Why are we here? What is the meaning of life?
(Note: I'm not sure when I wrote this so I'm posting it with a guess at the date.)
Why are we here?
What is the meaning of life?
I've been wondering, thinking, pondering, and exploring this question since I was a teenager, and yet I don't know that I've been able to come to a full comprehensive sense of exactly what our purpose is.
For one, as natural and inevitable results of the universe, we are here for no reason at all. We are here because something came before us, which over the ages evolved into something closer to ourselves. We are here because those that survive can continue, and those that are less successful do not. Thus, all those here now are the results of successes, which in this case simply means that which didn't die away. Notice, that which died was not less important, valueable, or meaningful than that which survived; rather that which lived was that which happened by some chance to have an "advantage" over that which did not.
Even our very language makes a judgement, that which lived is good, that which died away was in some way weak, less, incapable, insufficient. So, in describing the inevitable results, we assign a negative value to those that did not continue and a positive value to thow that did.
Why are we here?
What is the meaning of life?
When I was in college, pledging a fraternity, we were asked to sit down and interview a number of the fraternity members. We could make up our own question set, and this was one that I asked them. I wanted to know what they were thinking; what was there drive; why gave them drive... but more than that, I was searching for the bit of truth in the words that would give me some more clues about the reason for living.
Looking back through time, I see that I am the inevitable result of the big bang, billions of years ago. I am a result, just as a mathematical equation has a result. The result is neither good, nor bad, and it exists only because it is the inevitable conclusion of the equation. (Here, now, the film "The Matrix" jumps into mind.)
There are a couple of ways of looking at this... we are the inevitable results of the universe... so that might lead to dispair, that there really is no reason at all for us to continue, or for us to die. There is no reason for that ahead of us, other than the fact that it will also be the direct and logical result of the state of the universe at this moment... and how the universe continues mathematically and clockwork wise forward into the future.
Often, at this point in my thinking, I feel dispair that it is all pointless, and that I don't really have any reason for being, and all that I am working on or working for is quite pointless. This makes me feel like I may as well simply lead my life to maximize my overall pleasure, minimize my suffering, and just do whatever I want to do to get to that result. This, after all, appears to be what a large number, perhaps the greatest number, of the rest of my species does. This also makes me think that the development of religion may have been in part an intentional plan to help give meaning and direction to those who looked at their lives in such a self-centered way.
In a way, I see this as my philosophy as well. I think I want to maximize my own pleasure and happiness. After all, this is the water-rolls-down-hill direction. To not maximize pleasure (or perception of future pleasure) would be for the water to be rolling up the hill, up the mountain, and over to the other side. And, for the religions, at least the ones with which I'm most familiar, this is the message: follow this religion to maximize your future pleasure... suffering now is not so bad because bliss in the ever-after will be infinite; and we all know that any infinite will always trump anything finite, and our life is certainly finite (or as the religious might say, our mortal lives are finite.)
How then am I to maximize my pleasure?
I am working to maximize it because I feel pleasure when I am appreciated, respected, and sought after for my "good" works and the "good" ideas. This could be simplified as a quest to maximize my personal popularity. How to I seek to go about that is to help others, and to receive in exchange their gratitude and appreciation.
Interestingly (perhaps), the gratitude and adoration that I seek does not have to come from those people I know, or even those now living, or even people at all. In my own mind, I am able to assign the likely appreciation of future generations of humans and animals due to the efforts that I make now as compared to what the Earth would have been like had I ceased to exist or never existed at all. Of course, the closer to now, the more current appreciation, does have the advantage of feeling better now, so I try to keep that in mind, and think about the appeciation and gratitude of those beyond me.
Abraham Maslow's "Hierarchy of needs" would rank this motivation on my part as somewhere in the "esteem" level, which Maslow ranks below the "self-actualization" level. It seems to me that as for self-actualization, I have met my needs for such much of the time, but that they come and go, just as my feelings of having met my esteem needs come and go depending on my "successes" at the moment.
Pause in Writing
Due to my upbringing, or to that which I have learned or that which has been drilled into my head, or due to my biology, I am not able to feel much pleasure or satisfaction when I think of the destruction I am responsible to Earth. Even driving my new car which gets very good fuel economy, I recognize that I'm polluting the atmosphere (our greatest commons) with excess carbon dioxide. When I use electricity, I think of the air pollution and also the environmental damage from the mining of the fuels. When I buy new things, I find myself thinking about all of the damage and pollution that occured to get this item into my possession. These are not happy thoughts. And, I seek to avoid these unhappy thoughts as well.
Where as Maslow ranks the higher order needs in a hierarchy, a more recent hypothesis by Manfred Max-Neef sees all needs existing at the same time and there being complex interactions and interrelationships between them. "Fundamental Human Needs"
Motivation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_of_life
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_human_needs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation
Why are we here?
