[lit-ideas] Re: The meaning of life


Questioner: What is the meaning of life?
Krishnamurti: Who wants to know?


[way down the Neoplatoist spiritual ladder]

Someone else: What is the meaning of life?

Eric: A meaningful life!

Someone else: That's a fancy way of saying nothing.
Eric: Asking after the meaning of life is a symptom. In the young it's a symptom of emerging self-reflection. In older folk, it's a symptom of re-evaluation, that is to say, it's a call to attention. If we pay attention to our own lives, the question of meaning, solus, never emerges.
Someone else: Human life is a necessary condition of meaning ... 

Eric: If you say so.

Someone else: I do.

Eric: And this is helpful ... how?
Someone else: Stating that "human life is a necessary condition of meaning" allows me to pretend to look down on the value systems of other people from an alleged transcendental perspective. That way, when somebody I disagree with talks about courage or integrity, I can smirk and say that all these terms are culture-based, provisional, or even adventitious illusions. 

Eric: Why would you want to do that?
Someone else: By claiming all meaning is human, hence cultural, I can avoid examining my own and other people's failures and strivings ... since after all, meaning is contingent and therefore a type of choice among other choices. 

Eric: So the motive is fear?

Someone else: If you say so.




------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html

Other related posts: