Philosophical Cud: The meanings of life - explained

Every once in a while, I’ll be asked by a stranger, “Curt, what is the meaning of life?” I consider this to be slightly rude, as it gives me the same feeling as when someone comes up and asks if they can have an autograph. Sure, I’m flattered, but I usually send solicitors away empty-handed or without an interesting answer. With that said, today is the lucky day. This week I’d like to share with you the answer to the ancient question: What, exactly, is the meaning of life?

When we ask what the meaning of life is, there are actually a few questions being asked. One question pertains to the meaning of biological processes in relation to the rest of the universe. That’s not what I’m interested in, as that question is largely interpretative. Another question asks what the purpose of life is – what are we here for? Is there something that we’re supposed to be doing while drifting through space on a small blue planet? While that question is intriguing, I find the concept that I should be doing something, especially something else, rather depressing. I’m interested in the meaning of my life. I’m interested in all of our lives, as they appear to us. Regardless of why we’re here, or how we’re here, I want to know what the significance of being here is. The question is not merely what it means for me to be alive, but what does my being alive mean for me? This is the question built into the question of life’s meaning that I’m interested in.

To begin, it may be best to develop an understanding of what ‘meaning’ is in general. Meaning is a concept we use in order to organize or to quantify the world and its significance for us. When we think about the meaning of a house, for example, thoughts of shelter, family or a sense of ‘home’ may come to mind. A house means that there is a place to take shelter, or to store things, but a house also means more than this. A house may be meaningful as a part of a community as well, for example.

The meaning of an object is always in relation to something else. “Blue” means nothing until it directs our thought to the sky or water, which are in turn only meaningful in relation to other objects and events in the world. It doesn’t make sense to think about the meaning of a fox by itself, but the meaning of a fox can be talked about in the context of a hen house. All things are ascribed meaning in relation to other things.

Life, as the sum of our experiences and events, however, is not relatable to any single event or object. Life is the totality of our experience. Everything that happens to us, that we think about and that we can directly affect, takes place sometime after we’re born and before we die. Life, as the sum of our experiences, cannot be related to any particular experience or object within our lives. Since life is the ‘outermost bracket’ of context for our experiences, life cannot have any logical meaning. There is nothing to relate life to, or to think of it in terms of.

Life cannot have meaning, because meaning requires quantification or identification with regard to another subject. I’m not ready to claim that life has no purpose, no telos, but instead only that the concept of life, as the sum of what happens to us (for us), is incompatible with the concept of meaning. The words ‘life’ and ‘meaning’ make sense grammatically, but not metaphysically. Asking what the meaning of life is may be as logical as asking what the banana of automobile is. We can say the words, but the question makes no sense. To be clear, it’s not that there is no meaning to life, only that we simply shouldn’t even think of life in terms of meaning.

If this answer seems dissatisfying, it may be worth looking at what the experts have to say on the topic. For further insight as to the meaning of life, I recommend reading Nietzsche, Douglas Adams or a Calvin and Hobbes anthology. The answers they provide will vary drastically, but you may find something that you like (I might prefer the latter, myself). So then, until next week, be meaningful.