The Meaning of Life

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# The Meaning of Life
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### MSA 2025
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# About the question of the meaning of life

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__What is the meaning of life?__

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- Some think that it is the most profound and fundamental question of human existence.

- Others think that the question doesn't make sense.

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### Many ways to talk of meaning

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Meaning as _Intelligibility_:

1. What you said didn't mean a thing.
2. What did you mean by that statement?
3. Do you know what I mean?
4. What did you mean by that face? (overlaps with purpose)
5. What is the meaning of that book? (what is it about?)
6. What is the meaning of this? (for example, when asked upon returning home to find one's house ransacked)

]
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Meaning as _Purpose_:

1. What did you mean by that face? (overlaps with intelligibility)
2. The tantrum is meant to catch his dad's attention.
3. I really mean it!
4. I didn't mean to do it. I promise!
5. You are meant to be here.

]
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Meaning as _Significance_:

1. That was so meaningful.
2. This watch really means something to me.
3. That is a highly meaningful event in the life of that city.
4. What do his first six months in office mean for the country? (likely overlaps with intelligibility)
5. That is meaningless!
6. You mean nothing to me!

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Does my life _make sense_?

Does life have a _main purpuse_?

Is life _important_ or _significant_?

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# Video: Sisyphus

- According to Thomas Nagel, an absurd situation is one in which there is a clear discrepancy between pretension (or aspiration) and reality. What are some aspirations or pretensions in life that conflict with reality?
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# Video: Camus and The Absurd

- How should we cope with the absurdity of life? What are some inappropriate ways to cope with it? What are some proper ways to confront the absurdity of life?

- In what situations has your life felt especially meaningful? What was it that made those experiences feel meaningful—was it a sense of coherence, purpose, or importance? Could others find meaning in their lives by using your experience as a guide?

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## The absurd and the meaning of life

Discussion questions:

- Pushing the rock like Sisyphus is an inherently futile effort—something is futile when achieving what is aimed at or desired is impossible. Is life inherently futile? Can life feel like a futile effort? Does life involve desiring or aiming for something impossible?
- How should we cope with the absurdity of life? What are some inappropriate ways to cope with it? What are some proper ways to confront the absurdity of life?
- In what situations has your life felt especially meaningful? What was it that made those experiences feel meaningful—was it a sense of coherence, purpose, or importance? Could others find meaning in their lives by using your experience as a guide?

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# Albert Camus

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<img src="assets/camus.jpg" alt="" width="400"/>
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1913-1960. A French intellectual, writer, and journalist. Main themes:

- _Limits of reason_: Reason cannot explain the entirety of the human experience.
- _Absurdity of human life_. Tension between the human desire for intelligibility and the "unreasonable silence of the world."
- _Revolt and rebellion_: In response to the absurdity of life, Camus advocated for revolt: humans should resist the inherent meaninglessness of life and assert their own values and principles.

]

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# Camus' _The Myth of Sisyphus_ (1942)

Main theses:
1. Human existence is inherently absurd (and therefore meaningless).
2. On the face of it, the options seem to be two: (i) suicide, or (ii) hope. But both options fundamentally elude (avoid) the problem.
3. A proper acceptance of the absurd involves _embracing it_: living the conflict as a revolt against the meaninglessness of life.

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# Futility of life

__Futility__: Something is futile when the accomplishment or fulfillment of what is aimed at or desired is impossible. Examples: 
- Desire to have been born in another country
- Trying to fly by flapping one's arms

Is life _inherently futile_? Does life involve desiring/aiming for something impossible?

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# Why think that life is absurd?

We want the world to make sense, but in reality the world world is senseless and meaningless. Our desire to make sense of it is _futile_.

> "This world in itself is not reasonable, that is all that can be said. But what is absurd is the confrontation of this irrational and the wild longing for clarity whose call echoes in the human heart. The absurd depends as much on man as on the world..." (p. 70)

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What we would like?

- That the world is just and fair
- That evil is punished and virtue rewarded.
- To understand tragedy and fortune.
- To attain knowledge of why we're here, where we're going, what's the meaning of all

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How things actually are?

