Meaning of life term paper

While the two are similar, dramatic differences exist – and one should not underestimate the power of meaningfulness. The quest for meaning is a key part of what makes us human," the researchers psychologist jennifer aaker studies happiness and meaningfulness in lives of meaningfulness and happiness overlap, they are distinctly different, according to stanford a study published in the journal of positive psychology, jennifer aaker of stanford graduate school of business, along with colleagues, found answers about life in how people spend their time and what experiences they cultivate. Happiness was linked to being a taker rather than a giver, whereas meaningfulness went with being a giver rather than a taker," aaker researchers surveyed 397 people over a month-long period, examining whether people thought their lives were meaningful or happy, as well as their choices, beliefs and values. They found five key differences between meaningfulness and happiness:• getting what you want and need: while satisfying desires was a reliable source of happiness, it had nothing to do with a sense of meaning. For example, healthy people are happier than sick people, but the lives of sick people do not lack meaning. Past, present and future: happiness is about the present, and meaning is about linking the past, present and future. When people spend time thinking about the future or past, the more meaningful, and less happy, their lives become. Deep relationships – such as family – increase meaning, while spending time with friends may increase happiness but had little effect on meaning. Struggles and stresses: highly meaningful lives encounter lots of negative events and issues, which can result in unhappiness. Raising children can be joyful but it is also connected to high stress – thus meaningfulness – and not always happiness. While the lack of stress may make one happier – like when people retire and no longer have the pressure of work demands – meaningfulness drops. Self and personal identity: if happiness is about getting what you want, then meaningfulness is about expressing and defining yourself. A life of meaning is more deeply tied to a valued sense of self and one's purpose in the larger context of life and can find meaning in life and be unhappy at the same points out that this type of life has received less attention in the media, which has recently focused on how to cultivate the happy life. Examples of highly meaningful, but not necessarily happy, lives may include nursing, social work or even unhappy but meaningful life involves difficult undertakings and can be characterized by stress, struggle and challenges. However, while sometimes unhappy in the moment, these people – connected to a larger sense of purpose and value – make positive contributions to ess without meaning is characterized by a relatively shallow and often self-oriented life, in which things go well, needs and desires are easily satisfied, and difficult or taxing entanglements are avoided, the report so, the meaningful life guides actions from the past through the present to the future, giving one a sense of direction. From achieving our goals to regarding ourselves in a positive light, a life of meaningfulness is considerably different than mere happiness. To have complete access to the thousands of philosophy articles on this site, on of the is the meaning of life? Is the meaning of life internal to life, to be found inherently in life’s many activities, or is it external, to be found in a realm somehow outside of life, but to which life leads? In the internal view it’s the satisfaction and happiness we gain from our actions that justify life. The external interpretation commonly makes the claim that there is a realm to which life leads after death. Our life on earth is evaluated by a supernatural being some call god, who will assign to us some reward or punishment after death. The meaning of our life, its purpose and justification, is to fulfill the expectations of god, and then to receive our final reward. But within the internal view of meaning, we can argue that meaning is best found in activities that benefit others, the community, or the earth as a whole. It’s just that the reward for these activities has to be found here, in the satisfactions that they afford within this life, instead of in some external spirit interesting way to contrast the internal and external views is to imagine walking through a beautiful landscape. In this case the meaning of your journey through the landscape is external to the experience of the landscape itself.

