I contemplated about the meaning of life as a child and now as an adult, the question remains unanswered?

Question

Why after all these years I could not be at a more sophisticated standpoint?! Why am I still so infantile in progress, however long I have reflected on this question? Is it because I have not read the philosophical literature thoroughly enough?

I feel as though my undergraduate major in philosophy and my subsequent hiatus for 4 years from philosophy put me at no closer understanding of this question than if I had never studied philosophy. Well, almost.

I once thought in my teenage angst that once I get my career settled and income flowing, mind more leveled with experience, and achieving more things I wanted...would partly resolved the ongoing quest/craving for this need to understand the meaning, but these attainments have not made any significant dents on this behemoth of a subject and quest.

Any insights on this troubling topic would be appreciated. When does this quest ever mellow? I'm 29 and still finding really no zest in life. It once used to be the quest for knowledge, but I feel as though my need to learn has made me into a formless and vast vessel unfilled.

Answer 1

the only comfort I have found after a very interesting (as far as I'm concerned) soon to be 30 years...as long as I trust my gut...even when I'm wrong I'm always where I need to be to learn what it is I'm meant to learn at the time...hope I helped, I really enjoyed the thought process that ensued upon reading your question...thank you...

Answer 2

infinite possibilities within a frame work or structure… there are variations on this structure thyme… yet there are always points of similarity… things only have meaning when taken in context… you could say the meaning is created through your relations and interactions with the not you…

Answer 3

It is interesting that a person who is the meaning and answer to these subtle discomforts must verbalize this demonstrating the disunion within.  I found that in the union of myself as a whole being also came the comfort of the stillness of not having to ask this question.  It became a rediculous discomfort that only people addicted to this type of discomfort suffered from this unstillnes.

Answer 4

I stopped searching for meaning and began searching for understanding.  There was a huge difference for me in that change of path.  Its the difference between the "what" and the "why".  I am now at relative peace with my self for the first time in forty-seven years and I know that I am headed in the right direction.  I constantly read a large variety of philosophical volumes but its for a different reason these days.  I am just naturally intrigued by human thought.

Answer 5

Philosophy seeks to explain that which they do not understand themselves. Life is the meaning of life. Life is not life it is called life for lack of a term which can explain the experience of it, because experience is the real truth not the definitions we put on things. That is the meaning of the phrase a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Its still what it is and the name does not define it. So what is the meaning of life? To live.

Answer 6

What if there is no meaning. If there is a meaning how would we know that we have found it. Just like you I still contemplate on the meaning of life. Each answer raises even more questions.

You also wonder what if there is more than one meaning. Meaning would imply an ultimate goal, the reason of being. What if the reason is subjective.

So before I can actually begin looking for the meaning of life, I've still to figure out what is LIFE?

Answer 7

http://jamespruch.wordpress.com/messages...

Unless You Turn and Become Like Children

By James Pruch

May 18, 2008

Matthew 18:1-4

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Perhaps you might find some answers at the above mentioned link.

May the force be with you+

Answer 8

The philosophical question "What is the meaning of life?" means different things to different people. The vagueness of the query is inherent in the word "meaning", which opens the question to many interpretations, such as: "What is the origin of life?", "What is the nature of life (and of the universe in which we live)?", "What is the significance of life?", "What is valuable in life?", and "What is the purpose of, or in, (one's) life?". These questions have resulted in a wide range of competing answers and arguments, from scientific theories, to philosophical, theological, and spiritual explanations.

These questions are separate from the scientific issue of the boundary between things with life and inanimate objects.

Popular beliefs

"What is the meaning of life?" is a question many people ask themselves at some point during their lives, most in the context "What is the purpose of life?" Here are some of the many potential answers to this perplexing question. The responses are shown to overlap in many ways but may be grouped into the following categories:

Survival and temporal success

...to live every day like it is your last and to do your best at everything that comes before you

...to be always satisfied

...to live, go to school, work, and die

...to participate in natural human evolution, or to contribute to the gene pool of the human race

...to advance technological evolution, or to actively develop the future of intelligent life

...to compete or co-operate with others

...to destroy others who harm you, or to practice nonviolence and nonresistance

...to gain and exercise power

...to leave a legacy, such as a work of art or a book

...to eat

...to prepare for death

...to spend life in the pursuit of happiness, maybe not to obtain it, but to pursue it relentlessly.

