Must everything mean something?

Question

What is action if it has no meaning? Does it make it any less significant, or change the repercussions of said action?

I've found that I simultaneously mean and don't mean everything I say or do. But I want things to mean something to me, I want to mean something to others.

Thoughts?

Answer 1

meaning is ones imperfect translation of a feelings into thoughts and then into belief...There is a lot of errors along the line made by intellect in alliance with ego. People tend to explain anything ,perhaps, for a sake of their security and safety...Meaning is an explanation of feelings in a forms of a thoughts...Now, would our meanings which we placed on anything be ultimate explanation of what really is? Does our thoughts speaks an ultimate truth? We hope that thoughts of another may do so... Do not think so...Those meanings which we are sharing for centuries holding a main frame of a drama in which our dwelling place is.Dramas within dramas it is our participation in illusion ...Illusion based on those meanings we created creating and will create unless any each of us finally will realize what and who we are.

Answer 2

Well, let's talk about "meaning".  What does "meaning" mean?

Wittgenstein dealt with this question and the answer he came up with is meaning is how we use a word.  Our use of the word is its meaning.

What that implies is that if we have no use for something, then it has no meaning for us.  It is meaningless because it is useless for us.  That doesn't imply it is meaningless to someone else since none of us are at the center of the universe that everything spins around.  That means that meaning is not something that you can impose on others.  They have to choose to adopt the same meaning, which means they use it the same way as you do.

This implies some things that some people find unsettling.  For example the meanings of loyalty, compassion, truth, validity, faithfulness can be used in very different ways by different people.  That means that they mean different things to each individual.  There is NO WAY you can say that one meaning is the only correct meaning.  That really upsets some people.  Meaning is sort of like belief, in that it is also a declaration of membership in a group that use the terms the same way.

It also implies that something can have both meaning in one context and a lack of meaning in reference to some other context.  This might seem a bit puzzling but it shows that meaning is encapsulated by its environment.

Answer 3

Action has meaning.

Its what we make of it, whether it be significant or

less significant.

I honestly think you spend too much time with yourself, go and travel.

You'll see different things.  

Answer 4

Well, let's first separate purpose from meaning. Can actions have purpose without meaning and vice versa? Let's say I'm at a baseball game, and I'm shouting at the top of my lungs, but the crowd is so loud that I can't even hear myself. This action has purpose, but it really has no meaning or significance because it goes unrecognized. You might argue that it has meaning to me, but wouldn't I, after recognizing the futility of yelling, cease to do so because it's pointless?

What about meaning without purpose? Suppose I walk down the sidewalk minding my own business and I accidentally bump into someone. This action had no purpose (intent), but it certainly had meaning, both to me and to the person I bumped into.

I think that once we recognize the difference between purpose and meaning, and we recognize that our intentions are very powerful things, we can start creating meaning in our actions and our lives. I think inevitably it requires a bit of honesty with ourselves and our motivations. Some of us have to dig fairly deep to recognize what our true motivations are in our actions. Once we recognize this, we can then line up our motivations and our purpose to create meaning. You might be surprised just how powerful understanding true motivation is when dealing with intent and purpose.

Answer 5

Everything must do something? what a silly idea.

Meaning is a human game. No Human, no meaning.

Answer 6

It`s an interesting question. Just like the Chinese talking about `Fengshui`, YING AND YANG.

Answer 7

The human being has a capacity to attribute meaning to things.

This may be done either wholistically ("emotionally") or piecemeal ("intellectually"). The action of doing so may necessitate some degree of identification on the part of the operant human being with the process of attribution, or the outcome of said attribution, of meaning.

That there be "One to One" relations we commonly are given to understand.

That there be also "One to Many" relations ("that means so much to me", or "that has so many implications") and "Many to One" relations ("I can see it all now", or "This is my religion") is not so crisply articulated for us to understand, at least in the vulgar mundane, where the security of certainty of definition of experience belies multipluralistic phenomenologies and etiologies in favour of reductionist monocultural normative patterns of belief and behaviour.

One might say you don't really mean anything you say; so might many. But does that truly mean anything? Nothing? One thing? Or a few things? Who knows? Do?

Answer 8

Perspective

Answer 9

No. We put in place lots of actions we don't even know we're doing, simply by going about our daily lives.

Answer 10

Everything we do has a meaning, it's just that some things are more important than others. If everything we did had great value, we would always be thinking about each and every move we ever make; because of the impact it has. But that's no way to live. Some of the things we do are less significant than others, but they're still actions.

Answer 11

Stop expressing your views and focus on your growth as a professional.