the meaning of life

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

hello all!

as you can see, i’m a newbie here but i’d like your opinion about whether or not the ‘chaos’ has anything to do with the meaning of life. i was up thinking about it, and descided to write my thoughts down.

please only read it if you’re interested in this, but i suppose you’re and my being here already proves that. :stuck_out_tongue:

here’s what i came up with:

Looking at the meaning of life from a philosophical rather than a scientific point of view, is the discussion of whether we are part of something bigger. This can be rationally explained to some extent. For instance, all animals are part of the foodchain. On the level of basic instincts, mankind would not be at the top. Taking on a great white shark with mere instincts is not something an average human being is capable of. If you throw in the aspect of rational intelligence, we stand a much better chance. We then depend on intellect, rather then strength. On some basic level, all life forms are embedded with some form of rational intelligence, next to the instinct. It is this variable which separates one life form from another.

Mankind has experienced a number of changes in rational intelligence. We currently find ourselves at the end of such a stage. From early mankind on this form of rational intelligence was limited to basic survival. Like a pack of wolves, we worked together in capturing our prey. With this form of rational intelligence being derived from our basic instinct to feed, nurture, guard and reproduce our species, we evolved higher up the foodchain.

The second stage of rational intelligence mankind experienced is very similar to that of a virus. This is also derived from the first stage, that of protecting and maintaining the herd. We came beware of the fact that we were greatly in number, and felt a need to expand and conquer our surroundings. Resources would be harvested untill depleted instead of maintaining and cultivating them. If the lack of sufficient resources required us to move on, we would.

From here on mankind can go two ways. Nowadays we stand at a treshold. In the first way we continue on the path of destruction. Almost being at the top of every form of consumption, the problems in the world begin to mount. Soon we will find ourselves coping with shortages of fuel, clean water and food. Our polluting habits is disrupting the natural cycle of nature, from which we ironically sprung. Together with this virus-like pattern of behaviour luckily comes curiousity, which might even mean our salvation. Our need to explore the stars will be greatly needed because at the point when all natural resources will become exhausted, there mankind will find the Darwinian Theory at it’s most obvious way. It will be like a pack of wolves fight over the last bone on earth, it will certainly not be a pretty sight. This will be a time of war, survival of the fittest. But unfortunately survival will not be an easy choice, because the earth will not be a place of choice to live on. Thus at that point in time, space travel has to be possible. Our only chance to survive is to colonize other planets and galaxies. It will become a race against time. Governments will have to be united and mankind will have to work together to survive. Unfortunately, the second choice will be needed for this; a change of mind. Man is driven by greed and competition. According to the Darwinian Theory in order to survive you have to be the best. The fastest, the strongest and the fittest. We can already see this in the present day by America who has seem to want to re-colonize the earth. They are out for the natural resources of the earth, and fuel is their current aim, thus invading the middle-east. Soon they shall be the only ones with power and it only takes one a short guess to imagine which nation will lead us into space to conquer even more. If I were to place a bet, I’d say America’s aiming for something a little higher than just world domination.
Because why stop there? The world will be useless anyway when resources deplete. Those are needed to skyrocket us further into the galaxy. Continueing on like this, the human race shall always wage wars in order to expand.

The other path mankind can take is one of peace. In the coming generations, it might very well be in my own, we will see the choice being made. This turnaround is legendary in history, and can be supported by many things, including the Bible, the ending of the Mayan calender and the predictions of many spiritual individuals like Nostradamus. Spiritual myths, all religion and nature will reveal itself when mankind chooses the path of peace. Currently using a mere 15 percent of our brain capacity, those still remain a mystery to us.

All of this can be put into contrast with the meaning of life. As I said earlier, the key to answering that question lies in asking us this: are we part of something bigger? That question again, can be brought down to this matter, that of chaos. If chaos is real, we can assume that life has no meaning, for anything random has no real meaning. The universe would be a product of chaos, in which everything happens by coincidence, by chaos.

