What do people mean when they say: "what is the meaning of life?" or "life has no meaning." — Emptyheady
There are some nihilists who claim that life has no (objective) meaning, — Emptyheady
I think that statements like "life is meaningless" are unintelligible (and nonsensical) without describing the opposite in a coherent way. It is a statement claiming that this world lacks something (i.e. meaning), but they do not describe that something in an understandable coherent way. — Emptyheady
What do people mean when they say: "what is the meaning of life?" or "life has no meaning." — Emptyheady
What do people mean when they say: "what is the meaning of life?" or "life has no meaning." — Emptyheady
What do people mean when they say: "what is the meaning of life?" or "life has no meaning."
There are some nihilists who claim that life has no (objective) meaning, but what does a world look like where life does have (objective) meaning? They describe the absence of something that is not clear to me.
I think that statements like "life is meaningless" are unintelligible (and nonsensical) without describing the opposite in a coherent way. It is a statement claiming that this world lacks something (i.e. meaning), but they do not describe that something in an understandable coherent way.
I am not merely looking for a semantic discussion, but also metaphysical and perhaps even psychological aspects of this discussion. — Emptyheady
In the context of a meaning of life, people have in mind an overarching goal or significance or purpose. It basically assumes that there's an intelligent, goal-oriented "reason that we're here." — Terrapin Station
Is this source of meaning objective (i.e. mind independent)? I think not, — Emptyheady
If it weren't for us creating language, we wouldn't be able to conceptualize meaning. Meaning is just a word in a language that we created. Therefore we created the concept of meaning. — MonfortS26
There are some nihilists who claim that life has no (objective) meaning, — Emptyheady
I think the notion that we "created language" is a serious flaw here, — Noble Dust
The world has inherent meaning because meanings are intersubjective; it is an intersubjective world. — John
There are some nihilists who claim that life has no (objective) meaning, but what does a world look like where life does have (objective) meaning? They describe the absence of something that is not clear to me. — Emptyheady
So we have two different perspectives at work here: we need meaning, and we need this meaning to make sense and reassure us. If we have no meaning, then there's nothing to reassure us. And if we have meaning but it's a gross and horrifying meaning, this also doesn't reassure us. So it all comes down to finding some way of reassuring ourselves of our place in the world. — darthbarracuda
(1) It seems like you're shifting to "meaning" in the semantic sense rather than "meaning" in the "purpose"/"meaning of life" sense.
(2) I don't see how being enculturated etc. would amount to meaning being inherent. Maybe we're using different definitions of "inherent"?
(3) I suppose I wasn't clear enough in my earlier comment. I wasn't saying that I don't agree that people can interact with and agree with one another. I was saying that I don't agree that intersubjectivity amounts to anything more than that. (With the upshot that I don't agree that intersubjectivity enables meaning to be inherent in either sense of "meaning.") — Terrapin Station
I feel we are all here, dabbling or paddling in philosophy, in search of meanings — mcdoodle
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