What is the meaning of life? Despite the obvious being the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter. I am pertaining to the significance of living, or existence in general. Some believe religion was brought into light to give humans some sort of clarity or direction. However for centuries our society has struggled to comprehend the true meaning of life. So here we are today, six million years later. We live in an era where perpetuating enhancements on technology happen every day, we’ve discovered how to clone animals, and transport to outer space. Yet still not a clue as to what our true purpose as human beings is. Maybe we were missing something when we arrived here, and it is now our mission to acquire it before passing through the next life. Maybe this is our final life, and if so then also our final test.
This question is believed to be one of the most profound questions in human existence. In fact, scientists and philosophers have failed at attempting to answer this question multiple times. It is safe to say the more we try to figure it out the more our answers seem as but a mere reflection of conceptual confusions. We can start by breaking up the question “What is the meaning of life?” which then transforms to “What is meaningful about lives?”
Once stated by author Susan Wolf in her book “Meaning in Life and Why it Matters” that “Meaning arises when subjective attraction meets objective attractiveness.” What Wolf is trying to explain to her audience is that in order to feel meaning in your life; you have to feel engaged by how and why you live your life. A lot of us believe our meaning refers to wealth and then find ourselves spending the remainder of our lives competing in the “rat race.” Later, when we realize our job was only valuable for paying bills and feeding our ego and not exactly how we planned on spending the rest of our lives, we again start to feel unimportant or insignificant.
So, is a life wasted on a project without any positive meaning still meaningful? If not, should we then spend our energy only on projects with positive objective value as contrary to such projects that have little to no sense of subjective value? Yes, because to not is to fail at recognizing how tiny we are and how inevitable possibilities lie all around us in this huge and vast Universe we live in. Then we ask “In that case, is to live what we individually percept to be a happy life the same as living a meaningful life?” No, to devote your whole life to fulfilling what makes you happy individually is to fail to recognize that things all around you and beside you may be smaller or bigger but are just as valuable as you. To live your life only as a fulfillment of your wants is the same as acting as though you are the only valuable thing in existence.
Though I cannot sum up decades of philosophical research on this topic, I can share with you what I personally believe to be the meaning of life. That is to live selflessly and to find ways you can be of help to your neighbor every day. Needless to say, we are a part of the universe. In a way when we help a friend or even enemy, we are really helping our Universe. That alone gives your life more meaning than any conferred idea we could think of.
