to wait a few million years for the computer to come up with a solution that required another few million years to come up with the question...etc.....

so all in all the meaning of life is in the act of living and what you gain in the form of meaning by seeing that act of living, thus the act of living is the meaning of life.

Btw I believe the question and answer is necesssarilly convoluted becasue of it's nature.

I can suggest a definition for the word "meaning." In fact, this is the only definition I've ever seen. Try it out in actual contexts! It works pretty well!:

Meaning is the relation between part and whole.

Then what is the meaning of life, according to the above definition of meaning?

Quantum Quack:

So living life is the meaning of life.

This is very true, yes.

Here's my theory as a whole, though:

There is no objective meaning to life, but only meaning derived from the individual's subjective notion of value. Why? For only intelligent beings can decide on meaning, and as it is rooted in opinion and personal want, is not something which can even be objectively argued unless one agrees to hold one's opinions to a standard. Of course, this sense of meaninglessness needn't produce the angst of Existentialism (which surely it is the cause of), but as Nietzsche might say, a Master creates for himself meaning and is fully capable of dealing with it as something stemming wholely from himself. So if one is a Master and not a Slave, one ought to embrace this ontological meaninglessness and allow oneself to indulge in any subjective meaning one wishes to give it.

So the meaning of life is what ever you want it to mean......??

Quantum Quack:

Yes. We, as conscious beings, determine our own meaning.

I'm surprised, PJ. You are sounding like a constructivist. Sort of. How refreshing!

Onefinity:

Um, thank you.

my two cents:
I have boiled it down for a while, and come to th conclusion that there is no way to prove any way of life as the true way (at this point in time anyway) so you should just live to advance mankind, because the more advanced mankind is, the more likely they will be to find an objective truth. there are no guarantees, and by advancing mankind we might get further from the truth, but you have to go with the odds, and advanced people will be more apt at weeding out false truths and surviving longer.

A thread is currently running that asks a seemingly equally convoluted question.
What is the meaning of life?

Is this distinct from what is the purpose of life? or are they intertwined so that they are the same question?

The meaning of life question can only exists to an entity that can appreciate meaning, thus intellect or sentience is required to facilitate this appreciation.

Is this a fair statement?

So the question is more about :

What is the meaning of life to a sentient being?

Now maybe I am over simplifying here but does not the question itself provide the answer?
The meaning of life is a question.

Lifes pursuit is a question. Life itself is a question an eternal question seeking an answer.

All of life is seeking meaning, to us sentient beings, so can it not be said that the meaning of life is a question which life and most importantly living can only answer.

So living life is the meaning of life.

To live life is to grant it meaning, as with out living life, life has no meaning.

hmmmmmm.......reminds me of that film Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy....hmmmm not a realy good film but I think it attempts to say more or less the same thing.
So the meaning of life is to find meaning....simple really......now if you can find meaning for the number 42 you have succeeded in finding the meaning of life and it is in the finding rather than the found that gives life meaning.

Care to discuss? :DLove is the meaning of life, for without love life would have no meaning.

Sure I also thought that maybe the meaning of life is to find the meaning of life, but that's not it, cause without love it wouldn't matter to you anyway. Love is like the fuel of emotions. It's the sound of the trumphet.

Love is the meaning of life, for without love life would have no meaning.

Love of what? ...anything? ...anyone?

If a person "loves" killing other people, would you say that he's found the "meaning of life"?

And more to the point, what the hell is "love"?

And if one does NOT love, they have no meaning in their lives? How can you make that assertion ...on what do you base that assertion? ...especially if you can't explain what "love" really is!

To me, it seems that you're using one inexplicable term to explain another inexplicable term. Does two inexplicable things equal a known concept?

Baron Max

Love of what? ...anything? ...anyone?

If a person "loves" killing other people, would you say that he's found the "meaning of life"?

And more to the point, what the hell is "love"?

And if one does NOT love, they have no meaning in their lives? How can you make that assertion ...on what do you base that assertion? ...especially if you can't explain what "love" really is!

To me, it seems that you're using one inexplicable term to explain another inexplicable term. Does two inexplicable things equal a known concept?

Baron MaxLove is what colors the world, that makes the colors live, that lets the colors have meaning. That makes us reflect on the colors.

Love is the appreciation of things, it's the sacrifice, the hero, the king, the princess, the hill, and the sun, it's the moon and the stars, it's all but nothing. It's the happy eyes, the sad eyes, the mourning eyes, the "I know" and the sorry, the glad and the fun, the sprinkles of water on the grass, the stain on the window and the cement on the wall, the rock on the ground and the sunshine and the shadow, it's the night in the streets, the silence of the cave, the forest and the children, the dad and the brother, the mom and the sister, the floor and the roof. It's the friend and the one.

It's what we share. It's the touch and the smell and the kiss.

It's the sorrow and the cold, the warmth and the lightness.

What else have more meaning?

It's the meaning of life.

Again......42!!!!!

Stop asking me the self-evident.

Of course the most difficult question is:

How did such tripe make it onto a board, pretentiously calling itself ‘philosophy’?

Now that is a question for the ages.

Not one human knows the answer. We live for about 70 years then we die, without so much as an explanation as to what the fuck just happened.

When we look back upon our lives and contemplate the events that brought us to our present situation, we understand how every seemingly insignificant moment had a justification and a meaning. On the other hand, when we are living, facing the future, moving towards the unknown, we fail to see meaning since we can't forsee the end of the story.

What is the meaning of life?

It's the relationship of 'life' with <place *something* here>. Why the heck would anyone bother asking such a silly question?

It's the relationship of 'life' with <place *something* here>. Why the heck would anyone bother asking such a silly question?
Ha....probably for the same reason people try to answer it..... :)

Oopsie,

My statement was cut of (musta' been the angular brackets). I meant to say:

"It's the relationship of 'life' with (place *something* here)."

That *something* can be any number of items of course; however, the scope is large and I don't think that human language can encapsulate it.

Let's think in reality here. Since we are sentient beings then there is a virtually limitless supply of answers to the meaning of life. We can think about this question in many ways:
Is this meaning different among individuals?
Is this regarding biological life or our conscious feelings?
Is there an answer?

I know that people always say 42 because of a fictional comedy book. This is my take on it:
In Douglas Adams' book, this civilization waited millions of years to figure out the meaning of life. In the end, it was somewhat meaningless. The lesson of this is that we should not waste our time trying to figure out the meaning of life because it will never be answered. Instead we should live our life.

"42" ?? It may as well have been "BullFrog Tits". My point being the meaning of life can be approached and apprehended from any point within life. Let's remember we don't know all there is to know, and in this infinity of unknowingness humility goes a long way toward letting go of the demand to KNOW THE MEANING OF LIFE... and when we let go, it seems it appears sometimes on it's own.. and then the question is never as important again.

"42" ?? It may as well have been "BullFrog Tits". My point being the meaning of life can be approached and apprehended from any point within life. Let's remember we don't know all there is to know, and in this infinity of unknowingness humility goes a long way toward letting go of the demand to KNOW THE MEANING OF LIFE... and when we let go, it seems it appears sometimes on it's own.. and then the question is never as important again.
Bullfrog tits!!! ha...welcome to sci forums.... :D