Does life have meaning? I'm somewhat sceptical. Though I readily admit that a rational, conscious human's life can have meaning to her. As for my dog and my cats, their lives have meaning to me. But can they consider meaningfulness? Life itself, in an intrinsic sense, has the 'meaning' of being life - as in a creature is alive rather than otherwise. Able to experience and feel comfort, or indeed to feel discomfort. That animals will fight to survive is proof that life matters, but, frankly, without conceptualisation, it's hard to define it as having meaning. The word meaning itself suggests at understanding. Let's face it, weeds and bacteria strive to survive and it would be hard to credit them with a concept of the meaningfulness of their existence.
I mentioned my scepticism about the meaning of life, as opposed to meaning in life. I don't believe in teleology. I don't accept that some pyramid of being, of which humanity or God is the apex, exists. I believe that life happened, at least on this one minor planet in an insignificant solar system in the far reaches of one of who-knows-how-many galaxies. I believe that consciousness, like life, is a mysterious complexity arising out of pure matter. And consciousness allows us the luxury of contemplating our place in the scheme of things. Less effective than coronavirus right now, but rather more able to think about it.
I also don't believe that meaning is conferred upon us by us being the creations of a loving (or otherwise) deity (or SIM programmer).
I also doubted that my life had any meaning in it because I am neither a parent (surely procreation is the purpose of life) nor some great thinker or artist or whatnot who has brought joy or amelioration to the lives of others. But Iddo Landau's wonderful book, Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World, offered me a different lens through which to value my existence. It matters that I appreciate the natural world and art and ideas and literature and human kindness. Experiencing those moments of wonder can be enough to make my life meaningful.
And I'd like to flag up how possible it is to maintain some of those passions during lockdown - the National Theatre and the Hampstead Theatre are steaming videos of live productions while the Institute of Art and Ideas and Oxford's Continuing Education Department have many free resources to read or watch online, for example, plus I have my Kindle and my Audible account and podcasts too. My mind can work out as much as I can bear.
Indeed today I watched a fabulous lecture given by the philosopher John Cottingham, which was about life's meaning. He starts by saying that a life has to fulfill three criteria: welfare (not being cold), comfort (not being scared) and dignity (able to make one's own decisions). Next, one has to work on three areas of life: achievements, virtues and transcendence. Achievements are our talents and abilities. Man is not, he suggests, happy if just lounging about. He uses the example of the Lotus Eaters in the Odyssey, who sit around eating, one assumes, lotuses. Or loti? Virtues mean working on character, becoming more tolerant and generous, say, less irascible and resentful. Stoic practice is good for this, I'd suggest. Finally, transcendence. Cottingham is a believer, so one might say 'he would say that, wouldn't he?' But his arguments in the lecture for an aspect of life beyond the merely contingent and material are persuasive.
Me, I think I find this in the areas I listed above that give me a sense of wonder. I am happy to stay fixed in a contingent and material universe, but consciousness, bound as it is with emotion and imagination, offers a 'something else' that really does have a profound impact on existence. Perhaps it's this avenue of conception that allows Sisyphus to be happy despite the ultimate absurdity and meaninglessness of life.
American philosopher Susan Wolf has a different take. She says meaning comes from actions that have objective value - making a Halloween costume for her daughter or working incredibly hard at writing an article. They are not necessarily or restricted to happiness or morality, but involve doing something that you are subjectively attracted by for something (a daughter or philosophy) that is objectively valuable. She regards a pursuit of excellence, creation/expansion of knowledge or creation of beauty as meaningful projects. In her sense, hmm... maybe I'll not dwell on that....
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