Meaning of life research paper

Think of all the reasons why you are glad you are alive (assuming you are), and there is the meaning of your life. Some have attempted to answer this question in a more objective way: that is to have an idea of what constitutes the good life. To suggest that there is demonstrates not so much arrogance as a lack of r way of rephrasing the question is “what is the purpose of life? It is a matter of debate whether this would make life a thing of greater value or turn us into the equivalent of rats in a laboratory experiment. But why does there have to be a purpose to life separate from those purposes generated within it? The idea that life needs no external justification has been described movingly by richard taylor. Our efforts may ultimately come to nothing but “the day was sufficient to itself, and so was the life. Life is meaningful to humans, therefore it has a linton, the question is in the singular we search for that which ties all values together in one unity, traditionally called ‘the good’. We must also reject any hermit, monastic, sect or other loner criteria for the good life. Isolation will not lead to any long-term harmony or peace in the global with nietzsche we ponder on the need for power in one’s life, but turn in the opposite direction from his ‘superman’ ideal, we will come to some form of the golden rule [‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’]. There is life-changing power in putting oneself in the place of the other person and feeling for and with them. Surely the goal or meaning of human life is therefore none other than finding oneself becoming a mature adult free to make one’s own decisions, yet wanting everyone in the world to have this same advantage. Meaning’ is a word referring to what we have in mind as ‘signification’, and it relates to intention and purpose. What seems inescapable is that there is no meaning associated with life other than that acquired by our consciousness, inherited via genes, developed and given content through memes (units of culture). Meaning for one person may entail supporting a football team; for another, climbing higher and higher mountains; for another, being a parent; for another, being moved by music, poetry, literature, dance or painting; for another the pursuit of truth through philosophy; for another through religious devotions, etc. I would exclude negative and destructive desires; for example of a brutal dictator who may find torturing others absorbing and engaging and thus meaningful. Such cases would be too perverse and morally repugnant to regard as anything other than meaning of life for individuals may diminish or fade as a consequence of decline or difficult or tragic circumstances. The meaning is also likely to change from one phase of life to another, due to personal development, new interests, contexts, commitments and brookes, woodhouse eaves, is clearly internet shopping, franchised fast food and surgically-enhanced boobs. We should just be thankful that our lifespan is longer than, say, a spider, or your household over-evolved human minds want more, but unfortunately there is nothing more. And if there is some deity or malignant devil, then you can be sure they’ve hidden any meaning pretty well and we won’t see it in our mortal lives. So, enjoy yourself; be nice to people, if you like; but there’s no more meaning than someone with surgically-enhanced boobs, shopping on the net while eating a big maltman, by ask ‘what is the meaning of life? Phrase the question in this fashion implies that meaning is something that inheres in an object or experience – that it is a quality which is as discernible as the height of a door or the solidity of matter. There is no one meaning of, say, a poem, because meaning is generated by it being read and thought about by a subject. As subjects differ so does the meaning: different people evaluate ideas and concepts in different ways, as can be seen from ethical dilemmas. But it would be wrong to say that all these meanings are completely different, as there are similarities between individuals, not least because we belong to the same species and are constructed and programmed in basically the same way.

We all have feelings of fear, attachment, insecurity and passion, to speak of ‘the meaning of life’, is an error. It would be more correct to refer to the ‘meanings of life’, but as there are currently around six billion humans on earth, and new psychological and cultural variations coming into being all the time, to list and describe all of these meanings would be a nigh on impossible ‘find meaning in life’ is a better way of approaching the issue, ie, whilst there is no single meaning of life, every person can live their life in a way which brings them as much fulfilment and contentment as possible. To use utilitarian language, the best that one can hope for is a life which contains as great an excess of pleasure over pain as possible, or alternatively, a life in which as least time as possible is devoted to activities which do not stimulate, or which do nothing to promote the goals one has set for else, swadlincote, meaning of life is not being question is tricky because of its hidden premise that life has meaning per se. A perfectly rational if discomforting position is given by nietzsche, that someone in the midst of living is not in a position to discern whether it has meaning or not, and since we cannot step outside of the process of living to assess it, this is therefore not a question that bears r, if we choose to ignore the difficulties of evaluating a condition while inside it, perhaps one has to ask the prior question, what is the meaning of meaning? Or do we in our freedom construct the category ‘meaning’ and then fill in the contours and colours? I might decide to dedicate my life to answering this particular question, granting myself an autonomously devised purpose. Some metaphysics offer exactly this corollary – that in pursuing one’s proper good, and thus one’s meaning, one is pursuing one’s telos or purpose. The point of these two very brief summaries of approaches to the question is to show the hazards in this construction of the zoppa, the university of thing one can hardly fail to notice about life is that it is self-perpetuating. Through natural selection, life forms adapt to their environment, and in the process they acquire, one might say they become, knowledge about that environment, the world in which they live and of which they are part. From this perspective, adopting the pursuit of knowledge as a possible meaning of one’s life seems, literally, a natural choice. The history of science and philosophy is full of examples of people who have done just that, and in doing so they