The meaning of life?

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This is without a doubt the toughest question ever asked. The answer will forever elude us, but I am satisfied with the answer I now believe to be true.


Namely, recently I had a conversation with a friend of mine about the subject. He believes that love is the meaning of life (finding a soul-mate). I believe that friends are the meaning of life. What do you think?

 

My meaning of life until now is enjoyment.

Personal enjoyment and satisfaction is my greatest value.
To feel fine and be self-assure is the best

Thats all i remember right now

 

Hedonism, Hedonism, Hedonism, Hedonism, Hedonism, Hedonism, Hedonism, Hedonism, Hedonism, Hedonism

Hedonism:

1. Work which yields enough money to live, but does not suck life away.
2. Good eating, good drinking, good *****.
3. Having always enough computer games at home (which I have not at this moment)

Friends share all 3. (Except 2.3, that only needs two)

 

Actually, today I was wondering if I should post this topic too, for me..

The meaning of life is living, enjoy it while it lasts, you get no other...

But we might all drop back to the question, what exactly is life? Who are we?
Is life that special that it has to have a reason?

 

42

That is about as close and far away, we'll ever get to that meaningless question. Why isn't the universe upside down?

Anyway one meaning of life is to do what you feel is right. Simple, efficient and fruitfull. Isn't as easy as it sounds. Still. Just do what you feel is right. quote Danish movie.

[ May 08, 2003, 00:30: Message edited by: Nobleman ]

 

Ah... the ultimate question, which nobody can really answer, so neither can i.

I do have a goal in life though..... drink as much beer as possible in my time on earth.

 

the meaning of life.. well, the question is elegant and simple, as is the answer.

The meaning of life is an individual thing, you just have to find out what it is for yourself No one, but yourself can really tell you.

 

Yup, 42.

Sometimes I think that you can have it be whatever you want it to be, sometimes I think its just to do stuff.

If you think about it, the meaning of life could be to die; without death, there couldn't be life. Like the way there has to be ugliness so you can compare beauty to it, and good and evil, ying and yang, etc.

 

life and death are just the absense of the other. Just like light and darkness. Light as a concept would still be light even if it swarmed the universe totally. And Life as a concept would still be life even if death was not an option.

I agree on the good-evil. And ying and Yang. And Ugly and pretty. It makes no sense to say that the one is the absense of the other. They exist and make sense only in co-existance. For instance it makes no sense to say Ugly as a concept would still be ugly even if Pretty did not exist. It sounds like ramble. Impossible to make coherrent in our minds, right?

I hope we can agree on which of the two categories to put Life/death in. "The absense of" or "the co-existance with". It isn't hard to seperate the two once we know them

[ May 08, 2003, 03:46: Message edited by: Nobleman ]

 

There are two ways to answer the question: First, happiness, what gives the most pleasure. For that you have had many answers already on this thread -- everything from beer and sex, to books and computer games. No doubt pleasure makes life sweet, and those who would deny it are usually austere, petty individuals who reside in misery.

But the question is also one of meaning -- what is meant by life. To that I can add nothing original either, for I am not that great or original a thinker. But in my opinion, the closest I've seen answer the question of meaning is Dante. He journeyed from the depths of hell to the pinnacle of heaven and discovered the answer to the meaning of life, which of course he knew all along. For him, Love was God's greatest gift to mankind and there resides its meaning.

His work is infused with this theme. From its beginnings with the romantic love of Beatrice, and his "new life," his ongoing dialogue with Love finally culminates in heaven where Beatrice resides in the third part of the _Divine Comedy_.
To be sure, Dante was heir to a rich tradition of romance/lyric poetry, but with him its meaning is transformed into something greater.

That is why it is the most important poem in Western Literature. Along the way Dante encounters heroes, philosophers, religious leaders, poets, artists, with all the ideas up until his time of what is meant by life. He leaves them, each to the fate that God has left them. There is nothing else like it. Petrarch and the Renaissance are heirs of what Dante wrought. What drives Man emotionally changes because of Dante and his poem, and that emotion is Love.

So, I believe your friend is right after all.

[ May 08, 2003, 13:39: Message edited by: Chandos the Red ]

 

I'm probably very pessimistic by saying that life has no meaning. We live and we die. It is as simple as that. There is no meaning in life, unless you have achieved something special, by which you are remembered after your death. Something that will make people in a hundred years say: "that guy/girl was great". That is the only way to give your life meaning, else it is just your name on a tombstone.

[EDIT] Rephrased it a bit. [/EDIT]

[ May 08, 2003, 11:05: Message edited by: Silverblade ]

 

Hmm, 42.

Methinks that there is no reason (besides 42). Just as Silverblade said, though possible not with all of the last bit attached to it.

 

The meaning of life is to reproduce and help carry on the exsistance (spelling?) of the human race. Its that simple people.

 

About Dante.
If the period that came after him was so influenced by him (and I am not saying it wasn't), how can anyone explain the poetry of the baroque period (especially in Italy). Baroque poetry was all about this very subject and 2 men in particular come to mind- Giambatista Marino and Pedro Calderon de la Barca (a spaniard). De la Barca wrote: "Ruze u cvatu svanuse iz mraka, i procvale su zato da uginu," which is a croatian translation of the original. If I paraphrase it to English, it reads :Roses in full bloom dawned from the darkness, and they bloomed to whither and die." So is the meaning of life really - death?

 

I'll take RotKU one step further - the meaning of each generation's collective life is to leave the world just a little bit better for the next generation. What motivates us to do that is Love.

So we're back to Dante.

 

What's this "42"? I don't understand.

 

it's answer to all the question, the meaning of life, and everything else.

At least if you read hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

 

I'm torn between Ragusa point of view and Rallymana's and one other option to learn ourselves better in order to learn to respect the great miracle of life in this world and any other it might exist.

 

Funny how much one can think about when a question like this hits you on the right day. All I can say is that we all die some day, so whatever the mysterious purpose is, you're blessed in not having to think about it forever.

Other than that, I can think of no better answer than the good old Darwinistic breeding.

 

42 is the answer to the Great or Ultimate question of life, the universe and everything.

The actual question is: What is 9 times 6.

Is there a meaning of life? I lean towards the perpetuation of the human race to be honest. Personal meaning? Dunno. For me being content, having enough, enjoying myself etc I suppose.