- The world is unjust and unfair
- Evil goes unpunished and good deeds are not rewarded
- We don't understand any of this.

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# If life is absurd, what's next?

> "There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest—whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories—comes afterwards." (p. 66)

- The question of the meaning of life is existential and urgent.
- If life does not have meaning, then it might be the case that life is not worth living.

> "Dying voluntarily implies that you have recognized, even instinctively, the ridiculous character of that habit, the absence of any profound reason for living, the insane character of that daily agitation, and the uselessness of suffering." (p. 67)

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# Another option: eluding

- Persist in the habit of living
- Hope
    - Live with the hope of an afterlife
    - Live for some great idea that will trascend life

> At a certain point on his path the absurd man is tempted. History is not lacking in either religions or prophets, even without gods. He is asked to leap. (p. 71)

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# The Myth of Sisyphus

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> The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. (p. 72-73)

Analogy:
- Futility of Sisyphus labor
- Futility of searching for meaning in life
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# Sisyphus punishment

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- According to Greek mythology, Sisyphus was the wisest and most prudent of mortals. He is also characterized by his disdain for the gods.
- Sisyphus betrayed Zeus' secrets by revealing the location of Aegina to his father Aesopus.
- Sisyphus trapped Thanatos (god of death) in chains.
- Sisyphus deceived Hades/Pluto (god of the underworld) by refusing to return to the underworld.

As a punishment for his crimes, Hades made Sisyphus roll a huge boulder endessly up a steep hill. Hades enchanted the boulder to roll down the hill right when Sisyphus reached the top, condemning Sisyphus to an eternity of useless effort.
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# Camus' interpretation

Camus imagines Sisyphus' thoughts as he walks down the hill to get back to his rock.

- This is a punishment only if Sisyphus is lucid and conscious.
    - If he clings to the hope of succeeding, his torture would be ameliorated.
- The thought of suicide is precisely what the gods want Sisyphus to experience.
    - The gods want Sisyphus to repudiate the life that he lived so passionately.
- Sisyphus' response: "All is well."
    - Attitude of defiant acceptance of his condition, through which Sisyphus takes ownership of his own fate. 
    - Scorn for the gods: act of revolt by accepting our absurd fate.

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# Fate surmounted by scorn

> “I conclude that all is well,” says Œdipus, and that remark is sacred. It echoes in the wild and limited universe of man. It teaches that all is not, has not been, exhausted. It drives out of this world a god who had come into it with dissatisfaction and a preference for futile sufferings. It makes of fate a human matter, which must be settled among men. All Sisyphus’ silent joy is contained therein. His fate belongs to him. His rock is his thing. Likewise, the absurd man, when he contemplates his torment, silences all the idols. (p. 74)

> Sisyphus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition: it is what he thinks of during his descent. The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory. There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn. (p. 74)

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# Radical acceptance of the absurd

> I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one’s burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy. (p. 75)

- Against suicide and irrational hope, Camus proposes an attitude of _defiant acceptance_ to life's meaninglessness.
- A proper acceptance of the absurd involves _embracing it_: living the conflict as a revolt against the meaningless condition of life.
- This attitude makes _life worth living_, despite its absurd character.

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# Nagel: _The Absurd_

Main thesis: Life is inescapably absurd for us because of our perception of the irresolvable discrepancy between the seriousness with which we take our life and the arbitrariness of all that we do.

1. A situation is absurd for a subject when the subject can perceive a clear discrepancy between pretension (aspiration) and reality.
1. A situation is inescapably absurd when its inherent discrepancy cannot possibly be resolved.
1. We take our life seriously (we pretend our life is serious).
1. From a universal, timeless point of view (_sub specie aeternitatis_), we see that the seriousness with which we take our lives is unwarranted.
1. We see this discrepancy and still cannot help but act as if life is serious.
1. Therefore, life is inescapably absurd for us.

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# Meaningful life

- In what situations has your life appeared to be very meaningful? What was it about it that made it so meaningful (sense-making, purpose, or importance).

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### Premise 1: A situation is absurd for a subject when the subject can perceive a clear discrepancy between pretension (aspiration) and reality.