have helped human beings to earn the self-given title of homo sapiens – man of winter, wynnum, is a stage and we are the actors, said william shakespeare, possibly recognizing that life quite automatically tells a story just as any play tells a story. So the meaning of life is like the meaning of ‘the play’ in principle: not a single play with its plot and underlying values and information, but the meaning behind the reason for there being plays with playwright, stage, actors, props, audience, and theatre. Life, a grand play written with mankind’s grand imagination, has this same besides being the playwright, you are the audience too, the recipient of the playwrights’ messages. Give me liberty or give me death,” said patrick henry, for without liberty life has no meaningful purpose. Therefore liberty is the meaning of bacci, napa, meaning of life is understood according to the beliefs that people adhere to. If the meaning of life is wanted, a meaning that will transcend the test of time or the particulars of individual beliefs, then an effort to arrive at a truly objective determination must be made. Otherwise, the meaning of life could not be ively however, life has no meaning because meaning or significance cannot be obtained without reference to some (arbitrary) belief system. Absent a subjective belief system to lend significance to life, one is left with the ‘stuff’ of life, which, however offers no testimony as to its meaning. Without beliefs to draw meaning from, life has no meaning, but is merely a thing; a set of facts that, in and of themselves, are silent as to what they mean. Life consists of a series of occurrences in an infinite now, divorced of meaning except for what may be ascribed by constructed belief systems. And indeed it does when an individual willfully directs his/her consciousness at an aspect of life, deriving from it an individual interpretation, and then giving this interpretation creative expression. Thus the meaning in the act of giving creative expression to what may be ephemeral insights. The meaning of life, however, is not the thing created, but the creative act itself; namely, that of willfully imposing an interpretation onto the stuff of life, and projecting a creative expression from casso, laredo, than prattle on and then discover that i am merely deciding what ‘meaning’ means, i will start out with the assumption that by ‘meaning’ we mean ‘purpose. The best purpose for which i can live my life is, refusing all the easy ways to destroy. Refusing to destroy life – to murder – wouldn’t just depend on our lack of homicidal impulses, but also on our willingness to devote our time to finding out which companies have murdered union uprisers; to finding out whether animals are killed out of need or greed or ease; to finding the best way to refuse to fund military murder, if we find our military to be murdering rather than merely protecting.

So, it turns out, we finally say “yes” to life, when we come out with a resounding, throat-wrecking “no! Propose that the knowledge we have now accumulated about life discloses quite emphatically that we are entirely a function of certain basic laws as they operate in the probably unique conditions prevailing here on behaviour of the most elementary forms of matter we know, subatomic particles, seems to be guided by four fundamental forces, of which electromagnetism is probably the most significant here, in that through the attraction and repulsion of charged particles it allows an almost infinite variation of bonding: it allows atoms to form molecules, up the chain to the molecules of enormous length and complexity we call as nucleic acids, and proteins. Since i believe we are nothing more than physics and chemistry, death terminates our life once and for all. But optimistically, there is the joy of realising that we have the power of nature within us, and that by co-operating with our fellow man, by nurturing the resources of the world, by fighting disease, starvation, poverty and environmental degradation, we can all conspire to improve life and celebrate not only its survival on this planet, but also its proliferation. So the purpose of life is just that: to involve all living things in the common purpose of promoting and enjoying what we are – a wondrous expression of the laws of nature, the power of the f. What makes a human life have meaning or significance is not the mere living of a life, but reflecting on the living of a the most reflective among us get caught up in pursuing ends and goals. What makes a life filled with them either significant or insignificant is reflecting on why one pursues those goals. But it puts one in a position to say that one’s life has meaning or does discovers this meaning or significance by evaluating one’s life and meditating on it; by taking a step back from the everyday and thinking about one’s life in a different way. If one doesn’t do this, then one’s life has no meaning or significance. And that isn’t because one has the wrong sorts of goals or ends, but rather has failed to take up the right sort of reflective perspective on one’s life. This comes close to socrates’ famous saying that the unexamined life is not worth living. I would venture to say that the unexamined life has no woodling, gainesville, the sake of argument, let’s restrict the scope of the discussion to the human species, and narrow down the choices to. In this way, the meaning of life could be to continue the process of evolution. Whatever the specific motivation, there is something that we crave, and that is to love and be meaning of life may never be definitively known. The truth of the meaning of life is likely in the eye of the beholder. You will be question of the d articlesart (and philosophy) and the ultimate aims of human living without transcendence: a homage to ’s the meaning of all this? Praise of the meaningless articles from this site uses cookies to recognize users and allow us to analyse site usage. You will be question of the d articlesbefore g with the pack by mark philosophy of john meaning of life (i). And the meaning of articles from this site uses cookies to recognize users and allow us to analyse site usage. 