Meaning of Life

In a recent video, I argued we should do philosophy to (a) discover the meaning of life, or (b) determine there is no meaning of life. Maybe we can avoid this dilemma with a third option?

Consider a line from the 1992 classic film Wayne’s World. “It could happen. Yeah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt.” The sentence literally means it is possible that small primates take wing and exit Wayne’s anus. Notice, however, that Wayne is being sarcastic. The meaning he is communicating is actually the opposite of the literal meaning. You might think this shows the meaning of an act of speech depends on the speaker’s intention (for more, see Paul Grice). And, maybe we can say something similar about the meaning of life?

Call the way a thing is outside of the mind ‘objective‘ and the way it is inside the mind ‘subjective.’ In the aforementioned video, I claimed that, if life is meaningful, we must do philosophy to discover what that meaning is. To say life’s meaning must be discovered seems to imply it is objective: outside of the mind to be discovered, like a planet. Maybe the meaning of life is subjective: determined by the one who lives it like the meaning of an act of speech is determined by the one who speaks it. If that’s the case, we might think, we don’t need philosophy to discover the meaning of life because we just make it up ourselves without philosophy.

However, I think we will still need philosophy, and here are three reasons why.

1. We need philosophy to know our options

If I choose my own meaning of life, I will have several options: building something lasting, helping others, living pleasurably, etc. In each case, I will need to know the reasons for and against that option and the possible consequences. For example, let’s say I dedicate my life to patriotism. What if an evil genius rises to power and begins the Fourth Reich in my country? If I find that unacceptable, will I have to abandon the patriot option right now? Maybe I could say the Fourth Reich is an impostor organization and I will be patriotic to the true country, but what constitutes the true country? Just people who agree with me? I will need to do philosophy to sift through these issues.

2. Even if meaning is only subjective, I can only figure that out through philosophy

Even if we totally determine our own meaning, we aren’t absolutely certain that is the case. For all we know, objective meaning could exist, and not living our lives accordingly would mean our lives were unsuccessful. Worse, there could be great repercussions if we don’t live our lives according to their objective meaning (e.g., delay of moksha, hell). So, we should do philosophy to make sure meaning is not objective.

3. Subjective meaning might just be another word for self-deception

If the meaning of life is subjective, it is either because (a) there is an objective meaning of life, which is to determine our own subjective meaning, or (b) there is no meaning of life but we can make up our own. If (a), then there is an objective meaning that we must discover. We will need philosophy to find out our meaning comes from determining a subjective meaning for ourselves.

Possibility (b), however, seems wrongheaded. Imagine I believed I had a grasshopper that lived in my head and guided me in right and wrong, but there was no real grasshopper there. You wouldn’t say there was a subjective grasshopper; you would say I was deluded. In the same way, if the meaning of my life is only in my mind, then even if it directs my actions it is a fiction.

So, it seems subjective meaning either implies objective meaning or is an illusion, and in either case we will want to do philosophy to find out.