Purpose and Meaning
I do not doubt that the best philosophers know a new and super-human way of laughing - at the expense of everything serious!
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, §294
I often hear discussion about purpose and meaning. The idea seems to be that you will find life somehow easier, or more fulfilling, if you can identify some kind of meaning or significance to your life. And this meaning comes from having purpose, often thought of as a higher (read: spiritual, personal, altruistic, or humanitarian) goal.
Where does this idea come from?
What would happen if we gave up on it?
I don’t think we will all become nihilistically enraged, or that society will somehow break down. We won’t decide to burn everything to the ground if we give up on the ideas of purpose and meaning.
I often think about all the people I come across every day either in my life or on a screen. Each of them a universe inside their own minds - going about their business with the utmost seriousness. Focused…
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