The Meaning of Meaning05:08 Sep 08 2014
Times Read: 544
From time to time I'll have a bit of an existential crisis, well, perhaps an existential pondering would be more accurate. A few minutes ago was one such moment.
As I was taking my dog for a walk I became profoundly aware of my own individual existence, which creates a strange sense of being and alters your state of awareness of the things around you. Anyway, as I was realizing the fact that I am this living creature moving through the world, I began to think about the meaning of life (being an existential pondering one is required to think about such things), but then my thoughts went to the meaning of what it is for something to "mean" something - I mean, what is meaning anyway?
Do things mean something because they have some inherent worth irrespective of the being contemplating it? Or do they only have meaning because they're being contemplated? Or both?
This line of questioning is at once the most banal and fundamental line of question & thought in any philosophy class, and life itself. No matter how often we think of them, or how cliched, we cannot extricate ourselves from the ramifications of their answers, nor can we ever really come to a satisfactory conclusion.
As I continued with the train of thought I began to wonder if meaning itself is meaningless. The thing's meaning's only existence may well be what we give it as individuals, and then perhaps as societies; but only because we've all agreed via some subconscious and surreptitious method that the thing has meaning. And if so, why do we confer meaning to things to being with?
Have we done so simply because we've evolved enough of a forebrain to know we exist, and to then realize how complicated and overwhelming the world is as to shock every sense we have, thus we allow things to be meaningful in order to exert a kind of control over them? And this then enables us to ignore the remaining crushing weight of the world since it doesn't "mean" anything to us?
Should this be the case, meaning is still meaningless. Could it be that our ancient ancestors, once awoken from their primal ignorance, were shaken to the core with this burst of first enlightenment, "I am"? Then perhaps in the midst of that they, being driven by the ever present, pernicious, and pervasive call to self-preservation, they gave their progeny the ultimate prescription to ease to their woes - the afterlife.
Could the concept of the afterlife really be just an affectation to shield us from the knowledge that we can and will die, to cease to exist, blink away, and vanish from thought? Indeed our thoughts, those things which are the all encompassing vessel of ourselves and our existence, both the creator and creation of the thing which we are, will one day turn to bleak nothingness. So again, while having the fear of death, the will to live, the drive to achieve immortality (if only by passing on our genes) we realized that we will die, and faced with that horrific prospect we created meaning. Is it that we created the afterlife (which enables the continuation of our life's meaning), all so that we can live our momentary lives under a type of blissful self-delusion, else we snap and dive hard into a deep psychotic state from which our only escape would be the death we so feared.
Like I said, there's nothing new or profound with these kinds of thoughts, but when they occur (and viscerally at that) they do leave an impression.
COMMENTS
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dabbler
07:07 Sep 08 2014
Like I state in my profile. "There is no deeper meaning to life, yet we can seek a better understanding of Life." I like the words profound, peculiar, and anomalous.
dabbler
16:27 Sep 09 2014
My question is why are people not satisfied with the life they are living. Why they need an added bonus after life? I attended many bible studies, and sermons as a non devout attendee (I went for the social aspect of congregation).. it all never seemed the right package for me.. "Pie In the Sky". I would rather get my thrills, and be awestruck by the very Life I am living. The one thing about religion is that those who sell it are getting away with selling fire insurance, for the threat of fire that they promote.