Examples of absurd situations: 
- Someone gives a complicated speech in support of a motion that has already been passed.
- A notorious criminal is made president of a major philanthropic foundation.
- You declare your love over the telephone to a recorded announcement.
- As you are being knighted, your pants fall down.

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### Premise 2: A situation is inescapably absurd when its inherent discrepancy cannot possibly be resolved.

In all the previous examples, it is possible to remove the absurdity by making some change to the story:

- Modifying aspirations: instead of declaring love, think about the person rehearsing it.
- Trying to bring reality into better accord with pretensions: instead of making a criminal president of a philanthropic foundation, making them president of a criminal organization.
- Removing a person from the situation: Remove the subject that is being knighted from the stage.

We will see later that _we cannot do this_ when it comes to the discrepancy that makes life absurd.

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### Premise 3: We take our life seriously (we pretend our life is serious).

We devote to our lives our best resources:
-	We think rationally (we don’t act on impulse).
-	We weigh consequences.
-	We ask whether what we do is worthwhile.
-	We make careful decisions (whom to marry, what profession to follow, etc.).

> “Leading a human life is a full-time occupation, to which everyone devotes decades of intense concern.” (Nagel, 140)

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> Leading a human life is a full-time occupation, to which everyone devotes decades of intense concern. This fact is so obvious that it is hard to find it extraordinary and important. Each of us lives his own life—lives with himself twenty-four hours a day. What else is he supposed to do—live someone else’s life? Yet humans have the special capacity to step back and survey themselves, and the lives to which they are committed, with that detached amazement which comes from watching an ant struggle up a heap of sand. Without developing the illusion that they are able to escape from their highly specific and idiosyncratic position, they can view it sub specie aeternitatis—and the view is at once sobering and comical. (Nagel, 140)

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### Premise 4: From a universal, timeless point of view (sub specie aeternitatis), we see that the seriousness with which we take our lives is unwarranted.

- _Sub specie aeternitatis_: (something) viewed in relation to the eternal; in a universal perspective. 
- We can adopt this view due to our capacity of _self-reflection_.
- We see ourselves from a universal, timeless perspective:
    -	All our efforts will eventually come to nothing.
    -	We strive to survive with no apparent reason.

> We step back to find that the whole system of justification and criticism, which controls our choices and supports our claims to rationality, rests on responses and habits that we never question, that we should not know how to defend without circularity, and to which we shall continue to adhere even after they are called into question. (p. 140)

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### Premise 5: We see this discrepancy, and still cannot help but act as if life is serious.

- After appreciating the arbitrariness of what we do, we continue to take life seriously.

> We see ourselves from outside, and all the contingency and specificity of our aims and pursuits become clear. Yet when we take this view and recognize what we do as arbitrary, it does not disengage us from life, and there lies our absurdity: not in the fact that such an external view can be taken of us, but in the fact that we ourselves can take it, without ceasing to be the persons whose ultimate concerns are so coolly regarded. (p. 140)

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# Why is the life of a mouse not absurd?

> Why is the life of a mouse not absurd? The orbit of the moon is not absurd either, but that involves no strivings or aims at all. A mouse, however, has to work to stay alive. Yet he is not absurd, because he lacks the capacities for self-consciousness and self-transcendence that would enable him to see that he is only a mouse. If that did happen, his life would become absurd, since self-awareness would not make him cease to be a mouse and would not enable him to rise above his mousely strivings. Bringing his new-found self-consciousness with him, he would have to return to his meagre yet frantic life, full of doubts that he was unable to answer, but also full of purposes that he was unable to abandon. (p. 144)

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## Discussion Questions (Taylor's reading)

1. What is Taylor's main theses and argument? Does he think life is meaningful?
2. Can life be _subjectively meaningful_ for Taylor? Under what conditions?
3. Suppose we inject Sisyphus with a substance that makes him "want" to push the rock up the hill. Is Sisyphus life now meaningful? Why?

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## Discussion Questions (No Taylor's reading)

1. What things bring meaning to our life?
2. Can life be objectively meaningless but subjectively meaningful? If so, how?
3. Suppose we inject Sisyphus with a substance that makes him "want" to push the rock up the hill. Is Sisyphus life now meaningful? Why?

