Jun
18
The Meaning of Life
Filed Under Motivation & Purpose | 10 Comments
This is an age old question that everyone has thought about at some point. Logically, I come to the conclusion that the meaning of life is to exist. I will use set theory for this argument.
We will start by picking anything (call it y) that exists and adding it to a set X. Then, we can ask some question of y, such as “why y?” The answer to that question would either be in X or not in X. If the answer to that question is not in X, then we can put the answer z into the set X and ask a question of z, such as “why z?” Repeat this process until infinity, and we’ll get a set X of everything that exists.
Since everything is in X, that would include the answer to the question, “What is the meaning of existence?”, or “Why X?”, since X represents the entire set of all things that exist. However, since everything that exists is in X, that would mean the answer to the question is also in X. That would mean existence can be defined by itself! Hence, existence IS the ultimate meaning.
Making existence the meaning of life makes some commonly fuzzy terms very definable:
Good - Things that increase existence
Bad - Things that decrease existence
Of course, a lot of things are still subjective, such as what does increasing existence mean? or How exactly do we define existence? The answers to these questions determine how people perceive life and how they live it.
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[…] As INTJs, we love to build things and increase efficiency. However, why do we want to do these things? This is of course, related to what our perception of the meaning of life. […]
so the purpose of a pink and purple gorilla is to exist as well since i can put pink and purple gorilla into set x…
and the purpose of my car is to exist as well? last time i checked, it was more useful than that
I think the subjective answers you are talking about are values.
Negative threats to what one values would possibly diminish the joy of existence; including our self-concept and threats to domains which we perceive as being central to our identity.
Kevin: Yeah, pink and purple gorillas don’t want to die either and likes to have sex as far as I can tell.
Yeah, the car’s purpose too is to exist. Somewhere, some time, somebody built the car, and that person very much wanted the car to exist.
Ian: I completely agree with everything you said here. People’s values and emotions dictate their perceptions of these negative threats, self-concept, and threats you mentioned. Hmmm, since society (including your family) shapes your values and nature shapes your emotions, that would seem to be pretty consistent for good evolutionary development.
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“Meaning” is, I think, something that lives only within the mind of the individual. The universe around us is only facts. Therefore there can be as many “meanings” to life as there are individuals.
One should guard against equating meaning and fact, as this can lead to a troubled life. Marcus Aurelius cautions never to ascribe meaning, but to keep to the bare facts. The mind is endlessly creative in producing terrible outcomes (a prediction of the future is nothing more than ascribing meaning to facts) and our ego finds it difficult to admit that we can err, at all, even in something life predicting the future.
@Mooche:
Yeah, I completely agree! This meaning of life is just from my perspective, which can definiately change over time. Everyone has their own perspective though and none of them are more right or wrong than any other inherently (although from any particular perspective, some other perspectives are “wrong”).
Although, “fact” is interesting. There kind of are no facts. Like everyone has a perspective and how you view the world (including the “facts”) is dependent upon that perspective. So it’s always colored in some way…
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