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While these concepts have some bearing ess and morality, they are straightforwardly construed ts of which final ends a person ought to realize in order a life that matters. Despite the venerable pedigree, it is the last 50 years or so that something approaching a distinct the meaning of life has been established in ophy, and it is only in the last 30 years that debate with has appeared. Concomitant with the demise of positivism and arianism in the post-war era has been the rise of y into non-hedonistic conceptions of value, tions of meaning in life, grounded on relatively uncontroversial. English-speaking philosophers can ed to continue to find life's meaning of interest as singly realize that it is a distinct topic that admits al enquiry to no less a degree than more familiar ries such as well-being, virtuous character, and survey critically discusses approaches to meaning in life prominent in contemporary anglo-american ture. However, the central aim is to acquaint the reader analytic work on life's meaning and to pose questions about are currently worthy of the topic of the meaning of life comes up, people often pose two questions: “so, what is the meaning of life? This off with works that address the latter, abstract ing the sense of talk of “life's meaning,” i. That aim to clarify what we are asking when we pose the question , if anything, makes life meaningful. Afterward, it that provide answers to the more substantive question about of meaning as a property. However, most recent discussions of meaning in life ts to capture in a single principle all the ions that can confer meaning on life. This survey y on the articulation and evaluation of these theories of make life meaningful. It concludes by examining nihilist the conditions necessary for meaning in life do not obtain of us, i. Part of the field of life's meaning consists of the t to clarify what people mean when they ask in virtue of has meaning. A large majority of those writing on life's meaning of it centrally to indicate a positive final value that dual's life can exhibit. That is, comparatively few that a meaningful life is a merely neutral quality, or is of key interest is the meaning of the human species se as a whole (for discussions focused on the latter, s 1972; munitz 1986; seachris 2009). Most in the field tely wanted to know whether and how the existence of one of time has meaning, a certain property that is desirable for drawing the distinction between the life of an individual of a whole, there has been very little discussion of life as l bearer of meaning. For instance, is the individual's life tood biologically, qua human being, or instead as nce of a person that may or may not be human (flanagan 1996)? If an individual is loved from afar, can it logically affect gfulness of her “life” (brogaard and smith 2005,Returning to topics on which there is consensus, most writing g believe that it comes in degrees such that some periods are more meaningful than others and that some lives as a more meaningful than others (perhaps contra britton. Note that one can coherently hold the view that 's lives are less meaningful than others, or even meaningless,And still maintain that people have an equal moral status. Consider uentialist view according to which each individual counts in virtue of having a capacity for a meaningful life (cf. On both views, morality could counsel an agent to help relatively meaningless lives, at least if the condition is r uncontroversial element of the sense of. Meaningfulness” is that it connotes a good that tually distinct from happiness or rightness (ized in wolf 2010). First, to ask whether someone's life gful is not one and the same as asking whether her life is pleasant. A life in an experience or virtual reality machine vably be happy but very few take it to be a prima ate for meaningfulness (nozick 1974: 42–45). Indeed, say that talk of “meaning” by definition excludes ility of it coming from time spent in an experience machine. Although there have been a small handful who disagree and a meaningful life just is a pleasant life.

By helping others at the expense of one's , asking whether a person's existence is significant is cal to considering whether she has been morally upright; to be ways to enhance meaning that have nothing to do ty, at least impartially conceived, for instance, making ific course, one might argue that a life would be meaningless if ( because) it were unhappy or immoral, particularly telian conceptions of these disvalues. Synthetic, substantive relationship between the concepts, and is indicating that speaking of “meaning in life” ically a matter of connoting ideas regarding happiness ess, which is what i am denying here. My point is that on of what makes a life meaningful is conceptually distinct question of what makes a life happy or moral, even if it turns the best answer to the question of meaning appeals to an one of these other evaluative talk about meaning in life is not by definition talk ess or rightness, then what is it about? One answer is that a meaningful life is by definition has achieved choice-worthy purposes (nielsen 1964). It might be that a focus on any kind of purpose is too ruling out the logical possibility that meaning could inhere n actions, experiences, states, or relationships that have adopted as ends and willed and that perhaps even could not be,E. In addition, purpose-based analyses exclude as not being about life'g some of the most widely read texts that purport to be , namely, jean-paul sartre's (1948) existentialist account g being constituted by whatever one chooses, and 's (1970, ch. 18) discussion of sisyphus being able to g in his life merely by having his strongest desires are prima facie accounts of meaning in life, but do ially involve the attainment of purposes that foster coherence,Intelligibility or latter problem also faces the alternative suggestion that talk of. Life's meaning” is not necessarily about purposes, but just a matter of referring to goods that are or, worthy of love and devotion, and appropriately awed (taylor. It is implausible to think that these criteria ied by subjectivist appeals to whatever choices one ends or to whichever desires happen to be strongest for a gh relatively few have addressed the question of whether a single, primary sense of “life's meaning,” ity to find one so far might suggest that none exists. Meaning in life,” we have in mind one or more of d ideas: certain conditions that are worthy of great pride tion, values that warrant devotion and love, qualities that make. Meaning in life” fails to exhibit even this degree of unity, and d a grab-bag of heterogenous ideas (mawson 2010; the field reflects more on the sense of “life'g,” it should not only try to ascertain in what respect of unity, but also try to differentiate the concept of life'g from other, closely related ideas. For instance, the a worthwhile life is probably not identical to that of a (baier 1997, ch. For instance, one would not tually confused to claim that a meaningless life full of res would be worth living. The field does not need an extremely precise analysis concept of life's meaning (or definition of the phrase. Life's meaning”) in order to make progress on ntive question of what