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# Taylor's _The Meaning of Life_

Main theses:
1. Life, while objectively meaningless, can be subjectively meaningful, in virtue of the active engagement of our will in our projects.
2. Subjective meaning is (subjectively) more valuable/desirable than objective meaning.

Two passes:
1. First pass: To conclude that human life is objectively meaningless.
2. Second pass: To conclude that human life, while objectively meaningless, can be subjectively meaningful.

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# First pass: objective meaninglessness

First-pass argument:

1. The life of Sisyphus is objectively meaningless.
2. The life of Sisyphus is relevantly analogous to all life (including human life).
3. Therefore, human life is objectively meaningless.

Argument by analogy: Since two objects are similar, what is _clearly_ true of one is also true of the other.

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# Why Sisyphus again?

- The myth provides a good illustration of a meaningless life.
- We could have used another illustration: "We can imagine two groups of prisoners, one of them engaged in digging a prodigious hole in the ground that is no sooner finished than it is filled in again by the other group, the latter then digging a new hole that is at once filled in by the first group, and so on and on endlessly." (Taylor, p. 129)

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### Premise 1: Sisyphus' life is objectively meaningless

What makes Sisyphus' life meaningless?

- Not the torture of his task, or the pain, or the great labor.
    - Suppose the stone is a pebble. This modification won’t make Sisyphus' life meaningful.
- Let’s imagine the gods implant in him an irrational impulse to roll stones. Sisyphus has an obsession with rolling stones, so he actually wants to roll up the stone.
    - This doesn’t make Sisyphus' life meaningful either.
- What makes Sisyphus' life meaningless is that __his labor comes to nothing, that it is pointless__.

> "Meaninglessness is essentially endless pointlessness, and meaningfulness is therefore the opposite. Activity, and even long, drawn-out, and repetitive activity, has a meaning if it has some significant culmination, some more or less lasting end that can be considered to have been the direction and purpose of the activity." (p. 131)

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### Premise 2: Sisyphus' life relevantly analogous to all life

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Glowworms:
-	Each dot of light is a glowworm, which uses light to attract insects to its sticky threads.
-	The worm transforms itself into a winged insect which, after mating and laid eggs, is itself caught in the threads of other glowworms.
-	This goes on for years, to no end.
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### Premise 2: Sisyphus' life relevantly analogous to all life

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Glowworms:
-	Each dot of light is a glowworm, which uses light to attract insects to its sticky threads.
-	The worm transforms itself into a winged insect which, after mating and laid eggs, is itself caught in the threads of other glowworms.
-	This goes on for years, to no end.
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Our life:
-	We strive to meet goals of transitory significance.
-	After gaining one we immediately focus on the next.
-	Most of our efforts are directed to the maintenance of our family, who will do the same later.
-	Our achievements are temporary, and those which last longer will eventually turn to dust.

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# Second pass: subjective meaning

Second-pass argument:

1. The life of _Sisyphus*_ is objectively meaningless _but subjectively meaningful_.
2. The life of _Sisyphus*_ is relevantly analogous to human life.
3. Therefore, human life is objectively meaningless _but subjectively meaningful_.

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### Premise 1: The life of Sisyphus* is objectively meaningless but subjectively meaningful

Sisyphus* differs from Sisyphus (the original) in that he has a strange and irrational impulse to push stones (the gods implanted in him a substance that has this effect).

This modification doesn’t make his life more objectively meaningful (as the activity is still pointless).

However, __the fact that Sisyphus* is doing precisely what he wants (has a deep interest in) makes his life meaningful for him.__

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### Premise 2: The life of Sisyphus* and ours are similar

- Our life consists in engaging with projects that arise in our will. 
- Just as Sisyphus*, we desire to live and to engage with the labors that sustain us and our families.
- Since the life of Sisyphus* is meaningful for him, _our_ life is meaningful for us due to our engagement in our desired projects.

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## Subjective meaning more valuable (subjectively)

- Objective meaning is attained by realizing a defined goal (the opposite of pointless activity). But a life that realizes all their goals (i.e., an objectively meaningful life) is a life of infinite boredom (no activity at all).

