Do you believe one day we will find a biological basis for philosophical suicide? (purpose, nature)
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although Pareto was an effort/outcome philosophy,
i find it applies elsewhere in my life. so in this case....
80% of me is genetically "baked in the cake".
8 fingers, 2 thumbs, nearsightedness, and stroke risk.
the remaining 20% is my effort or my environment.
college education, car wreck, and crazy neighbors.
regarding suicide in general, i have found it to be a selfish act
which leaves others to "clean up" and attempt recovery from shock.
if philosophical suicide falls into the genetic 80%, then that would
confirm the meaningless of the ancient Ecclesiastes scripture.
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Originally Posted by Avondalist
Not quite.
Camus believed that we could create meaning for ourselves, but that it dies when we die. Therefore there is no true meaning, only temporary, subjective meaning.
As one of the comments on this blog explains, it's a middle ground between nihilism (any meaning is impossible) and existentialism (we can create subjective meaning). Subjective meaning is possible while we live, but it does not last.
I counted three instances of "the meaninglessness of life" in the original post. Wow, that sentiment is really disturbing.
I see life is an enormous slate, that should be filled to the maximum with every breath and heart beat. Every day holds so many possibilities to learn, create, sense, explore, and contribute. There's no time for idleness and resignation.
Why take all those years of development, from birth to adulthood, to just let life fade away? It certainly would be an insult to one's parents and family. Life is a gift; not an inconvenience.
Kind of where my head is at too. I've contemplated "the meaning of life" from time to time, and...to say life is meaningless just doesn't make sense to me. Why do we learn, why do we grow, why do we love, why do we hope, why do we grieve...if it's all meaningless?
I feel that way sometimes, but consider it my personal problem, not a philosophy. If Camus, or whoever else, has that philosophy, he is welcome to it. Seems like a bleak blanket statement.
The entire Universe is rich with "meaning" whether we comprehend it or not.
Camus used the term philosophical suicide to describe the act of believing a made-up story that imparts meaning rather than confronting the meaninglessness of life.
IMO, PS sounds out like a synonym for parables and proverbs.
Camus used the term philosophical suicide to describe the act of believing a made-up story that imparts meaning rather than confronting the meaninglessness of life.
.
Life has meaning:
1. Survive
2. Reproduce
And when your DNA is eventually done surviving and reproducing, it goes into the ground.
It's not rocket science, animals do it everyday without thinking about it.
“Meaning” is a made up, human concept. As such there are multiple interpretations. Pure science on the other hand sees humans as part of evolution. Evolution “principles” are observations made by scientific methods that continue to be supported, or modified as more is learned, as time goes by.
So far organisms survive by adapting to their changing environments, both physical and social. Unless we thoughtlessly destroy our collective selves can’t this give “meaning” to our lives and behaviors?
Camus believed that we could create meaning for ourselves, but that it dies when we die. Therefore there is no true meaning, only temporary, subjective meaning.
As one of the comments on this blog explains, it's a middle ground between nihilism (any meaning is impossible) and existentialism (we can create subjective meaning). Subjective meaning is possible while we live, but it does not last.
There is one significant point that kind of breaks this as a big all encompassing theory.
This person whose work you keep referencing...are they still alive? No. But here you are, discussing his theories. Did HIS "subjective meanings" die with him? Nope. You are still trying to apply them.
There is a thing that I've heard described as "legacy projects." Human beings are often very driven to do something during our lives that will last beyond our deaths. For a lot of people, this is having and raising children, trying to teach them our values and sharing our spoken wisdom with them. But beyond that, there are makers, artists and artisans, artists and musicians and writers and performers of all sorts, people who produce all kinds of ideas and expressions that outlast them as individuals. Every such act defies the idea that the meaning we create that keeps life worthwhile for each person, only affects them and has no objective value. Every one of us is, rather, like a raindrop falling into a still pond, sending out ripples of "meaning" that touch all of the others all the time. Or a note of sound sending out vibrations into the air and matter around us.
So long as those ripples of meaning continue to exist and there are other human "signal receivers" around to pick them up, experience and contemplate them, there is no lack of objective meaning at all!
I would argue in fact that such things as religion and stories, your "philosophical suicides" (odd term for it) are nothing but the ripples made by some various human in the past, that were picked up and echoed by the agreement and boosted by the efforts of other humans around them and after their deaths. Our ripples of meaning can become so powerful as...that. And it's all merely up to each one of us, which signals we accept, embrace, and transmit and amplify.
So long as those ripples of meaning continue to exist and there are other human "signal receivers" around to pick them up, experience and contemplate them, there is no lack of objective meaning at all!
Except one day in the far future there will be no more humans. And in the farther future there will be no more life. As usual in philosophy the argument turns on the definition of terms... "Objective" as I am using it, which is the conventional usage, means existing without the need for an observer or outside of a mind.
How can a universe without life have meaning? What will have happened to the cumulative experiences, experiences which were the base of the meaning felt during their time, of all the observers who had lived in it who are no longer there?
This is why Camus chose the fable of Sisyphus for his work exploring absurdism. We now know the fate of the universe. Life is a single moment during that universal duration, at the very beginning, and is snuffed out fairly quickly. For the vast majority of its duration, the universe is dead, devoid of life. So armed with this knowledge, how do living things soldier on? Knowing the end of all their endeavours will literally be dust. It seems absurd to continue.
But we continue on, and have for millennia, faced with the microcosmic reality of our own deaths and now the macrocosmic reality of universal death. The forces that propel us forward are instinctual, emotional, and subconscious. Because as a rational endeavor, life just doesn't make sense.
These instinctual forces are the subject of the question posed in my OP. Life has seemingly adapted to its own absurdity, as noticed by a sentient observer, by distracting us for most of our lives. We get distracted by the needs of today and our bite-sized hopes for tomorrow, and only rarely do we lift our eyes from the task at hand the contemplate the universal oblivion that all our efforts will come to.
"Philosophical suicide" is Camus's term, not mine. I would call it an abdication of truth, believing a falsehood because the truth is more terrible. Camus's philosophy is about the tension between this truth, and our instincts to soldier on. To keep pushing the boulder up the hill.
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