After we find shelter, food, comfort, sex, and contact with other humans. Something like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. You've probably heard of it. People will satisfy basic physical needs, and once those needs are taken care of, they'll turn their attention to things like searching for meaning in their lives.
2006-11-19 12:04:54
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answer #1
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answered by Angry Gay Man 3
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"The meaning of life?" is one of the most loaded qestions ever fabricated.
What can we say...
There IS a biological definition to 'life'
But that doesn't exhaust life -- no.
We have to deal with the environment of an organism
Not enough
What it is like to be that organism: or just human.
Yes, onto something-- but qualia is virtually inexplicable.
What do we mean by 'meaning'?
It's a linguistic concern-- is life to be reduced to a symbolic act?
Then we can see from a higher level theory what 'life' as such means.
This is reductive, you can't do this -- what about my subjective experience? Is everything IN life lingustic even? Hardly: what is sex but the demonstration of the incapacity of language to describe power in its essence... "In out, In out." That is a false shade of the phenomenon.
Are we talking about my life, or life in general?
What extra-life, extra-human place can you judge 'life' in general... our whole world is only understandable on the basis of living, interpretive, linguistic beings...
Is there ONE meaning? how simplistic an assumption...
Again what would it take to give a meaning to such an amazingly complex domain as 'life'... we're not talking about the word 'life' but life as it stands, the referrent. That's what we try to define. There's no particular, it's a category. The identity conditions for categories are either nominalist (set of all instantiations) or realist ( the property exists independantly). We want to know the rule for the universal-- intuition does not help us, and the set of all living things only gives us the behavior of individuals-- the subjective qulaity can't be engaged. Circles...
If we could answer this, we could talk to the dead! "What is it to be alive?" WHO ASKS THIS QUESTION -- we know, because we ARE alive... how do you frame an answer to the dead...
What is the purpose of life? What an assumption to make... not even 'evolution' defines a purpose in the universe -- we don't live to survive and reproduce, that sh;t just happens, that is not our in-order-to. Why must we have a use anyway? Are humans tools? What greater machine do we serve, None! Instrumentality is for US-- the universe doesn't give a sh;t. Obviously.
We look for 'meaning' not as an end, ever. It's a lingustic device. We care about semantics only because it serves us on a physical level in some way -- we want people to understand, we want prestige or nobility, we want anything but MORE useless symbols.
2006-11-19 21:02:21
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answer #2
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answered by -.- 4
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I think so. If we didn't have meaning, we wouldn't have a reason to do anything with our time here even if that purpose is merely pleasing ones own senses. Having purpose is a self preservation thing, in a sense. Though, 'higher' meaning in life is generally thought to be altruistic.
2006-11-19 20:09:48
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answer #3
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answered by Anonymous
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I think that if we don't search for meaning, we're gonna become the living-died.
Life MEANS nothing without MEANING!
You look for poor people because you know that means love,
You care for your mother because you know that means love,
You help people who need you because you know that means love,
That's why the people who live without trying to find the meaning of life, suicide and kill them selves, when they FIND OUT that their lives have no meaning.
2006-11-19 20:05:56
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answer #4
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answered by MissLeo 2
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Personally, I happen to think that our need to find meaning in our lives is what differentiates human beings from the rest of the animal kingdom.
2006-11-19 21:35:55
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answer #5
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answered by Lil Cuddy 2
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Maybe. But, not to search is probably healthier. Life is not for me to udnerstand; it is just for me to live.
2006-11-19 19:55:13
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answer #6
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answered by Richard15 4
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All seeking is humanities search for God. we search for one thing then another without lasting satisfaction, until we find Unity with God within our heart in unconditional love.then we experience Bliss. or bliss in motion"joy".
2006-11-19 20:13:58
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answer #7
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answered by Weldon 5
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No, the vast majority of people live lives of quiet desperation.
2006-11-19 20:12:58
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answer #8
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answered by Imogen Sue 5
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Some may find something whether looking for it or not. Then what is do they seek?
2006-11-19 19:55:58
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answer #9
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answered by jonas_tripps_79 2
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no, comfort.
2006-11-19 19:54:10
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answer #10
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answered by NoPoaching 7
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