> [Suppose Sisyphus has the task of builing a temple, and he completes it.] It is precisely the picture of infinite boredom! Of Sisyphus doing nothing ever again, but contemplating what he has already wrought and can no longer add anything to, and contemplating it for an eternity! (p. 134)

- Subjective meaning is attained by actively engaging in our (desired) projects (_it is the doing that counts_).
- _From the perspective of the individual_, it’s much more valuable (or desirable) to attain subjective meaning, than objective meaning.

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## Discussion Questions (Wolf's reading)

1. What are Wolf's main theses and arguments? Does she think life is meaningful?
2. Can Sisyphus's life be meaningful, according to Wolf's view?
3. Suppose a person is actively engaged in collecting rubber bands or completing crossword puzzles. Can their life be meaningful?
4. Suppose a person works saving lives at a hospital but is completely uninterested in it (doesn't experience joy from it). Can their life be meaningful?

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# Susan Wolf (1882-1936)

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- An American philosopher, born in 1952.
- Areas of research: moral philosophy and philosophy of action.
- "Moral Saints" (1982): Distinction between being _morally perfect_ and having the kind of life we think is good for the person who leads it.

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# Wolf's _Meaning in Life_

Main thesis: A meaningful life is one that actively engages in projects of worth.

1. If a life doesn't _actively engage_ in projects, then that life is meaningless.
2. Thus, if a life is meaningful, then it is a life that actively engages in projects.
3. If a life is not involved in _projects of worth_, then that life is meaningless.
4. Thus, if a life is meaningful, then it is a life that is involved in projects of worth. 
5. Thus, if a life is meaningful, then it is a life that actively engages in projects of worth.

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# Active engagement

- Active engagement: "_A person is actively engaged by something if she is gripped, excited, involved by it. Most obviously, we are actively engaged by the things and people about which and whom we are passionate. Opposites of active engagement are boredom and alienation._" (p. 105)
- Distinction between being actively engaged and experiencing pleasure:
    - Writing a book
    - Climbing a mountain
    - Training for a marathon
    - Caring for an ailing friend
- The feeling of engagement brings the feeling of being "especially alive" (p. 206).

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# Premise 1: Active engagement and meaning

P1: If a life doesn't _actively engage_ in projects, then that life is meaningless.

> A life is meaningless if it lacks active engagement with anything. A person who is bored or alienated from most of what she spends her life doing is one whose life can be said to lack meaning. Note that she may in fact be performing functions of worth. A housewife and mother, a doctor, or a busdriver may be competently doing a socially valuable job, but because she is not engaged by her work (or, as we are assuming, by anything else in her life), she has no categorical desires that give her a reason to live. (p. 207)

Thus, a meaningful life must be _actively engaged_ in projects (P2).

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# Projects of worth

- Projects of worth: Projects that are _objectively_ valuable.
    - Their value is independent of what any person either (i) experiences or (ii) desires.

> Sometimes people have concerns about meaning despite their knowledge that their lives to date have been satisfying. Indeed, their enjoyment and “active engagement” with activities and values they now see as shallow seems only to heighten the sense of meaninglessness that comes to afflict them. Their sense that their lives so far have been meaningless cannot be a sense that their activities have not been chosen or fun. When they look for sources of meaning or ways to add meaning to their lives, they are searching for projects whose justifications lie elsewhere. (p. 206)

The possibility of seeing one's past enjoyment as shallow means that the meaning of life must have an objective component.

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# P3: Projects of worth and meaning

P3: If a life is not involved in _projects of worth_, then that life is meaningless.

> [S]omeone who is actively engaged may also live a meaningless life, if the objects of her involvement are utterly worthless. It is difficult to come up with examples of such lives that will be uncontroversial without being bizarre. In the bizarre category, we might consider pathological cases: someone whose sole passion in life is collecting rubber bands, or memorizing the dictionary, or making handwritten copies of "War and Peace". Controversial cases will include the corporate lawyer who sacrifices her private life and health for success along the professional ladder, the devotee of a religious cult, or the pig farmer who buys more land to grow more corn to feed more pigs to buy more land to grow more corn to feed more pigs. (p 207)

Thus, a meaningful life must be involved in _projects of worth_ (P4).