The meaning of human life - what is it and is it worth looking for?

Humanity has been talking about the meaning of life since the earliest times of its existence.

Humans are social creatures with a natural instinct for survival. At a basic level, this survival requires eating, drinking, resting, and procreating. It is precisely because of this that the meaning of life at the earliest stage of human existence could lie in the continuation of the process of evolution. But the more conscious people became, the more profound the understanding of their true purpose became for them.

Thanks to intelligence, curiosity, the ability to analyze and reflect, many minds began to increasingly ask the question “What am I living for?”, trying with its help not only to realize themselves, but even to survive in difficult periods.

What is the meaning of life?

Plato once defined man as a bipedal animal without feathers and with broad nails. Later, he gave another definition - “a creature in search of meaning” [Psychology Today, 2018].

The human desire to search for truth, to know oneself and the world around us finds expression in all of its activities. Despite the relative lack of interest in the question of meaning in life among analytic philosophers for much of the twentieth century, the body of work on the topic has grown significantly in the last two decades or so.

In the words of twentieth-century psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim, “The greatest need and the most difficult achievement is to find meaning in our lives.” And Holocaust survivor psychiatrist Viktor Frankl said that the human will to meaning precedes either “our will to pleasure or our will to power.”

In short, the meaning of life is what a person lives for and what he strives for throughout his entire conscious age. Its main characteristics are uniqueness, variability depending on a particular life period or circumstances, and compliance with the main life values.

Questions about the search for meaning arise and take shape in various contexts of human activity:

• when trying to make an important decision about what to do with his life;
• when you find yourself trapped in a job you hate;
• when wondering if there is something more than the daily hustle and bustle;
• when he falls ill with an incurable disease;
• when experiencing the loss of family and friends;
• when he feels weak and alone.

Behind many questions about life's purpose lies the human ability to move beyond the usual boundaries, to look at one's life from a broader point of view. Fortunately, humans are conscious and can engage in introspection and self-reflection, moving from mere automatic existence to observation and evaluation.

Quotes about living with meaning are one of the most popular searches on the internet, along with the question of defining purpose. People want to know if they have a purpose, and if so, what it is. Many of them believe that there is some kind of space mission around which life can be ordered.

There are five views on the meaning of life:

1. A supernatural view that asserts that the existence of a higher mind, along with a "proper attitude" towards it, is sufficient to ensure a meaningful life.
2. Subjective naturalism, according to which the meaning of life varies from person to person and is formed through the achievement of goals set for him.
3. Objective naturalism, which asserts that a full life is possible in a purely physical world, devoid of spiritual realities.
4. Hybrid naturalism, whose proponents believe that meaning is not present in a life filled with useless activities and vanity. However, it can also be absent when a person participates in worthwhile and objectively valuable projects, provided that he does not put his soul into them.
5. Pessimistic naturalism (nihilism) is a point of view that denies the possibility of a fulfilling life, because literally nothing has value.

Some thinkers are confident that the meaning of human life is determined solely by divine providence. Others attribute the main role to the soul, believing that its life continues after the death of the “physical shell.” In addition, there are two camps of “naturalists” who disagree about what is of true value.

Objectivists argue that there are absolute truths that have value, although they may not agree on what they are. For example, some of them say that the meaning of human life lies in creativity, while others believe that only virtue and morality give it true meaning [Quartz, 2018]. Subjectivists consider these views too narrow. If meaning is determined through cognition, then it can come from any number of sources.

For subjectivists, life has meaning, but its value is created by the person himself in his mind and can change over time. People's meaning in life may diminish or disappear as a result of loss of strength or difficult or tragic circumstances. It can also change from one phase of life to another due to personal development, new interests, context, commitments and maturity [Philosophy Now, 2021].

A life with meaning can be assessed from the point of view of its significance for a person at a specific stage of time, even in a very short time. What is valuable and important in one period may lose relevance in a year. For example, the desire to achieve career heights at the very beginning of a young specialist’s professional path may, after a few years, be replaced by his desire to realize himself as a good and responsible parent.

In Philosophy Today, University of London politics professor Tim Bale gives an extremely simple answer: “The point of life is not to be dead.”

Many philosophers offer similar answers. Richard Taylor suggests that it is not effort and achievement that makes life meaningful, but the fact that a person can simply be alive and well. Casey Woodling, a professor of philosophy and religious studies at Coastal Carolina University, suggested that what makes a person's life meaningful is the ability to reflect on how it is lived" [Quartz, 2018].

