Nooooo you're making me re-live my first year philosophy paper.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_of_life#Humanism

Why does this question assume that "mattering" mean "mattering in all times and places"?

The fact that the apple I am eating is ripe matters right now, and, since it will not make me sick, for the next couple of days, then it will not matter.

Even if you lived "forever" things would matter for a while, and then stop. Why would millennium old events necessarily matter just because the person who experienced them is still alive?

When I was a small child many things mattered, I needed to eat, to sleep, I needed affection and education. I don't remember most of that, so for all intense and purposes most of it did not happen to anybody conscious right now, and does not matter any more, even though I am still alive.

I suppose I fail to see a distinction in meaning or purpose when "eternity" gets thrown in the mix. Living longer, even "for eternity" does not seem to add, or prolong meaning.

I had this same discussion with some one, who is religions. But do not let that cloud your analysis of my anecdote.

In this discussion, I said that I felt there was really no meaning to any thing. Nothing to fight for, nothing to die for.

He said if there is nothing, then you should just shoot yourself now.

I now think of the retort I should have supplied is: Only the ignorant would call me a fool, for thinking like I do. From this position you can scrutinize every thing, as if you were outside of yourself.

You can imagine the looks that last statement would get me.

So basically what is being asked is:

Considering the fact nothing is permanent and the universe seems to be approaching a state of complete degeneration; making it a cold, dark, ever expanding space, why does anything matter?

For something to matter it has to have value, you can rephrase it as: What meaning (value) does anything have?

This question relies on the assumption that life matters or has meaning only if it lasts forever.

Endless permanence or existence do not condition meaning or value, on the contrary, they deplete it.

Switch the variables of that comment by Doc to see my point.
If we lived forever, why would anything matter? if there was a state of unchanging matter, how could you have any value? Not dying, all the time in the world, all the chances you can get, everything always the same. How could anything matter in this situation? If I dont fear for my life I wont give a damn about many things that we are inspired to do precisely because our life is limited.

It is because things are fragile and temporary, that we can give meaning to it, and have reasons to care about our decisions and what happens to us. If I can have infinite chances to get something, if I can start over and over again, if nothing would ever fade, then nothing matters.

Our life is short, matter is ever changing, and nothing really lasts. Because of all those things our actions and decisions during the short period where we are able to make them have value. If you mess up, you may not get another chance so you better make it count.

This is why I find the type of existence that 'Heaven' offers a meaningless existence. A Never changing, eternal reality would bore the hell out of me.

And how does that make you feel..?

>> ^berticus:
Nooooo you're making me re-live my first year philosophy paper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_of_life#Humanism

When contemplating the meaning of life I often go back to on of the great philosophers, Whedon, who wrote:

Life's not a song.
Life isn't bliss.
Life is just this.
It's living.

Like Sisyphus the work in itself is the meaning there is. In the grand scheme of things what we do does not matter very much, videos that show the scale of the universe seems to exemplify that. I would gather that there is no real meaning (as in purpose) of our existence. We can invent a bunch of them, which are of course temporally bound, like all things are, such as "we live to better ourselves and our species". We are but a short part in a very long chain of life, our purpose could be construed as just filling that role and making sure that our species evolves - the same "purpose" all other animals have.

The first and third question seems intertwined, so I'll just answer those two together.

Morals, ethics, personal relationships, social lives, these are all bound in a very finite time period and a very small amount of space. And yet they do matter, to me. The stars and quasars are pretty indifferent to who I meet at a party, but to me it can be pretty important. It's all about perspective.

Can I imagine myself not existing? Well, yes and no. I can look at relatives and friends who are not among us anymore and relate to the void they've left - I can imagine that I would leave a similar void in other people. This is of course only transient, and my memory would be replaced at some point, or at least diminished. We make a very small dent in the universe, but we still ought to enjoy it as much as we can.

