Meaning of life philosophy reddit. The question that started philosophy as a school of though is "How do I live a good An objective meaning of life requires some sort of higher power to act as the foundation of that meaning. That's actually where his philosophy : he goes through nihilism, exceeds it, and arrives at his life-affirming philosophy. Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that he is who is being asked. I study philosophy and this pains me. For a philosophically informed self-help take on such matters of finding a balance, you can take a look at Edith Hall's Aristotle's Way. . For Aristotle, virtuous activity includes, among other things, finding the right balance between extremes (which are vices). I'm looking for suggestions in the area of self-development, charisma, career decision, life direction, soul-searching, philosophy, becoming yourself, strength, confidence, meditation, spiritual practice, building a happy life, best life strategies, or anything of the like! Some "philosophy of" fields are much more wide-reaching and useful than others, precisely because the concepts they study have such broad applications, and their metaphysical aspects are more important or broad than those of other philosophy of fields. The more you develop these I've been thinking about it a lot recently, and I know the meaning of life is an incredibly vague and subjective topic, but I've come to the clear conclusion that the only true meaning one can gain from their life is the pursuit of knowledge. Not biology in the meaning of science studying life, but biology in the meaning of how the human brain is built. Procreation and survival, like you mentioned, are two common suggestions. I think, that especially for the majority of people over the age of 50, in those generations, life was not so much about asking existential questions, rather than to chose solutions to known problems. But these just amount to saying "the purpose of life is to live" or "the purpose of life is to create more life," which really begs the question: why bother surviving and creating more life? Hello Reddit: The other day I was thinking about the phrase "Meaning of life" and it sort of struck me that we're probably not looking at the word meaning the right way: we justify our existence by whatever happens in our bubbles but when we say life, we would hope to understand everything as a whole; this is a contradiction; at least IMO. Or two, most people actually do talk about philosophy because they discuss things like the meaning of words, the concepts of happiness, goodness, justice, truth, beauty, knowledge, and being but not in a highly formalized way. If someone understands "meaning" as something like "value" in the context of "meaning of life", then it's more clear just to ask "What's the value of life?". All I can find is non-philosophers outlining their personal philosophies. " Note that the reason it is called "The Philosophy of Life's Meaning" rather than "The Philosophy of the Meaning of Life" is to be general and agnostic about the correct sense of the concept. Feb 18, 2025 · Discover life's meaning with Philosophy Wisdom, exploring existential questions, ethics, and morality to solve life's biggest puzzles, gaining insight into human existence, reality, and truth. He is famous for uncompromising criticisms of traditional European morality and religion, as well as of conventional philosophical ideas and social and political pieties associated with modernity. For example, pragmatism and logical positivism are epistemological schools of thought (theories of knowledge and truth). I only insist that meaning is available in spite The meaning of Life at best, to an existentialist is subjective, temporal, multiple and contradictory even within a “self”, and for some meaning does not exist. Armed with zero expectations and a lot Jul 8, 2024 · “What is the meaning of life?” is simultaneously one of the oldest questions in philosophy and a relatively new concept: While the quest for purpose stretches back farther than the ancient May 15, 2007 · When the topic of the meaning of life comes up, people tend to pose one of three questions: “What are you talking about?”, “What is the meaning of life?”, and “Is life in fact meaningful?”. These are general schools of thought, most of which do not attempt to describe how one ought to live their life. These big names are philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language. Not a work of philosophy, but it's written by a respectable classicist who appears to love Aristotle. Reddit: What gives your life meaning? What do you think constitutes or defines meaning? Do you feel that your life has meaning? If so, what gives it meaning? If not, why not? Archived post. The denial of objective meaning is not what he champions; his to it is the important (existentialist) part. How one ought to live their life is more of an ethical question. by experiencing something or encountering someone), and also states it's an unnecessary one: Is this to say that suffering is indispensable to the discovery of meaning? In no way. It doesn't recommend a personal direction in life or a general purpose. Susan Wolf’s lecture was devoted to coalescing and developing a workable definition of the abstract element or value in our lives known as meaningfulness. This form of "meaning of life" is hard to justify on naturalistic grounds. So naturally, I turned to the wisest group of all: Reddit. Logic is indeed applied biology. Furthermore, we must also not follow philosophies and ideas blindly and dogmatically, and we must understand that the journey of life and the journey of meaning is unique to each of us. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. I recently attended a lecture given by moral philosopher Susan Wolf on the nature of meaning and what it means to live a meaningful life. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a German philosopher and cultural critic who published intensively in the 1870s and 1880s. that is if youre looking to get some philosophical grounding. I've read a couple essays outlining what philosophers historically made of the meaning of life, but I rarely ever come across modern professional philosophical thoughts on the matter. However, even if we don't believe in a higher power we can still find self-created subjective meaning in our lives. by creating a work or by doing a deed and 2. The slogan for hybridism is "meaning arises when subjective attraction meets objective attractiveness. Happiness & Meaning Why You’re (Probably) Wrong About The Meaning of Life Lewis Vaughn asks what it’s all about. Meaning is a core part of who we are, and we must live in accordance to the instincts and purposes that have been explained and analyzed in this article. If you believe life has no inherent meaning, and that determinism is true, how do you muster the drive to do something with your life? : r/philosophy Go to philosophy r/philosophy r/philosophy The better question to ask, which will necessarily answer the meaning question, is the only question in philosophy that actually matters, as all aspects of philosophy are merely attempt to answer this question, or to more microscopically define one part of it. Logic is a product of *how* human brain is built. Hopefully this will suffice to give you the idea that this I'm having a horrible existential crisis. Isn't that still an existential problem? Reply reply hiyaninja • There are three general ideas about what life's purpose, or meaning, consists in, which philosophers still debate today; I will summarize them, but you can read on this question in detail in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's article on The Meaning of Life. The human race can go on reproducing forever (assuming we do not kill Based on your topic and responses, you should read into philosophy if you haven’t already. May 8, 2025 · What is the meaning of life? A question that has stumped philosophers, priests, and others alike. If you think about it, knowledge is the only tangible and universal form of value. How does heaven answer this question either, it almost seems to be the removal of personal meaning in one's life. I always thought it odd that religion gives people meaning. as far as an intro book Sophies World does sound like a good place to start, or possibly begin with some As each situation in life represent a challenge to man and presents a problem for him to solve, the question of the meaning of life may actually be reversed. - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy MembersOnline • Malefiction Check out The fountainhead (novel) and Slaughterhouse five (novel) and the heights of despair (philosophy about pushing you down into philosophical pessimism in order to bring you back up to appreciate life) and the speech “this is water” (about appreciating other people) and dubliners (short stories) and lastly “the brothers Karamazov This argument is a bit underrated. So are there modern philosophers who still write about and discuss the meaning of life (and who are taken seriously by their peers)? If so Not much for the meaning of life, and i dont know if its already been mentioned, but the book gives a good coverage of philosophy and gives jokes as a medium for understanding. After tragedy and heartbreak – after the war is lost, after the pandemic takes someone you love, after climate change destroys your home, after your life seems to be rendered nonsensical by illness, personal failure, or injustice – deep questions may linger like a bruise Lastly, Mawson is also responsible for writing the philosophy compass article on recent work in the meaning of life: Recent Work on the Question of Life's Meaning In addition to Mawson, I would also recommend looking into these other prominent works that have contributed significantly to contemporary discussions on the meaning of life. I haven’t cracked into it much and I worry that my suggestions may come across as basic, but I personally liked Meditations by Aurelius, and Socrates’ Apology was possibly the finest work of literature I’ve ever read. The phrase "meaning of life" itself didn't really appear in English until the early 1800s and it first appeared as a translation of the German phrase "der Sinn des Lebens". We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being he's actually listing suffering as the last of the 3 ways that one can derive meaning from life (the other two being: 1. t9crf ev9cn vio3eqek 2u1 4qvojtlr utey cvschhjk fnz s8zij yvwuz