life's meaning is. Knowing gfulness analytically concerns a variable and gradient in a person's life that is conceptually distinct from happiness,Rightness, and worthwhileness provides a certain amount of . The rest of this discussion addresses attempts tically capture the nature of this english speaking philosophers writing on meaning in life to develop and evaluate theories, i. Fundamental l principles that are meant to capture all the particular a life could obtain meaning. Es are views that meaning in life must be constituted by n relationship with a spiritual realm. If god or a soul exist, or if they exist but one fails to have the onship with them, then supernaturalism—or the n of it (on which i focus)—entails that one's life gless. Note that logical space for a non-naturalist theory that meaning is on of abstract properties that are neither spiritual al. However, only scant attention has been paid to ility in the anglo-american literature (williams 1999; aturalist thinkers in the monotheistic tradition are d into those with god-centered views and soul-centered former take some kind of connection with god (understood to be ual person who is all-knowing, all-good, and all-powerful is the ground of the physical universe) to constitute meaning , even if one lacks a soul (construed as an immortal, nce). The latter deem having a soul and putting it into n state to be what makes life meaningful, even if god does . 1 god-centered most widely held and influential god-based account of meaning is that one's existence is more significant, the better ls a purpose god has assigned. Plan for the universe and that one's life is meaningful to that one helps god realize this plan, perhaps in the god wants one to do so (affolter 2007).

Fulfilling god's choice is the sole source of meaning, with the existence of ife not necessary for it (brown 1971; levine 1987; cottingham. If a person failed to do what god intends him to do with , then, on the current view, his life would be i call “purpose theorists” differ over what it god's purpose that makes it uniquely able to confer meaning lives. However, euthyphro ly plague this rationale; god's purpose for us must be of ular sort for our lives to obtain meaning by fulfilling it ( often pointed out, serving as food for intergalactic 't do), which suggests that there is a standard external to god'e that determines what the content of god's purpose ought to be. Universally applicable and binding moral code is not necessary g in life, even if the act of helping others is (ellin 1995,Other purpose theorists contend that having been created by god for would be the only way that our lives could avoid gent (craig 1994; cf. Still e theorists maintain that our lives would have meaning r as they were intentionally fashioned by a creator, ing meaning of the sort that an art-object has (gordon 1983). Though, freely choosing to do any particular thing would not ary for meaning, and everyone's life would have an equal meaning, which are both counterintuitive implications (see trisel. A promising reason for thinking that fulfilling god's (d to any human's) purpose is what constitutes meaning only does each of these versions of the purpose theory ic problems, but they all face this shared objection: if ed us a purpose, then god would degrade us and thereby possibility of us obtaining meaning from fulfilling the purpose. The basic idea is that for condition to be meaningful, it must obtain its meaning r condition that has meaning. So, if one's life is meaningful,It might be so in virtue of being married to a person, who ant. And this work must obtain its meaning by being related ing else that is meaningful, and so on. A regress on conditions is present, and the suggestion is that the terminate only in something infinite, a being so it need not (indeed, cannot) go beyond itself to obtain anything else. And that is standard objection to this rationale is that a finite be meaningful without obtaining its meaning from gful condition; perhaps it could be meaningful in itself, its meaning by being related to something beautiful, otherwise valuable for its own sake but not meaningful ( purpose- and infinity-based rationales are the two most ces of god-centered theory in the literature, and list can point out that they arguably face a common problem: physical world seems able to do the job for which god tedly necessary. Nature seems able to ground a ty and the sort of final value from which meaning might other god-based views seem to suffer from this same problem. However, the point out that an impersonal, karmic-like force of nature conceivably could bute penalties and rewards in the way a retributive would, and that actually living together in onships would seem to confer much more meaning on life than a loving. This point, the supernaturalist could usefully step back t on what it might be about god that would make him to confer meaning in life, perhaps as follows from the theological tradition. For god to be solely responsible for icance in our lives, god must have certain qualities that found in the natural world, these qualities must be or to any goods possible in a physical universe, and they what ground meaning in it. Here, the supernaturalist could meaning depends on the existence of a perfect being, tion requires properties such as atemporality, simplicity, bility that are possible only in a spiritual realm (metz 2013,Chs. Meaning might come from loving a perfect being ing one's life toward it in other ways such as imitating it fulfilling its purpose, perhaps a purpose tailor-made for dual (as per affolter 2007). On the one hand, in order for be the sole source of meaning, god must be utterly unlike us; more god were like us, the more reason there would be to think obtain meaning from ourselves, absent god. On the other hand,The more god is utterly unlike us, the less clear it is how we meaning by relating to him. Soul-centered theory is the view that meaning in from relating in a certain way to an immortal, nce that supervenes on one's body when it is alive and forever outlive its death. If one lacks a soul, or if one has but relates to it in the wrong way, then one's life gless. Tolstoy argues that for life to be ing must be worth doing, that nothing is worth doing if does will make a permanent difference to the world, and so requires having an immortal, spiritual self. 462), for god's eternal remembrance of one's mortal be sufficient for other major rationale for a soul-based theory of life's that a soul is necessary for perfect justice, which, in turn, ary for a meaningful life. Life seems nonsensical when flourish and the righteous suffer, at least supposing there other world in which these injustices will be rectified, god or by karma.

