Questions tagged [meaning-of-life]
The meaning-of-life tag has no usage guidance.
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Would any of Augustine's contemporaries disagree that "all men desire happiness"?
Augustine of Hippo said:
It is the decided opinion of all who use their brains, that all men desire to be happy. But who are happy, or how they become so, these are questions about which the weakness ...
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What is the relationship between values and meaning (in life)?
Please correct me if you think I am wrong, but it has become apparent to me that meaning - in the senses of significance of one's own life, purpose and sense-making - and values are inextricably ...
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Is meaning/purpose necessary? [closed]
This may be a very basic question but I haven’t seen it arise here at stack exchange, so I thought I’d ask.
Do humans necessarily have purpose or meaning? Can we function without it?
If not, then how ...
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If everything ends one day why don't we end it today?
Is there any doctrine which gives reason why to wait till end of the world?
I'm 18 and not depressed.
I am not asking the purpose of life. I'm asking why should we fulfil the purpose if the result or ...
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Can we say, the logical person does not care so much about worldly things but most people are not logical?
This question is about life.
If we look at the current world, so many people care about money, or power, or fame, or all of the above.
However, if we do believe in reincarnation, or that we'd ...
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Consequences and importance of the "No Free Lunch Theorem"?
So I was watching this and was wondering about the consequences and importance of the "No Free Lunch Theorem"
David Wolpert: that if I have any particular reasoning algorithm be it in say ...
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Does anyone frame our attitude toward life so that should be appropriate to that of receiving a gift?
Does anyone frame our attitude toward life so that should be appropriate to that of receiving a gift? It may sound a bit new age. Is it?
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Should one learn everything?
I like to learn a lot of things. Like dance , magic tricks , business , physics , geography , chemistry , biology , maths. Just everything. Definitely , you understand that all of these topics take ...
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How should you live when you have options?
If you have the opportunity to earn money easily (for example just doing dropshipping, or selling oil reserve) which requires less self control and discipline. And the other is by doing difficult job (...
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What is this view called or have anyone argued for such view? We don't have free will to commit suicide
2 possible descriptions:
View A. suicide is rational in the vast majority of cases but we don't have free will (biologically) to commit suicide i.e. a healthy brain can't cause a suicidal behaviour, ...
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What are philosophies of life?
From Wikipedia:
A philosophy of life is any general attitude towards, or philosophical view of, the meaning of life or of the way life should be lived. The term is generally used in an informal sense,...
user53142
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Question for philosophers - How would you call the following view of the meaning of life?
Question for philosophers - How would you call the following view of the meaning of life?: "There isn't much point in assessing the intrinsic or extrinsic value or meaning of life. Accept life as ...
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Is life the story without an author?
Many people ponder on the meaning of life, so do I.
Since I was young I was bothered by how closely fiction resembles the real world and at the same time how it is fundamentally different.
Though I've ...
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What is the motivation of all individuals to stay alive?
I have never read much philosophical stuff and come rather from physics/IT, but the subject interests me.
What keeps an individual alive?
If we make the following assumptions:
There is nothing after ...
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What is the "scientific" purpose of existence?
I am interested in reading anything that tries to tackle scientific views on existence. There are plenty of great works that discuss human meaning and purpose. However, I am more interested in ...
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Is murder wrong accross the board? If not, when?
Is it wrong to murder anything, in any circumstance?
If sometimes its justified, based on species, circumstance, self defense, ideology, when is it considered wrong?
What is the justification for ...
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Could NIetzsche be read as saying Aufheben is the meaning of life?
It is unclear what the 'will to power' means, and if it is about the world
The will to power doctrine seems to claim that everything that exists
rests fundamentally on an underlying basis of “...
user46524
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Is it better to have big goals in life?
I am interested in philosophical arguments about goals. Specifically, is a life without great goals necessarily inferior? For us to have a "good life", must people set "admirable" goals?
Please ...
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Is there a field of study for AI inspired goals for humans?
I'm not very familiar with this kind of formal philosophy discussions so please excuse my unpreciseness.
I know that the Artificially intelligent agent we have been putting the most hopes into ...
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What is the meaning of life in the Myth of Sisyphus?
In The Myth of Sisyphus and other Essays, Albert Camus seeks to answer the question of the meaning of life. To do this, he plays on the idea of the "absurd," the conflict between man's search for ...
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Source of a Russell quote about purpose and meaninglessness
The following quote is attributed to Bertrand Russell:
Unless you assume a God, the question of life’s purpose is meaningless.
The reference for the quote is:
Bertrand Russell, quoted in Rick ...
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Personal and unviersal existential nihlism
Let's say Alice has logically arrived at existential Nihilism, which is
the philosophy that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value (wiki)
This carries two claims,
Alice's ...
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What is Nagel's definition of 'The Absurd'?
Why does Nagel consider life to be absurd? And correct me if i'm wrong but it feels like he's telling people to live life despite life being absurd? Why does he do that if that's the case?
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Become immortal - blessing or curse? [closed]
This question is really important for understand what's actually matter to us as humans. Having a limited life span is factor by which everyone of us is driven to something (goals/dreams/fulfilling ...
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What is the point of acquiring knowledge when time would take it away soon enough?
After spending hours and hours of researching on different aspects of philosophy, not to mention the effort, here is my question:
What is the point of acquiring knowledge when time would take it ...
user37486
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How to live the present instead of just surviving?
When I was younger, I always tried to imagine how my future would be, and how it would feel like. I tried to imagine how my relationships would be, how my house would be, what my job would be, etc., ...
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Was every nihilist philosopher yet unhappy with it?
Let's use a comparison. For this I will show my own views on it:
My life is meaningless. I play games for a meaningless joy. I listen jokes for a meaningless laughter. I want to change this world ...
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Schopenhauer on the unworthiness of life
In which book and section does Schopenhauer say that "life is so short, questionable and evanescent that it is not worth the trouble of any major effort"?
I often see this quote attributed to him, ...
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Why do humans make infants? [closed]
Considering that humans are the most intelligent species on earth, why do humans make infants?
I cannot understand the reason why humans make infants, when
humans can't predict whether the ...
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How does regret work for the people who have lost their memories, by accident or some other reasons? [closed]
The person who has lost his or her memories will have no regrets, then how would he learn the lessons of life?
I have asked the same question in Psychology and Neuroscience SE as well. What I am ...
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How does free will give life “meaning”?
Many people have suggested that if we don’t have free will, then life is essentially meaningless because everything we’ve ever thought or done has already been determined. I’m not sure why determinism ...
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What's the meaning of the meaning of life? [closed]
Let's say that the meaning of life is X (avoiding evil, fulfilling our desires, obeying God, fleeing the pain of the fear of the death, collecting turtles – anything). What is the meaning of X?
Even ...
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Why does striving to achieve my goals make me suffer so?
I am continually confused by my desires. Normally I love being alone, watching movies and eating snacks--just living life. But I don't know what devil has possessed me to desire more, to achieve more, ...
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What does love mean in the true sense?
I feel love is not just about enjoying each other's company. It's more
about caring for the other person and always longing to see them
happy. But in this endeavour to see them happy, we tend to get ...
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How one should live a peaceful life knowing this fact that there is no meaning of life? [closed]
So I am going through philosophical path and I think I am deep into it now days , That old question "What is the purpose of living when we are going to die one day" was eating my mind but Then I found ...
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How can i become obsessed with some meaning to life that i find rational? [closed]
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I see something for example like living for others or trying to change the world (in a non-violent way) is an genuine meaning to life,however i'm not obsessed with these meanings that i ...
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Introspection to look for what I'm missing [closed]
I'm new in this area and I would like to ask some questions about introspection.
About me
I'm 22 years old. I'm bachelor in computer science. I live with my parents, I'm the only child, I work for ...
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How can a meaningless life be sufficiently good in other ways such that its (objective) quality's not unusually bad?
Source: The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life's Biggest Questions (1 edn, 2017). p. 20 Top.
There is sometimes also thought to be a connection between meaning and the quality of life. ...
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If we forget why do we acquire knowledge which by the way gets outdated?
We learn then we forget. It might seem to be a waste of precious time subtracted from life. Some time ago I started to write every day two things (yes, only two) I learn every day. One column for ...
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Is it sure that there is always room to improve ourselves? [closed]
There is always something that is stuck in my mind. I am afraid that one day... I mean what if one day, we know everything and did everything to improve ourselves and there is no more room for ...
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Is our "meaning of life" fundamentally different from that of other animals?
Whatever the "meaning of life" may be (I interpret "meaning" as "purpose" here) is for us, Homo Sapiens, do we assume the "meaning of life" for humans differs fundamentally from the "meaning of life" ...
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How can a Gestapo officer 'have a meaningful but immoral life'?
Source: What's It All About?. (2007 1 ed.) p. 176 Top - Middle
Although I have drawn on Sartre in this book, I have not claimed that authenticity is the only or even the most important virtue ...
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Why is everyone seeking satisfaction?
Is it just me, or why is everyone seeking some kind of personal notion of satisfaction? It seems to be a better life mentality to relish in the cold reality of accepting the inevitable pains of life. ...
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If all of us are going to die one day why should we care about the feelings and emotions of others?
We are taught to care for others' feelings and emotions. We must exercise certain deeds hailed in holy texts.
Why do such things matter when we all will die one day?
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Classifications of life purposes
Can all life purposes be classified as a mixture of some of the following four areas?
Hedonism
Making an impact in your physical reality
Fulfilling the plan/desire of some supernatural entity (or ...
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Is good the absence of evil or is it the other way round?
Is good the absence of evil or is evil the absence of good?What do religions tell us?
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if god is there why is there suffering? [closed]
Whenever I look around myself and see suffering I
feel god cannot be real.If god is real then why is there so much suffering and poverty?
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What analytic philosophy books on the meaning of life are there?
Because almost every book on meaning of life is in continental philosophy or religious.
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Why do we associate youth with life, and old with death? [closed]
Also youth is optimistic, but childishness is condoned?
Age and experienced should make one wiser and be able to take advantage of life yet it's youth (whom has not really lived yet) that we ...
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Why do we search for a meaning in life
Why do we search for a meaning in life?
I assume that religion arose because of the desire to give meaning to life. Maybe this prerequisite is already wrong ;)
Since we do not know what is the ...
user25791