We have all expended a great deal of time and energy trying to uncover the meaning of life. Surely there is no more noble pursuit. However, I am of the opinion that there cannot possibly be one universal meaning.
The human race, even with their flaws, follies, and imperfections, has accomplished a truly remarkable feat in their time on Earth: the creation of language. And not just one - thousands. These languages, each with their own individual nuances and complexities, have allowed for us to assign words, archetypes, symbols, or emblems to the things which conjure specific emotions within us. We are able to make social agreements amongst each other so that with these words, a nomenclature for things involved with the human experience can be used by everyone. We all have the ability to communicate using agreed upon guidelines. This is nothing short of a miracle. Using language, we are able to describe to others events that happen to us. But at times, the mental and physical events that happen to us are simply incommunicable to others despite languages' best efforts of equipping us with hundreds of thousands of words which we have at our disposal. Actually, there are millions of words in the English language, but none of these words have any intrinsic meaning.
The fact is, you and I are the ones who assign meaning to things. We may all refer to something similarly, or even call it the same thing, but we don't experience it in the same way. Experience is personal; experiences are contingent upon perception, and perception is in the mind. Language and communication, however, is intrapersonal. Given that we all live separate lives manifested by different initial conditions, fostered by even more drastically differing life experiences, and governed by an entirely different set of meanings to things, to me, it seems exceedingly naive to believe that the meaning of life is universal.
I believe that the meaning of life will not be found externally to me or to you. The answers - whatever they are - will be found inside us, just where they've always been. I don't know what these answers are, but I do know that, in all likelihood, they won't be yours.
-G
The human race, even with their flaws, follies, and imperfections, has accomplished a truly remarkable feat in their time on Earth: the creation of language. And not just one - thousands. These languages, each with their own individual nuances and complexities, have allowed for us to assign words, archetypes, symbols, or emblems to the things which conjure specific emotions within us. We are able to make social agreements amongst each other so that with these words, a nomenclature for things involved with the human experience can be used by everyone. We all have the ability to communicate using agreed upon guidelines. This is nothing short of a miracle. Using language, we are able to describe to others events that happen to us. But at times, the mental and physical events that happen to us are simply incommunicable to others despite languages' best efforts of equipping us with hundreds of thousands of words which we have at our disposal. Actually, there are millions of words in the English language, but none of these words have any intrinsic meaning.
The fact is, you and I are the ones who assign meaning to things. We may all refer to something similarly, or even call it the same thing, but we don't experience it in the same way. Experience is personal; experiences are contingent upon perception, and perception is in the mind. Language and communication, however, is intrapersonal. Given that we all live separate lives manifested by different initial conditions, fostered by even more drastically differing life experiences, and governed by an entirely different set of meanings to things, to me, it seems exceedingly naive to believe that the meaning of life is universal.
I believe that the meaning of life will not be found externally to me or to you. The answers - whatever they are - will be found inside us, just where they've always been. I don't know what these answers are, but I do know that, in all likelihood, they won't be yours.
-G
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