Defining the other part of the matter, what is chaos isn’t real? We would then most likely be part of something bigger, of which even the universe would be another part of. Then the term universe would not be a correct word anymore, for then the definition and properties of the universe would change. Everything would be planned and happen according to a scedule of a higher force. I think for us to find the answer to that question the fastest way, we would have to choose the second option of the choice we are about to make; peace.

If we continue this path we shall most likely find the answer too, but much later on. But the consequenses will be much worse. After we will have left the earth to conquer nearby stars, this will result in a chain reaction. After the planets, galaxies will follow and continue untill we have colonized the entire universe.

This again can go in two directions. According to Hawking the universe has a limited lifespan. The only question for mankind will be whether they can find a way out of this universe to conquer on before the universe dies. This is only possible if the Chaos theory is false, because we would be part of something greater, possible even infinite.

We are destined to find out what the meaning of life is, by either choosing the path of peace or the way of the virus. In the last case, we will receive our answer to the question when we will or will not find ourselves at a dead end on our way out of this universe, having consumed everything there is to feed on.

2

Chaos is a medium in which order can distinguish itself.

Chaos could also be called anything that would rather divide itself then unite itself.

If the world as you are describing it is true plokk, then anything can earn its way up the evolutionary food chain and nothing in a current position of advantage is entiteled to that advantage, since circumstance alone requires something to earn it’s priority to even exhist.

If we are not entiteled to this peace then it will take much more then raising questions and realizing better possibilites.

Taking the instinctive element to compete and replacing it with cooperation might backfire.
People may submit to evil and may lose there will to fight a good fight.

If you wish to call enemies something else then call them opponents.
If you wish to avoid chaos then call it a medium to exercise your will.

If everything is earned and nothing is entitled then those who want something have to earn it and inspire it, not wish for it.

3

the meaning of life is to generate emotions, i think.

4

How can anyone know the full role that they will play in history? Meaning does not come from participation in the world drama alone.

Our own lives only gain meaning from our significant connections with other lives. Whose lives are connected to yours? The meaning of your life is in those connections. The person who is disconnected from everyone else has a meaningless life.

5

I see the value in believeing what Xanderman is saying. But meaning is as meaning does. Nobody can force you to judge your life in a given way, and with concentration I believe you can force yourself to judge your life in almost any way that suits you. Humans are never satisfied. As soon as we figure out how to have meaning, we’ll want omnipotence. And then our world will be, by definition, totally devoid of friction, and like God, we’ll have to ccreate our own friction and build new worlds whose discontent and longing we suck like bittersweet sap.

6

Why is it so important to be connected to everyone else xander? Is that because we are all one thing, one living organic entity. I wonder then, whether we can know what role we play in history by knowing who and what we are?

7

The goal is not to connect with everyone. That would lead to a large number of unsubstantial connections. A famous person lightly and subtly touches many lives but is untouched in return.

It is not so simple as saying that we are all one entity. We are not alone, and we are not united. We are partially connected with others and partially isolated. We have the potential to strength these connections, not with every other person but with a select number. We need each other. We are not ready to be one entity.

A life only has context among other lives. The best way to learn about other live is not abstract or from the outside, it is concrete and from the inside. This is what making substantial connections is all about, understanding life.

8

Only an individual can realise the meaning of life when desires are replaced with reality. e.g Stress is the result of self inflicted expectations inversely proportional to reality. Religions seek to enforce expectations that is why they are false and never succeed. The meaning of life is not a
collective agreement. It is an individual experience gained by living.

9

I don’t think I’ve ever seen the word “newbie” attributed to anyone on this site, much less a newcomer using it to describe themself - that being a term used by quick-judging simple-minded misfit (and usually) teenagers.

Now, I’m not saying you represent the users of that term, just my general interpretation of the common group of people who use it. Your post on the other hand was entirely anything but “newbish.” You wrote a well staged stab at your theories on the nature of our existence…something a “newbie” probably doesn’t think about too much. So please, refrain from the term, and consider yourself more of an aspiring philosopher. After all, it is much more uplifting than a simpleton cheap-shot.

10

How can you say that chaos won’t work?.. chaos always looks like chaos until you understand the movement and flow in the order of mass confusion. Every single movement has a meaning, because the ripple effect is constantly resonating. Life is a moment to moment choice…nothing more and nothing less. The meaning in the movement of a falling leaf is just as grand as mass extermination of the entire planet… chaos is what we are and that’s the only thing that can work for us, well until we understand that our chaos is actually a greater and simpler order of free will!

11

Damnit I wrote a sweet ass reply to everything yesterday, took me over two hours and right near the end my computer crashes >_<

let me start again…

Sagesound: Thanks, well you know… Newbie’s are frowned upon so I decided to put in some effort making my first post here… Anywayz.

Americano: It took me some time to come up with the first reply but since that’s wiped out I need some time to rewrite it again.

GalacticHeart: I think I look at the question at hand here in a more greater proportion. Because why should we have emotions? What is the reason for that? Do they have any significance to life? Are we helping another species in the foodchain to exist, or stay in balance? No. In fact, all it does is harm our species, and with that every other species here.

For example, emotions like hate, anger and greed can make us kill other harm other people and other life forms. And I’m not just talking about trees, murder and killing deer for fun. When we are using and creating the tools we need to fulfill those emotions, fast cars, planes, bombs, guns, we are at the same time polluting the earth, later perhaps more when our emotions drive us to explore and conquer more, something humans always seem to have found joy in doing. Entire wars are based upon emotions. They are killing everything around us. So if emotions are the reason why we florish and deteriorate at the same time, what is their purpose?

We clearly don’t seem to be contributing to life around us with our emotions. It does seem to seperate us from the rest of the life on the planet, which doesn’t seem to be capable of generating emotions. And we have the wonderfull thing of rationality, which I wouldn’t put in the same box as emotions. But rationality without emotions would likely turn into a world something like what George Orwell described in his book ‘1984’. But is this working what we are doing right now? The combination of the two is what got us this far, passion combined with knowledge is a powerfull thing.

But what could be the meaning of this progress? Where are we heading towards? Our dreams of (space)flight, desire to travel faster, live longer are becoming greater every day. Faster cars, faster information, faster relationships, faster world. More interaction, communication, progress is unstoppable!! Or is it inevitable? What makes us want to evolve in this rational way? The bears for example don’t seem to have this desire, but seem to have been doing just fine. Untill we came along and for some reason desided to kill more than was nescessary for our survival. And then the balance disturbed, we became rational and the rest of the massacre is history as we know it.

The first step in the line of questions of ‘are we alone?’ and ‘is there more?’ has already been answered by Columbus in 1492 when he discovered that the earth was round and that if you walked on and on in a straight line you’d come back in the same place from where you left. Before that you were supposed to fall right off the surface of the earth into the black void. The next step for us is to find out what the universe is. How big it is and so on. We already conquered our own planet, the next step will be to form colonies troughout the universe. I’m sure we’ll find a way, the only question is when. But that brings up another question. What’s behind the universe? Even more? Are we in the end bound to figure out the answer to the question of this topic? Or will each answer be part of a greater riddle? Is there going to be an end? And why?

12

First off, Hello to all. Long time reader, first time poster… :evilfun:

The answer is a simple one in my opinion. The meaning of Life is to gain a foothold into becoming a greater presence. This physical life is just the start of a long journey. This is where we learn the basics, learn how things work and should be worked. As I have stated… my opinion…

However, everyone should know by now that the TRUE answer is: 42!

Well met one and all!
:slight_smile:

13

42? are you kidding me?

philosophers have been searching the answer to this question for as long as philosophers exist and you’re telling me the meaning of life is the number 42?

have you got ANYthing to back that up??

14

The second largest computer in the universe spent many eons calculating it, the answer was 42.

