[b]All who dont feel like taxing yourselves, come have a look anyway..[/b]
[i]Inb4 42
Inb4 Tl'dr
Inb4 NEEEERRD[/i]
Suppose, The meaning of life is value creation. That does not mean that the meaning of life is value. Meaningfulness is to value as efflorescence is to flowers. Efflorescence flowers and meaning and value. Instead, just as the plant is efflorescent if it produces flowers, a life or an action or a whatever is meaningful if it's one that creates value.
Think of [i]Sisyphus[/i]. Sisyphus is the guy who the gods condemned to pushing a rock up a hill for all eternity, just so it could fall back down the hill for him to push back up again. For all eternity. That sounds like fun does it not Bnet?
His life is the epitome of meaninglessness and futility. Why? What is it missing? It wouldn't matter if the rock pushing was actually strenuous, or even if he got a small sense of satisfaction from pushing it up before the rock fell back down again. His life is meaningless because nothing of value will ever come out his activity. Forever.. sucks right?
His life sucks. And ours might, too. How do you know that Sisyphus cannot derive value from rolling the boulder up the hill? Because is there really anything out there we can do that is different in character from the meaningless pushing of rocks up hills such that something of actual value is created? Just because It seems to arbitrarily stipulate objective conditions for subjective value-creating does mean it cannot simulate a microsm of life in itself.
Would not this be the case? I'd think so. All art may be temporary, good times may be temporary, our loved ones may be temporary, and even our memories may be temporary. But in the moments we grasp them in our senses and cherish them - I think value is happening. Value might be like bubbles - sweet, beautiful and ultimately evanescent.
Yes, they ultimately pop, but what's important is that we fill our lives with as many of them as possible. Big ones. Long-lasting ones. Exceptionally unique and beautiful ones. But lots of them. And that we leave some of the best behind for the ones we love, too. Is this not superior to having no life what so ever athough you might be just valuing blowing bubbles or playing Video Games?
As for value, itself. It's definitely subjective. If it were objective, that would suck since life would be all about doing what the universe wants of you, rather than what you want of you. Life would just be a loop of that time you were having a great time with your friends but were forced to stop because of some list of chores. But it's not objective. Life is not a list of chores (Unless you follow a Kantian rule of the Catagorical nature of moral imperitves and duties).
Life is actually A Bunch of Opportunities to Do Something Awesome. Play some great games. Do something romantic. Scribble up the Mona Lisa. Build connections with people. Become the world's leading expert in something. Save someone from a moment of desperation. Make the perfect cake. Give. Whatever.
These opportunities can be ignored. Some opportunities can be emphasized over others. There is definitely an ideal - a perfect way you could and should organize your time and behavior such that value gets maximized. You should definitely aspire for it. You should definitely seek to get the most out of life. You definitely shouldn't be the sort of person who always fails at life. This includes not just losers and creeps, but also assholes and douchebags, Evil Human Beings and Basically Unpleasant People. These people suck. The most value they can extract out of life is the utter excitement of seeing a bubble pop. They don't just make life bad and meaningless for them, but also for us by destroying the systems of trust and goodwill we need make truly great and plentiful bubbles of value in the world.
Despite being subjective, what makes something valuable is independent of we think or even of what we want. The difference between things that are desired and things that are truly worthy of desire is straightforward. It might be theoretically possible for us to desire insufferable circumstances for their own sake, but by definition those circumstances are bad. To get precisely what one wants would be a tragedy in a very objective sense for the individual if what the individual ultimately gets from his wanting is suffering and suffering alone.
So even in a world where value isn't a list of chores, we still have to go looking for it.
We still have to figure out more concretely what to pursue and how to do it.
Even while avoiding the sort of paralysis that comes with thought about this issue.
Because every moment counts in the quest for a meaningful life. So here is my suggestion: that life has no meaning unless it reaches beyond itself. Which must mean that actions which have far reaching consequences are of the most value? In some cases; obviously.
Right?
[b]Chu think Savages?
Oyeah. I will give out a random [url=http://i44.tinypic.com/23w8rjc.jpg]Destiny poster [/url]to
someone who engages themselves. Bnet needs more actual decent discussions.[/b]
[u]UPDATE: Loving he disscussion here folks. I think I will post more of these types of threads if people want me to. Some of the posts I have got have already given me some more topics to bring up. Just follow me uf you want to be updated.[/u].
