The Purpose of Life

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"Magnificent Bastard" / Ren's Counterpart
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So let's just dive in.

Aristotle was a virtue ethicist. He wasn't concerned with the specific rules and regulations behind being a good person. That's Kant.

Aristotle basically thought that there are vices and virtues. A person can't be virtuous all of the time so he saw ethical conduct as a sliding scale. Basically, the most practical way is the middle way or the golden mean.

Why try to be virtuous? Why get out of bed in the morning? Because you're built that way baby! Seriously, Aristotle thought that everyone has a purpose. What is that purpose? Eudaimonia.

What is Eudaimonia? Living life well by doing things well. Essentially that's the recipe to human flourishing.

What I want to do here is identify different approaches to the subject of human purpose. I've thought a lot about this and I wouldn't even call myself an Existentialist anymore. I don't think that you create your own purpose. I think it's given by the prime-mover, the prime-cause, what have you. I disagree with Camus and Sartre.


I think that purpose (Eudaimonia) is a byproduct of who you are. Your experiences and genes made you.... You. I guess that makes me a traditional.
 
I agree.
It's a tricky thing, figuring out what Eudaimonia means for yourself while supporting others in their own pursuit of it.
We are all built differently and have different paths to travel.
 
Winterflowers said:
What do you believe slant?
Also lovely new member photo ^-^ quite cute.
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I'm an absurdist, personally. I don't think there is any inherent purpose/ humans can't know the purpose of life, but also that humans function best when they have a belief system so I just pick whatever seems to make sense to me knowing that it's not universally true and that it could change at any time because we are just basically picking what we believe based on whatever set of information we have and values we have. It's very arbitrary and it's hard for me to understand people who are universalists who don't see the inherent contradictions in life and take the "truth" of life or meaning so seriously that they need to impose it on others. I'm a relativist, too, so it's impossible for me to really not look at multiple perspectives and see the validity in them all.

Honestly, my experience on this forum has been frustrating for that reason because a lot of people have very strong, rigid opinions that they defend to the death. It's difficult to have open conversations when that's the attitude.

When I saw this thread title I laughed because my instinctive answer was

"Nobody knows"

And people will spend their entire life trying to formulate some concrete answer and push other people into agreeing with them instead of appreciating the unique perspective of every single person and what *their* interpretation is based on their life experiences thus far.

As long as it's understood that there's no "one" answer, I think it's super fun to think about these types of topics but unfortunately not everyone seems to like opposing opinions. Guess they threaten them, idk.

Also, thanks for the avatar compliment...I love these cute kid-animal paintings... Have a whole pinterest board of them lol
 
Winterflowers said:
Does anyone here believe in a universal purpose?
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I think the universal purpose if there is one, just has to do with balancing harmony and conflict to drive things forward successfully.
Our individual purposes, and the collection/average thereof must net some kind of positive.
Zeros and Ones balancing out and creating momentum.

Or something.
 
Winterflowers said:
Does anyone here believe in a universal purpose?
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Is it still universal if anyone says no? :)

If our still uninterrupted history is of any indication, it's probably that meaning of life is to serve the generations to come. The devil is in the details.

@slant You can't really blame people though. If our meaning is to have any real power to guide us, then we have to see it as absolute, or at least superior to other meaning, which necessarily creates tension with other meaning in that same category. Admitting that all meaning can be correct is like saying no meaning is ultimately correct, and provides good breeding ground for nihilism.
 
Sidis Coruscatis said:
Is it still universal if anyone says no? :)

If our still uninterrupted history is of any indication, it's probably that meaning of life is to serve the generations to come. The devil is in the details.

@slant You can't really blame people though. If our meaning is to have any real power to guide us, then we have to see it as absolute, or at least superior to other meaning, which necessarily creates tension with other meaning in that same category. Admitting that all meaning can be correct is like saying no meaning is ultimately correct, and provides good breeding ground for nihilism.
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I blame them believe me.

I sit in my ivory tower of absurdist wisdom and I blame the peasants 100%, every single day.
 
Winterflowers said:
But there is something!
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Sidis Coruscatis said:
Is it still universal if anyone says no? :)

If our still uninterrupted history is of any indication, it's probably that meaning of life is to serve the generations to come. The devil is in the details.

@slant You can't really blame people though. If our meaning is to have any real power to guide us, then we have to see it as absolute, or at least superior to other meaning, which necessarily creates tension with other meaning in that same category. Admitting that all meaning can be correct is like saying no meaning is ultimately correct, and provides good breeding ground for nihilism.
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Why can't this tension be resolved synergetically though? Or cooperatively, rather than competitively?
Must a perspective meaning be proven correct to be accepted as validly felt?
 
I kind of get grossed out by Purpose sometimes. The way that it comes up in some circles I used to run in make me gag a bit now. There are people who believe they have some kind of soul contract and came to Earth to elevate the consciousness. I think that's more or less a total load of shit but I'm not going to say that to them. There is a small part of me that does wonder why we haven't found other intelligent life yet, and then I remember that we can only access a very tiny amount of what exists in the Universe so it's ridiculous to think that we've become advanced enough to find it. I wonder how it is we ended up sprouting on Earth and how unlikely that is and then I think well, the Universe is so vast so why not? But why does it always have to mean something?

We don't know why we're here and I don't think we're ever going to know why we're here.

As to why we should be virtuous, I just think if we weren't we'd wipe ourselves out too fast to get anywhere. I think there is probably some biological driver that gears us towards wanting peace and contentment and if we behave virtuously we can set the expectation that others will do the same. That harmony benefits us all. It is simply better for our collective survival.
 
Winterflowers said:
Why can't this tension be resolved synergetically though? Or cooperatively, rather than competitively?
Must a perspective meaning be proven correct to be accepted as validly felt?
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I don't know Lila, maybe it's better to ask the warmongers.
I don't think it has to be resolved competitively, but even the purpose of cooperation is to come to a better conclusion than you had before. When you and your partner who just compromised on a shared meaning come across someone who wants to inject yet another set of scruples into your newfound wisdom, are you just gonna throw it all in the bin even though you just agreed that it makes sense? When does it end? There is always a prospect of finality when you try to refine your views - when you consistently just reject one conclusion after another, what is even the point? There's nothing to act on, because it's always wrong. It's the "turnip principle" all over again.
 
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