...to produce offspring through sexual reproduction (alike to participating in evolution)

...to protect and preserve one's kin, clan, or tribe (akin to participating in evolution)

...to seek freedom, either physically, mentally or financially

...to observe the ultimate fate of humanity to the furthest possible extent

...to seek happiness and flourish, experience pleasure or celebrate

...to survive, including the pursuit of immortality through scientific means

...to attempt to have many sexual conquests (as in Arthur Schopenhauer's will to procreate)

...to find and take over all free space in this "game" called life

...to seek and find beauty

...to kill or be killed

...No point. Since having a point is a condition of living human consciousness. Animals do not need a point to live or exist. It is more of an affliction of consciousness that there are such things as points, a negative side to evolutionary development for lack of better words.

Wisdom and knowledge

...to master and know everything

...to be without questions, or to keep asking questions

...to expand one's perception of the world

...to explore, to expand beyond our frontiers

...to learn from one's own and others' mistakes

...to seek truth, knowledge, understanding, or wisdom

...to understand and be mindful of creation or the cosmos

...to lead the world towards a desired situation

...to satisfy the natural curiosity felt by humans about life

Ethical

...to express compassion

...to follow the "Golden Rule"

...to give and receive love

...to work for justice and freedom

...to live in peace with yourself and each other, and in harmony with our natural environment

...to protect humanity, or more generally the environment

...to serve others, or do good deeds

Religious and spiritual

...to find perfect love and a complete expression of one's humanness in a relationship with God

...to achieve a supernatural connection within the natural context

...to achieve enlightenment and inner peace

...to become like God, or divine

...to glorify God

...to experience personal justice (i.e. to be rewarded for goodness)

...to experience existence from an infinite number of perspectives in order to expand the consciousness of all there is (i.e. to seek objectivity)

...to be a filter of creation between heaven and h**l

...to produce useful structure in the universe over and above consumption (see net creativity)

...to reach Heaven in the afterlife

...to seek and acquire virtue, to live a virtuous life

...to turn fear into joy at a constant rate achieving on literal and metaphorical levels: immortality, enlightenment, and atonement

...to understand and follow the "Word of God"

...to discover who you are

...to resolve all problems that one faces, or to ignore them and attempt to fully continue life without them, or to detach oneself from all problems faced

Philosophical

...to give life meaning

...to participate in the chain of events which has led from the creation of the universe until its possible end (either freely chosen or determined, this is a subject widely debated amongst philosophers)

...to know the meaning of life

...to achieve se

Answer 9

Nobody really truly knows the meaning of life. A person that I used to know said to me that the meaning of life is to live, to cry, to feel, to breathe, then die. Another friend said life was a game, a trial. An endless meaning, because what were we meant to create? What was our purpose? Did anything except unhappiness and disease, war come out of life? Why shouldn't we end it? To tell you the truth, I think the meaning of life is still hidden.

Answer 10

I can relate to your plight, ever since I was a young child I have sought the answer to esoteric questions. The only answer I have is that it seems the more I know the less satisfied with the answers I receive, and whenever I think I have figured out what I am meant to do, what my purpose is I know it is only an eventuality that my illusions are shattered. at first when I was young to young to remember I was happy, or so I'm told, content to not contemplate the meaning of life or the nature universe then I was someone seeking the meaning of life for me, I thought that was my meaning, Then I was disillusioned and sought ignorance, then I was focused on the duality of life, emotion, being and the world, only to be again be freed of my oversimplified black and white version of things. Then I was convinced I was an unfathomable amount of atoms forged by the furnace of the big bang. though I may be all those things and none of them, my point is that through all this I tried to share what I saw and what I thought I knew but really I was being taught a lesson of life when ever I thought I had everything figured out it is only a matter of time before I became disillusioned which is really a good thing, though painful to have my philosophy torn down like that. I think the most important thing I have learned is to never think I can figure out the meaning of life. I seek to be like Socrates and have wisdom only of my own ignorance, and never think I have it figured out.