~Peace~
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Kein. That is the meaning of life.
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I would reply, but the fact I will receive negative responses... ...Yeah no thanks.
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The meaning of life is literally to have sex. And then depending on your species raise the kids
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Edited by Duke: 11/5/2013 4:21:10 PM
Started a new topic: A philisophical discussion: MetaEthics(8 Replies))
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Yup! The horse knows all.
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Edited by Orochimaru: 11/5/2013 4:51:50 PM
Started a new topic: A philisophical discussion: What is a man?(1 Reply)
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Edited by Ossku: 11/5/2013 4:57:21 PMTheres no meaning of life unless you set one.
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Change your fucking avatar Duke, or i will murder your internet.
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Nerd!
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If I hadn't found this so late and with my attention span slipping, I'd of chimed in. But I'm tired, so obligatory [spoiler]tl;dr[/spoiler]
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Some believe that the meaning of human life is to love.
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Meaning of life: to live out God's word delivered through the bible and to lead others to go the same.
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The meaning of life is what you make it out to be.
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Purpose to life: To live.
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Everyone knows it's 42 you nerd. OT: TLDR
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Flood. I are impress. Not bad (y) Didn't expect to get this thread past 50 posts.
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I'm going to have to go with 42.
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Hmmmm I was thinking... Is there any point of philosophy if there is nothing after death? I mean what's the point of even thinking philosophically and trying to understand things if we have no destination? If we assume there is nothing after death em all these morals and "invisible rules" we obey are just so we can live fairly. It such a depressing thought to live without hope of something better.
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To accumulate knowledge and past it on so secrets of the universe will be uncovered. Humanity is slowly gaining ascendance.
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After thinking about this for quite a while, I've come to this personal conclusion: The meaning of an individual's life is to, more or less, [u]be remembered[/u]. Humans are competitive in nature, and the ultimate goal for the individual is to rise above the others and place themselves as the greatest. People who are talented, who can create, who can lead, have the potential to shape the world around them. The people who are famous, whose names are remembered in the annals of legend, are those who have reached the ultimate goal to have their creations and ideals remembered. This is the concept of the goal of an individual: to be that one percent, to see the world shaped to their desires, to be the leader of the pack.
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memories, i think
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The meaning of life is to live. I know that is kind of a cookie cutter answer, but I believe it is the correct one. Everyone lives differently. Some learn their whole lives. Some party it up. Some live horribly, working for nothing and living in the streets. All these people are accomplishing the meaning of life. Think about it. Why do the people who are the scum of the earth not just kill themselves? The answer is simple. If they do this, they prove to themselves that their life is meaningless. So they chose to live, and live, and live, and live, until they finally die, never contributing anything to society. To others, their life was meaningless, but to them, they fulfilled their purpose. There is no meaning to life. It was a wonderful accident. Life only has as much meaning as you give it. That is how it will be until you die. You are worth nothing, no matter what you do. After you die, it doesn't matter if the world ends one minute or one million years later, nothing anybody had any meaning. This is a sad truth that luckily none of us have to confront. [spoiler]this opinion has some religious bias in it, for I am an atheist. Also, good thread, consider yourself followed.[/spoiler]
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Edited by SupremeDavide: 10/12/2013 5:20:54 PMThe meaning of life is to find the ultimate truth, where all came from. But it's really difficult to find it. It's because of that that the philosophy exists. But in my opinion I think it's impossible to know the unknowable. Maybe, if there is something after the life, we'll find the true truth. I''m sorry to don't write more but I'm Italian and it's very difficult to speak of these things in english. P.S: Anyway I like the discussion!
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Edited by salvucci91: 10/12/2013 5:09:41 PMIt's all a test. This is all a placement test for the [i]real[/i] world. Be humble, guys ! Don't want to end up as a tree, or a sloth !
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Edited by Jaaake AU: 10/12/2013 10:57:11 AMI haven't undertaken the "meaning of life' part of my philosophy course at university yet. I'll bump this thread in a year or two with my thoughts.