However, like the ale, the inferential structure of this one seems weak; even afterlife were required for just outcomes, it is not obvious eternal afterlife should be thought necessary ( has been done to try to make the inferences of these nts stronger, and the basic strategy has been to appeal to of perfection (metz 2013, ch. While far sly sound, these arguments at least provide some reason ng that immortality is necessary to satisfy the major what is required for r, both arguments are still plagued by a problem facing al versions; even if they show that meaning depends ality, they do not yet show that it depends on having. What reason is there to think that one a soul in particular for life to be significant? Most promising reason seems to be one that takes us beyond version of soul-centered theory to the more complex view god and a soul constitute meaning. The best justification ng that one must have a soul in order for one's life to icant seems to be that significance comes from uniting with a spiritual realm such as heaven, a view espoused by s, leo tolstoy (1884), and contemporary religious thinkers. Great works, whether they be moral, aesthetic, ectual, would seem to confer meaning on one's life regardless r one will live forever. However, if indeed soul-centered theory ultimately relies about meaning turning on perfection, such a view is least for being simple, and rival views have yet to specify in pled and thoroughly defended way where to draw the line at perfection (perhaps a start is metz 2013, ch. What less amount of value is sufficient for a life to count s of soul-based views maintain not merely that immortality necessary for meaning in life, but also that it is sufficient for. One influential argument is that an immortal life,Whether spiritual or physical, could not avoid becoming boring,Rendering life pointless (williams 1973; ellin 1995, 311–12;. Suppose, ce, that one volunteers to be bored so that many others will bored; perhaps this would be a meaningful sacrifice to r argument that being immortal would be sufficient to make insignificant is that persons who cannot die could not n virtues (nussbaum 1989; kass 2001). And of course it is not obvious that e, benevolence and courage would not be possible if we al, perhaps if we were not always aware that we could not die our indestructible souls could still be harmed by virtue of , frustrated ends, and repetitive are other, related arguments maintaining that awareness ality would have the effect of removing meaning from life, say,Because our lives would lack a sense of preciousness and urgency. Now address views that even if there is no spiritual realm, life is possible, at least for many people. Among those who a significant existence can be had in a purely physical world by science, there is debate about two things: the extent the human mind constitutes meaning and whether there ions of meaning that are invariant among human tivists believe that there are no invariant standards of e meaning is relative to the subject, i. Depends on dual's pro-attitudes such as desires, ends, and y, something is meaningful for a person if she believes it to seeks it out. Objectivists maintain, in contrast, that there invariant standards for meaning because meaning is (at ) mind-independent, i. Here,Something is meaningful (to some degree) in virtue of its , independent of whether it is believed to be meaningful is logical space for an intersubjective theory according there are invariant standards of meaning for human beings constituted by what they would all agree upon from a al standpoint (darwall 1983, chs. However, onal approach is not much of a player in the field and so i aside in what ing to this view, meaning in life varies from person to person,Depending on each one's variable mental states. Common instances that one's life is more meaningful, the more one gets what s to want strongly, the more one achieves one's highly , or the more one does what one believes to be really important. Lately, one tivist has maintained that the relevant mental state is loving, so that life is meaningful just to the extent that about or loves something (frankfurt 1982, 2002, 2004). Such a method has been used the existence of objective value, and, as a result,Subjectivism about meaning has lost its who continue to hold subjectivism often are suspicious of justify beliefs about objective value (e. Theorists are to accept subjectivism because the alternatives table; they are sure that value in general and meaning ular exists, but do not see how it could be grounded ing independent of the mind, whether it be the natural, -natural, or the supernatural. In contrast to these possibilities,It appears straightforward to account for what is meaningful in what people find meaningful or what people want out of -ranging meta-ethical debates in epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of language are necessary to address this are two other, more circumscribed arguments for is that subjectivism is plausible since it is reasonable to a meaningful life is an authentic one (frankfurt 1982). If 's life is significant insofar as she is true to herself or t nature, then we have some reason to believe that is a function of satisfying certain desires held by dual or realizing certain ends of hers. Work trates the mind and relationships that are engrossing l to meaning and to be so because of the subjective ed, that is, because of the concentration and r, critics maintain that both of these arguments are a common objection: they neglect the role of objective value realizing oneself and in losing oneself (taylor 1992, esp. There seem to be s, relationships, states, and experiences that one ought trate on or be engrossed in, if meaning is to says the objectivist, but many subjectivists also feel the pull point.