It's much harder to reconcile the fact that when I'm dead I really don't exist anymore. That won't make it any less true though. I've argued earlier that we are essentially determined biological machines and that we in principle don't have free will, this is just as hard to reconcile myself with, but the fact that it's hard to imagine, won't make it any less true. (That on may actually be false, but I doubt it.)

Free will, huh?

"What matters" is actually a very biological question. The clinically depressed feel that nothing matters, while the highly-elated feel as if everything is significant. I've been to both places, so it is an interesting perspective to have.

My sense of whether anything matters is tied very strongly to my sense of well-being. When my nutrition is poor and my activity low, I cannot find meaning in anything. When I am in very good health I see knowledge and intellect as having massive significance. It is difficult to tell if "significance" can exist outside of the human mind.


One thing about existence that I often contemplate is that the life of the universe is finite (at least we think so). We may be able to extend human life indefinitely, but matter itself may eventually fade off into energy. After that, nothing that exists now will have any meaning. Whether I feel hopelessness or optimistic curiosity over that point is largely a product of my psychological state.

Assuming death becomes optional, I will probably live as long as I am happy doing so. Of course, the biology of happiness can be controlled as well, so that may be a very long time.

I am what I am, and it is what it is.

Why does it matter? Because it gives people purpose. It gives them a reason to: rape, pillage, destroy, create, paint, sculpt, kill, read, act, sing, eat, sleep, maim, shit, yell, throw, fuck, savor, write, masturbate, dance...

It all comes down to verbs...

When I've thought of this, I've always considered what every action I take results in. If I grab a spoon, place it on the counter, let it sit for there for a few seconds, then, if possible, placed it back in the exact same position I got it from, what really changed? Most everyone I know would say, "Well, it was there for a few seconds." Obviously this is a stupid statement because time does not exist. The only things that changed are there are tiny particles from my thumb on the spoon, and the spoon on my thumb, along with the counter on the spoon and vice versa. Also, you have breathed in air, blood as circulated through your veins, etc. As tiny and seemingly insignificant these changes may be, they are still there and always will be. Everything you do has some affect on the world as you see it, as small as it may be.



You can't look at the universe as something that is moving along a timeline. You must completely remove time from the picture. The amount of time a person lives is nothing more than the human measurement for how long that persons body was able to sustain their life before it expired.



The universe as we know it is a system of laws. Matter cannot be destroyed, nor created which brings forth the question of how, or even if it was created. Knowing this, I've always asked myself; Is it even there in the first place? Is all of this real? Am I real? Is anything real? Is there a "real"? Our senses are all we have to perceive the world around us. Without them what is left? Nothing. You die without the help of other beings. So if the world as you know it is nothing without your physical body, is it anything in the first place?



Every animal lives, every animal dies. The only difference is how their bodies perform. Humans are nothing more than animals that have developed methods to make their lives easier by making use of their advanced bodies. But are our bodies really superior to those of different species. No. You can't run into the forest and punch a bear to death. Humans have to be resourceful to live. Without all our inventions we would be reduced to merely foraging for food as any other animal does. The only thing that could possibly have any value, if anything has value at all, is something that helps your body sustain your conscious being forever. But, I don't know anyone that would want to live forever. If everything you live and die for is gone once you're dead or soon after, did it even matter? In my eyes, no, it didn't and nothing ever did.

As of right now, I do not feel like anything matter, nor any life. If my life matters, all other lives matter. If my life does not matter, neither does anyone else's. This is potentially the school of thought that causes school shootings, not that I am considering that. But the reason I come to the page in the first place is to seek whether or not life has meaning or not. I can not find it. Be it finite or not, life doesn't matter. Either way, I will still always be able to ask; why? I don't find meaning in anything, how can we say that having relationships has any value if it is finite, and if it is infinite, the question still stands. I am not feeling like there is any point to life, even though I grew up christian and should be all "oh yeah, there's plenty of purpose in life!" but I am not. TLDR