What is the meaning of life?
I've been wondering, thinking, pondering, and exploring this question since I was a teenager, and yet I don't know that I've been able to come to a full comprehensive sense of exactly what our purpose is.
For one, as natural and inevitable results of the universe, we are here for no reason at all. We are here because something came before us, which over the ages evolved into something closer to ourselves. We are here because those that survive can continue, and those that are less successful do not. Thus, all those here now are the results of successes, which in this case simply means that which didn't die away. Notice, that which died was not less important, valueable, or meaningful than that which survived; rather that which lived was that which happened by some chance to have an "advantage" over that which did not.
Even our very language makes a judgement, that which lived is good, that which died away was in some way weak, less, incapable, insufficient. So, in describing the inevitable results, we assign a negative value to those that did not continue and a positive value to thow that did.
Why are we here?
What is the meaning of life?
When I was in college, pledging a fraternity, we were asked to sit down and interview a number of the fraternity members. We could make up our own question set, and this was one that I asked them. I wanted to know what they were thinking; what was there drive; why gave them drive... but more than that, I was searching for the bit of truth in the words that would give me some more clues about the reason for living.
Looking back through time, I see that I am the inevitable result of the big bang, billions of years ago. I am a result, just as a mathematical equation has a result. The result is neither good, nor bad, and it exists only because it is the inevitable conclusion of the equation. (Here, now, the film "The Matrix" jumps into mind.)
There are a couple of ways of looking at this... we are the inevitable results of the universe... so that might lead to dispair, that there really is no reason at all for us to continue, or for us to die. There is no reason for that ahead of us, other than the fact that it will also be the direct and logical result of the state of the universe at this moment... and how the universe continues mathematically and clockwork wise forward into the future.
Often, at this point in my thinking, I feel dispair that it is all pointless, and that I don't really have any reason for being, and all that I am working on or working for is quite pointless. This makes me feel like I may as well simply lead my life to maximize my overall pleasure, minimize my suffering, and just do whatever I want to do to get to that result. This, after all, appears to be what a large number, perhaps the greatest number, of the rest of my species does. This also makes me think that the development of religion may have been in part an intentional plan to help give meaning and direction to those who looked at their lives in such a self-centered way.
In a way, I see this as my philosophy as well. I think I want to maximize my own pleasure and happiness. After all, this is the water-rolls-down-hill direction. To not maximize pleasure (or perception of future pleasure) would be for the water to be rolling up the hill, up the mountain, and over to the other side. And, for the religions, at least the ones with which I'm most familiar, this is the message: follow this religion to maximize your future pleasure... suffering now is not so bad because bliss in the ever-after will be infinite; and we all know that any infinite will always trump anything finite, and our life is certainly finite (or as the religious might say, our mortal lives are finite.)
How then am I to maximize my pleasure?
I am working to maximize it because I feel pleasure when I am appreciated, respected, and sought after for my "good" works and the "good" ideas. This could be simplified as a quest to maximize my personal popularity. How to I seek to go about that is to help others, and to receive in exchange their gratitude and appreciation.
Interestingly (perhaps), the gratitude and adoration that I seek does not have to come from those people I know, or even those now living, or even people at all. In my own mind, I am able to assign the likely appreciation of future generations of humans and animals due to the efforts that I make now as compared to what the Earth would have been like had I ceased to exist or never existed at all. Of course, the closer to now, the more current appreciation, does have the advantage of feeling better now, so I try to keep that in mind, and think about the appeciation and gratitude of those beyond me.
Abraham Maslow's "Hierarchy of needs" would rank this motivation on my part as somewhere in the "esteem" level, which Maslow ranks below the "self-actualization" level. It seems to me that as for self-actualization, I have met my needs for such much of the time, but that they come and go, just as my feelings of having met my esteem needs come and go depending on my "successes" at the moment.
Pause in Writing
Due to my upbringing, or to that which I have learned or that which has been drilled into my head, or due to my biology, I am not able to feel much pleasure or satisfaction when I think of the destruction I am responsible to Earth. Even driving my new car which gets very good fuel economy, I recognize that I'm polluting the atmosphere (our greatest commons) with excess carbon dioxide. When I use electricity, I think of the air pollution and also the environmental damage from the mining of the fuels. When I buy new things, I find myself thinking about all of the damage and pollution that occured to get this item into my possession. These are not happy thoughts. And, I seek to avoid these unhappy thoughts as well.
Where as Maslow ranks the higher order needs in a hierarchy, a more recent hypothesis by Manfred Max-Neef sees all needs existing at the same time and there being complex interactions and interrelationships between them. "Fundamental Human Needs"
Motivation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_of_life
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_human_needs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation