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The Meaning of Life.

Does life make sense? If so: What sense does it make?

Is there any purpose of life? If so: What purpose is it?

Is there any goal of life? If so: What goal is it?

Please explain how you interpret the meaning of life.

Before I answer... do you mean does it make sense/have a goal/etc to me, or does it have a sense/goal etc to be discovered?

Only_Humean wrote:Before I answer... do you mean does it make sense/have a goal/etc to me, or does it have a sense/goal etc to be discovered?

As you will. I mean whether life makes sense or not. You can and should interpret it as you like, but you should explain it.

Nothing can ever exist unless and until it "makes sense" to do so.


... depending on how much sense you personally have, of course.

Arminius wrote:The Meaning of Life.
Is there any purpose of life? If so: What purpose is it?

Making it stable. Learning how to solve problems/conflicts of any kind, and how to avoid them.
I.e. finding the balance.

As James said, nothing comes into existence unless it "makes sense" to do so.

Intelligence is the basis of everything.

Leyla wrote:

Arminius wrote:The Meaning of Life.
Is there any purpose of life? If so: What purpose is it?

Making it stable. Learning how to solve problems/conflicts of any kind, and how to avoid them.
I.e. finding the balance.

We have our genetic program, our self-preservation, our instincts, our drives, our reproduction (dis)interest, our desires, our will, and - of course - our culture and technology, based on our intelligence, which is mainly (70-80%) determined by our genetic program. So when problems and conflicts of any kind occur, we have to solve them, i.e by finding a balance in order to make life stable - would you agree if someone called this "health"?

Does life make sense? If so: What sense does it make?

Is there any purpose of life? If so: What purpose is it?

Is there any goal of life? If so: What goal is it?

Please explain how you interpret the meaning of life.

Perfect sense.

To live.

To live.

If your purpose and meaning is to live, then to live you must experience; to experience is to live; death is a part of life, so live until you die. You can not live until after you die, that's impossible, unless you come back to life, in which case you live more and experience more. Everything else is everything else, but most of life comes down to living and experiencing.

Along The Way wrote:Intelligence is the basis of everything.

Do you go so far and say that intelligence is the meaning of life?

Arminius wrote:

Along The Way wrote:Intelligence is the basis of everything.

Do you go so far and say that intelligence is the meaning of life?

What about when you become so intelligent that you can't enjoy life anymore? How do you dumb yourself up to enjoy it again?

Random Factor wrote:

Does life make sense? If so: What sense does it make?

Is there any purpose of life? If so: What purpose is it?

Is there any goal of life? If so: What goal is it?

Please explain how you interpret the meaning of life.

Perfect sense.

To live.

To live.

If your purpose and meaning is to live, then to live you must experience; to experience is to live; death is a part of life, so live until you die. You can not live until after you die, that's impossible, unless you come back to life, in which case you live more and experience more. Everything else is everything else, but most of life comes down to living and experiencing.

So you are saying that the purpose and meaning of life is to live resp. to experience.

Arminius wrote:

Random Factor wrote:

Does life make sense? If so: What sense does it make?

Is there any purpose of life? If so: What purpose is it?

Is there any goal of life? If so: What goal is it?

Please explain how you interpret the meaning of life.

Perfect sense.

To live.

To live.

If your purpose and meaning is to live, then to live you must experience; to experience is to live; death is a part of life, so live until you die. You can not live until after you die, that's impossible, unless you come back to life, in which case you live more and experience more. Everything else is everything else, but most of life comes down to living and experiencing.

So you are saying that the purpose and meaning of life is to live resp. to experience.

to pare it down to the essential aspect of it, yes.

Random Factor wrote:

Arminius wrote:

Along The Way wrote:Intelligence is the basis of everything.

Do you go so far and say that intelligence is the meaning of life?

What about when you become so intelligent that you can't enjoy life anymore? How do you dumb yourself up to enjoy it again?

Some intelligent people have been doing it by taking drugs.

Would you say that enjoyment is a or even the meaning of life?

What about LOVE?

Arminius wrote:What about LOVE?

Love is the opposite of Evol.

Arminius wrote:

Leyla wrote:

Arminius wrote:The Meaning of Life.
Is there any purpose of life? If so: What purpose is it?

Making it stable. Learning how to solve problems/conflicts of any kind, and how to avoid them.
I.e. finding the balance.

We have our genetic program, our self-preservation, our instincts, our drives, our reproduction (dis)interest, our desires, our will, and - of course - our culture and technology, based on our intelligence, which is mainly (70-80%) determined by our genetic program. So when problems and conflicts of any kind occur, we have to solve them, i.e by finding a balance in order to make life stable - would you agree if someone called this "health"?

Yes, you can call it health, if you see it as an ongoing development, a process. Health, balance, (inner) harmony is essentially all the same.

Random Factor wrote:

Arminius wrote:

Along The Way wrote:Intelligence is the basis of everything.

Do you go so far and say that intelligence is the meaning of life?

What about when you become so intelligent that you can't enjoy life anymore? How do you dumb yourself up to enjoy it again?

Use the intelligence to discern wisdom from intelligence, then seek wisdom. Enjoyment follows.

Along The Way wrote:As James said, nothing comes into existence unless it "makes sense" to do so.

Intelligence is the basis of everything.

Everything makes sense if finally it's realized if we acted differently things would turn out differently. Then and only then, on basis of this understanding, can sensible meaning to life be achieved.

The universe is chaotic and unstable therefore life also is chaotic and unstable.

Arminius wrote:The Meaning of Life.

Does life make sense? If so: What sense does it make?

Is there any purpose of life? If so: What purpose is it?

Is there any goal of life? If so: What goal is it?

Please explain how you interpret the meaning of life.

Assumes life has meaning. I can agree to the assumption because... 1) Life is. 2) There are also examples of not life. Both in the case of loss of what was and is no longer and in the case of never having been. I'm guessing this relationship implies meaning, although I do not guess what it is. It has meaning, but I'm not sure what.

It makes sense from the stand point that it operates within a given set of physical/environmental conditions. Life has requirements that appear quantifiable. There is a need for this much oxygen, food, water, that is dependent on activity and the environment the activity takes place in.

Purpose? Now isn't that a loaded question? May be difficult to adequately define purpose objectively enough? I'd default to the observation standpoint that life grows; inclusive is the potential to develop into something more then what the life currently is. To gather together into greater capacity.

I'm not sure one can plop the notion of a goal on it all. Goals are all about getting from where you are to where you want to be. I'm not so sure all life is aware of the distinction. Some of it is still figuring it out as it comes along it.

It makes sense because there is a sequential history. Development operates within a sequence that places cause before effect. At least it looks that way. You don't get to a multi-cellular life form without passing through a single cell, evolutionary. A new idea always emerges from an existing idea. I don't see much evidence of getting to complex without passing through simple.

Moral imperatives of purpose aside, cause "life" is amoral. Unless of course you are looking for meaning in morality or morality in meaning.

We are limited to a set knowledge regarding life. We have no other examples of life then what we have as yet experienced. I'm pretty sure what ever the universe comes up with will have evolved from simple to complex just as life on this planet has. Given circumstances being equal (same physical laws) I'd guess all life progresses along a continuum limited by the requirements of what it means to grow.

Not all members of an example of life must exhibit it, but enough have to. Enough to continue the trend.

Life is trending on Unibook. Is it becoming observably less diverse though?

Perhaps that has some meaning?

Or you could be asking specifically regarding human life, and then I'd say... lot's a luck. We've become too complex to see things that simply. Thanks gods.

Random Factor wrote:

Arminius wrote:

Along The Way wrote:Intelligence is the basis of everything.

Do you go so far and say that intelligence is the meaning of life?

What about when you become so intelligent that you can't enjoy life anymore? How do you dumb yourself up to enjoy it again?

Perhaps that's a sign that you're not as intelligent as you think.

Arminius wrote:

Only_Humean wrote:Before I answer... do you mean does it make sense/have a goal/etc to me, or does it have a sense/goal etc to be discovered?

As you will. I mean whether life makes sense or not. You can and should interpret it as you like, but you should explain it.

I think life can make sense, or can be confusing and senseless. I think there is sense to be found, purpose to be had. But I think that philosophy can obscure things, like the toddler asking "why?" - the sense and purpose is in the concrete and the doing, and not the abstraction and the conceptualisation. In this sense, I may be the opposite to some earlier posters.

Life, our existence, is the given with which we have to learn to cope. We need to think, and think well, to do so. But thinking well is not the purpose of living; living well is the goal of thinking.

I'm saying that no matter how hard you try, you can not enjoy every aspect of life and shouldn't try to. You can not be happy all the time, you can not have what you want all the time, especially if what you want conflicts with what others want. You can't even get what you need all the time, which is part of the enjoyment factor.

Certainly we make meaning for ourselves in life but concerning objective meaning or purpose I still stand by that the universe is so very unstable, chaotic, and constantly changing that to postulate one is nonsensical.