Naturalists believe that meaning is constituted (at least in part) ing physical independent of the mind about which we can t or incorrect beliefs. Instead,There are certain inherently worthwhile or finally ions that confer meaning for anyone, neither merely are wanted, chosen, or believed to be meaningful, nor somehow are grounded in ty and creativity are widely held instances of actions meaning on life, while trimming toenails and eating snow ( other counterexamples to subjectivism above) are not. Thought to be the best explanation for these respective kinds nts: the former are actions that are meaningful regardless r any arbitrary agent (whether it be an individual,her society,Or even god) judges them to be meaningful or seeks to engage in them,While the latter actions simply lack significance and cannot obtain someone believes them to have it or engages in them. To g in one's life, one ought to pursue the former actions the latter ones. A large majority of them believe that a life is more merely because of objective factors, but also in part because tive ones such as cognition, affection, and emotion. Ly held is the hybrid view captured by susan wolf's : “meaning arises when subjective attraction ive attractiveness” (wolf 1997a, 211; see also hepburn. This theory implies that no meaning accrues to one's life believes in, is satisfied by, or cares about a project that is hile, or if one takes up a worthwhile project but fails to important, be satisfied by it, care about it or otherwise it. Different versions of this theory will have ts of the appropriate mental states and of objectivists deny that subjective attraction plays tutive role in conferring meaning on life. For instance,Utilitarians with respect to meaning (as opposed to morality) are ivists, for they claim that certain actions confer meaning regardless of the agent's reactions to them. On this view, one benefits others, the more meaningful one's life, whether one enjoys benefiting them, believes they should be aided,Etc. Midway between pure objectivism and the hybrid theory is that having certain propositional attitudes toward finally ties would enhance the meaning of life without being it (audi 2005, 344). Have been several attempts to theoretically capture what ively attractive, inherently worthwhile, or finally ions have in common insofar as they bear on meaning. Most objectivists, however, respective aesthetic and ethical theories to be too narrow, living a moral life is necessary for a meaningful one (landau. It seems to most in the field not only that creativity ty are independent sources of meaning, but also that there s in addition to these two. For just a few examples, an intellectual discovery, rearing children with love, , and developing superior athletic , in the literature one finds a variety of principles that aim e all these and other (apparent) objective grounds of can read the perfectionist tradition as proffering es of what a significant existence is, even if their not frequently use contemporary terminology to express er aristotle's account of the good life for a human being that fulfills its natural purpose qua rational, marx' of a distinctly human history characterized by less more autonomy, culture, and community, and nietzsche's ideal of with a superlative degree of power, creativity, and recently, some have maintained that objectively ions are just those that involve: transcending the limits of to connect with organic unity (nozick 1981, ch. Rewarding experiences in the life of the agent or of others the agent affects (audi 2005); making progress that in principle can never be completely realized because one'dge of them changes as one approaches them (levy 2005);. Goals that are transcendent for being long-lasting on and broad in scope (mintoff 2008); or contouring fundamental conditions of human life (metz 2013). Major test of these theories is whether they capture ences, states, relationships, and actions that intuitively meaningful. The more counterexamples of apparently ions that a principle entails lack meaning, the less principle. There is as yet no convergence in the field on any ple or even cluster as accounting for commonsensical meaning to an adequate, convincing degree. Are these pluralists correct,Or does the field have a good chance of discovering a single, ty that grounds all the particular ways to acquire meaning r important way to criticize these theories is hensive: for all that has been said so far, the es are aggregative or additive, objectionably reducing life to a. As with the growth of “organic unity” views in t of debates about intrinsic value, it is becoming common that life as a whole (or at least long stretches of it) ntially affect its meaning apart from the amount of meaning instance, a life that has lots cent and otherwise intuitively meaning-conferring that is also extremely repetitive (à la the hog day) is less than maximally meaningful (taylor. Furthermore, a life that not only avoids repetition but with a substantial amount of meaningful parts seems to have g overall than one that has the same amount of meaningful ends with few or none of them (kamm 2003, 210–14). And in which its meaningless parts cause its meaningful parts to through a process of personal growth seems meaningful in this causal pattern or being a “good life-story”. Whole, which entails that there are strictly speaking no parts ts of a life that can be meaningful in themselves (tabensky.