15

additionally there is a very simple answer to questions like

who are you? - Yuxia
what are you doing here? enjoying life, fine food, fine living, family, friends, film, books, love etc.

Frankly I dont think this is a big question unless you make it sound big, the meaning of life is probably rather simple but in reality we ascribe this massive theological and philosophical emphasis to what is essentially a fairly straight forward question.

16

based on what did it come up with that answer? what did it calculate on? i assume that the computer has been made by humans… puzzled

research

oww right, the hitchikers guide to the galaxy, i should’ve known…

link

okay, we seem to have found a number that comes up in many different translations, problems en riddles. so what? what does that number tell us?

no, that doesn’t explain everything so easily for me… that number doesn’t tell me whether there is an end to everything, the meaning of chaos and that of life alltogether… for me it doesn’t anyways

17

Hmmm.

Divided by 2 it is 21.

21 divided by 3 is 7.

7 multiplied by 6 is 42.

Divided by 3 is 14.

14 divided by 4 is 3.5

3.5 multiplied by 7 is 24.5

Divided by 4 it is 10.5

10.5 divided by 5 is 2.1

2.1 multiplied by 8 is 16.8

Divided by 5 it is 8.4

8.4 divided by 6 is 1.4

1.4 multiplied by 9 is 12.6

24.5 subtracted from 42 is 17.5

16.8 subtracted from 24.5 is 7.7

12.6 subtracted from 16.8 is 4.2

17.5+7.7+4.2=

29.4

Holy shit!

Do you know what this means!?

18

in this topic, no.

19

Why do we persist in looking for a meaning that is higher than ourselves? Why can’t we just look at ourselves and observe that we try to attain pleasure and avoid pain? Why can’t that be the meaning of life?

Further, if God or some other higher power created us for a purpose, why should we care? We would probably not be aware of it anyway, like a bee is unaware that it is helping the flower – the bee just does what it feels like doing, that which is pleasurable.

There is however one way in which we are significantly different from the bee, in that we are able to anticipate and plan forward. Therefore our goal should be to mold the world into the one that gives us the largest amount of pleasure over time.

I am a complete egoist, I couldn’t care less about the feelings of others. I first realised this on a natural level, in observing that I sense only my own pleasure and pain. You may say that we do sense the feelings of others, but that is merely empathy – a feeling of pain or pleasure when we observe indications of those emotions in other people. It is still our own feelings, as an actor in a movie can bring forth the same emotions in us.

So we obviously do not care about the feelings of others on a physical level. But should we care about the feelings of others? To me it was obvious that we should, as it was the “right” thing to do. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it is simply against our nature. If caring about people would give me a reward in heaven, then that would be a reason to care. But if caring about others has no advantage for me, or even a disadvantage, why should I? I can find no compelling reason.

This is dangerous doctrine for those who do not think it trough; as doing what one feels like all the time, without thinking about consequences, is likely to get one into trouble. This is where religion and other moral systems are often beneficial for Joe Average, as it defines rules that work most of the time. While there is no reason not to kill, rape or steal in itself, those actions are often likely to get one into trouble. Therefore if a man is unable to think his actions through, he is better of living the lie of religion. In that sense an artifical meaning of life can have its purposes.

Ironically, I believe that my egocentric vision of society would result in a better world for nearly every one of us. When I think things trough from an egocentric perspective, I see that the best world for me to live in would be one filled with happy and accomplished people. People who can challenge me intellectually, who can laugh with me, and who can help me in exchange of me helping them.

Pleasure is the meaning of life, and positive egoism is the way of the future.

20

Wow celox, you are me. Ha, hey celox, and sorry everyone else for taking this thread to do this, but I would like you to read a thread of mine, heres the link

http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=1631343&highlight=#1631343

The ensuing conversation with martin is really good, though its long, I would love for you to read it. Please tell me what you think, preferably on that thread. Thnx if you can, no problem if you dont feel like reading all that :slight_smile:

Hope to hear from ya soon.