Elton Posted October 5, 2011 Report Share Posted October 5, 2011 I have been struggling with the idea that since everything dies and ceases to exist, how can there be meaning or purpose to life or any action for that matter. I have actually been struggling with this issue most of my life, which is one reason I became a fundamental christian at an early age. I have since left that way of thinking and gravitated toward objectivism. Is there any objectivist thinking that addresses this issue? I have been searching the forums and could not find any posts addressing my question, but if there are some, please let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JASKN Posted October 5, 2011 Report Share Posted October 5, 2011 Essentially, doing things you like (getting and keeping values), ie. the search and attainment of happiness, is what gives life meaning. Otherwise, life just "is." It's just there, in the universe, like everything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian0918 Posted October 5, 2011 Report Share Posted October 5, 2011 (edited) If you are not familiar with Objectivism, I would recommend checking out any of Rand's fiction or non-fiction. For starters, you could read the article The Objectivist Ethics. You may also benefit from Tara Smith's Viable Values or Craig Biddle's Loving Life. A simple answer to your question is that all of Objectivism addresses this issue. Regarding traditional answers to the question of the "meaning of life" - Objectivism fundamentally identifies why questions that try to assign a "higher meaning" to life beyond the self are irrational and not based in reality. Many of the answers (and questions) that philosophers have presented over the centuries in attempts to needlessly assign meaning to life (or take it away) are simply misguided or wrong. Tara Smith's book goes into a lot of detail on this. Edited October 5, 2011 by brian0918 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninth Doctor Posted October 5, 2011 Report Share Posted October 5, 2011 I have been searching the forums and could not find any posts addressing my question, but if there are some, please let me know. Give this a try. It's just an anecdote, but it speaks to your question. http://forum.ObjectivismOnline.com/index.php?showtopic=22285&view=findpost&p=280538 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve D'Ippolito Posted October 6, 2011 Report Share Posted October 6, 2011 One question to ask... of meaning to whom? Certainly your life will more than likely have no meaning to people a couple of centuries down the road.. but the question is how to make one's life meaningful to one's self. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ttime Posted October 6, 2011 Report Share Posted October 6, 2011 You might find this somewhat helpful: http://www.peikoff.com/2011/06/20/how-is-life-not-meaningless/ I think it's important to remember that the "purpose" or " meaning" of your life is not to be separated from what kind of being you are (a rational one) and the conditions in which you exist, and how you must act given those facts. You will find that to achieve long-term happiness, one needs to choose a productive purpose to pursue, because this will allow one to organize all of one's other values and give one's life a basic, solid structure. A little more discussion on the above, here: http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/purpose.html Finally, the source of values, which are the what gives rise to "meaning" in the context you are using it, is the fact that life is indeed conditional, and that death is possible. In other words, it is only to living beings that the concepts of purpose and meaning can apply (in the above sense, purpose only applies to humans, but other animals can have goals in the sense that they have needs that require action in order to be met). A rock or a drop of water or a dead tree branch cannot have values, there is no fundamental alternative that they are facing...their matter will continue to exist, but in different forms, whereas a bird or a bear or a human faces the alternative of existence or non-existence with each passing moment. For discussion on that, read this: http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ari_ayn_rand_the_objectivist_ethics I hope this helps. Tristan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianleepainter Posted October 6, 2011 Report Share Posted October 6, 2011 Elton, have you listened to Steve Job's 2005 Stanford Commencement Address?: The third story by Steve Jobs is about the subject of death. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elton Posted October 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2011 Steve Jobs - how appropriate considering his passing. Thank you all for the comments and links. I'll check them out. I want to go into a little more detail. I discovered Atlas Shrugged in 2008 and have been devouring as much of objectivism as I can. It has been very liberating. I love my life, I am very happy and I have a strong sense of meaning and purpose. But... I still have this lingering thought in the back of my mind that its all going to end, so what is the point. I have searched through much of what objectivism has to say, and I can not find a satisfactory answer. Perhaps there is none. And I should specify that when I say meaning, I am talking about meaning to me, not to some future generation. I am not talking about my legacy or something. Once I no longer exist, I don't think I'll care much about my legacy, or anything else for that matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whYNOT Posted October 6, 2011 Report Share Posted October 6, 2011 In a rare moment of subjectivity, Rand said "When I die, the World will end". Her small joke, maybe, but it has some truth. It doesn't matter, that it 'ends' - it matters that we have life, now. Elton,do you know how much can happen in only one minute? Whether internal experience:introspection, thought and emotion; or externally? Of course you've experienced this, now just think of the huge number of minutes left for you. Life is longer than we think, particularly when we are focused. Consciousness - now that you can learn from Objectivism. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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