For another example, some accept that both a life and a life as a whole can be independent bearers of meaning,But maintain that the latter has something like a lexical the former when it comes to what to pursue or otherwise to are the ultimate bearers of meaning? They all a function of narrativity, life-stories, and -expression (as per kauppinen 2012), or are there holistic life's meaning that are not a matter of such literary concepts? Importance should they be accorded by an agent seeking meaning far, i have addressed theoretical accounts that have been tood to be about what confers meaning on life, which s that some lives are in fact meaningful. According sm (or pessimism), what would make a life meaningful obtain or as a matter of fact simply never straightforward rationale for nihilism is the combination aturalism about what makes life meaningful and atheism r god exists. If you believe that god or a soul is meaning in life, and if you believe that neither exists, then a nihilist, someone who denies that life has meaning. Is famous for expressing this kind of perspective, the lack of an afterlife and of a rational, divinely se undercuts the possibility of meaning (camus 1955; stingly, the most common rationales for nihilism these days appeal to supernaturalism. The idea shared among many sts is that there is something inherent to the human prevents meaning from arising, even granting that god exists. Ce, some nihilists make the schopenhauerian claim that our meaning because we are invariably dissatisfied; either we yet obtained what we seek, or we have obtained it and are bored. Nihilists claim that life would be meaningless if there were ant moral rules that could be fully justified—the be nonsensical if, in (allegedly) dostoyevskian terms,“everything were permitted”—and that such exist for persons who can always reasonably question a (murphy 1982, ch. If the physical world at present contains te degree of value, nothing we do can make a difference in meaning, for infinity plus any amount of value must way to question this argument is to suggest that even if add to the value of the universe, meaning plausibly by being the source of value. Now a variety of rationales for anti-natalism, but most debates about whether life is meaningful is probably the nt from david benatar (2006, 18–59). The most internal perspective would be ular human being's desire at a given instant, with a internal perspective being one's interests over a life-time, even less internal perspective being the interests of one's community. Takes up this most external standpoint and views one'—and even downright puny—impact on the world, one's life appears to matter. 316–17; blackburn 2001, 79–80; schmidtz 2001) or ations that nagel believes it has for the meaning of our lives. These and the other questions posed in still lack conclusive answers, another respect in which of life's meaning is tantalizingly open for er, j. 2011, the meaning of life: a modern to the age-old fundamental question, ndent publishing a, m. 2003, on the meaning of life, london:–––, 2005, the spiritual dimension:Religion, philosophy and human value, cambridge: , w. 1984, “god and the meaning of life”,In boston university studies in philosophy and religion, volume 6:On nature, l. 2008, “the meaning of life: subjectivism,Objectivism, and divine support”, in the moral life: honour of john cottingham, n. 1986, “the informed will and the meaning ”, philosophy and phenomenological research, 47:–––, 2000, “the meaning of life”, t studies in philosophy, volume 24; life and death:Metaphysics and ethics, p. 2010, “sources of dissatisfaction with the question of the meaning of life”, european philosophy of religion, 2: 19–, t. 2012, “the meaningful and the worthwhile:Clarifying the relationships”, the philosophical forum,–––, 2013, meaning in life: an , oxford: oxford university f, j. 1997, “kant on ends and the meaning ”, in reclaiming the history of ethics: essays for , a. 1997a, “happiness and meaning: two aspects of life”, social philosophy and policy, 14:–––, 1997b, “meaningful lives in gless world”, quaestiones infinitae, volume. Cambridge, ma: the mit press:–––, 2010, meaning in life and why s, princeton: princeton university im, r.

2012, the meaning of life: religious,Philosophical, transhumanist, and scientific approaches, seattle:Darwin and hume n, g. 2003, the death of god and the meaning , new york: to cite this w the pdf version of this entry at s of the sep up this entry the indiana philosophy ontology ed bibliography for this philpapers, with links to its internet resources.