Achieving goals, work, hobbies, family, financial success - all of this is undoubtedly wonderful, but, according to Woodling, it does not really matter. However, it is worth wondering why people are so eager to get it. “This is close to Socrates’ famous saying that the unexamined life is not worth living,” Woodling writes. “I would venture to say that an unexamined life has no meaning” [Quartz, 2018].

Views on the meaning of life of our ancestors

• The opinions of the great sages of the West and the East regarding the meaning of human life and its purpose were sometimes radically different from each other. What differed most was their definition of destiny. Some believed that man himself is the creator of his life, while others were convinced that everything had already been decided and we just had to come to terms with the higher will.
• In Ancient Greece, philosophers saw the meaning of life in self-improvement (Socrates), being in a state of happiness (Aristotle), and getting rid of all kinds of suffering and anxiety (Epicure).

Why does a person need meaning in life?

Living a meaningful life can be talked about in different contexts. It is not reduced to one key goal-principle, but is embodied in significant and defining, albeit derivative, life meanings that reflect the main views and positions of a person [Sociological Research No. 11, 2016].

In Man's Search for Meaning, psychiatrist and neurologist Viktor Frankl wrote about his experiences in a concentration camp during World War II. Frankl discovered that those who survived those inhumane conditions were not those who were physically stronger, but those who maintained a sense of control over the environment and were driven by a specific goal. It was this goal, according to the psychiatrist, that helped people in concentration camps maintain motivation for life and faith in their bright future [Psychology Today, 2018].

Having survived imprisonment and gone through all the horror of Nazi concentration camps, the psychiatrist wrote a book that has become a guide for many people in understanding what the meaning of their lives is. Frankl's purpose, his will to live despite being in the harshest conditions, stemmed from his desire to later write about this experience. The writer noted that other camp survivors also had a specific goal - they were determined to see their families after the war or to help other prisoners live while maintaining a sense of humanity [Quartz, 2018].

Having meaning in life not only helps you get through difficult times, but also has a beneficial effect on people's health. American scientists who conducted a three-year study in which they interviewed 1,042 residents of the city of San Diego aged 21 to 100 years old came to an interesting conclusion. People who have found meaning become much calmer, do not experience stress and other health problems, unlike those who consider their life meaningless [Izvestia, 2019].

Researchers have found that the percentage of people satisfied with life varies significantly across different age groups. The largest number of satisfied with their current condition was among 60-year-old Americans surveyed.

Scientists believe that it is the presence of meaning in life that makes it possible to improve the physical condition of patients and propose using this therapy in medicine [RIA Novosti, 2019].

Scientific evidence

The following figures from the world of science can be considered striking examples of goals. For example, Burress Skinner, while studying at Harvard, put himself under a very strict study regime, spending only 15 minutes a day on extraneous matters. Sounds impressive, doesn't it? An even more amazing example is Alexander Lyubishchev. Back in 1918, he set himself a life goal - to create a natural system of organisms. At that time he was 28 years old, and he gave himself 90 years to reach his goal. Then he drew up his life plan, where he divided these ninety years into five-year plans. There was no time for jokes here; all activities were accompanied by reports. Weekly, monthly, annual, five-year. Based on the latter, a plan was drawn up for the next 5 years of work. Alexander worked in this intensive mode for the next 54 years. But this does not mean that everyone should put themselves in such a framework. Do you need to have a global life goal? Perhaps the answer will be negative, it all depends on your worldview, life philosophy and level of personal development. In this way, goals in the social sphere are also formed.

What does “life without meaning” mean?

Some seem to spend their entire lives unfulfilled, constantly searching for purpose. Philosopher Iddo Landau suggests that every person has everything necessary for a full existence. In his opinion, people are mistaken when they feel that life is meaningless. The mistake is based on their inability to understand what is truly important. Instead, they are overly focused on what they believe is missing to exist fully [Quartz, 2018].

“To my surprise, most of the people I talked to about the essence of meaning in life told me that they didn't think their lives were meaningful enough. Many even imagined their lives to be frankly meaningless,” writes the philosopher. “But I often found the reasons my interlocutors gave for their views problematic. Many, I thought, were not asking the appropriate questions that could change their views, or take actions that could improve their condition. Most people who complained about the meaninglessness of life found it difficult to even explain what they meant by this concept” [The Philosophers' Magazine, 2018].

In other words, Landau believes that people who feel like they are living life aimlessly are actually misunderstanding the issue. He became one of many thinkers who, over many centuries, tried to figure out what a meaningful life is (Quartz, 2018).

The opinions of philosophers on this matter are numerous, varied and, to varying degrees, practical. The famous thinker Friedrich Nietzsche, for example, said that this question has no meaning in itself, because in the middle of life a person is not able to determine whether his life has meaning, and it is not possible to go beyond the process of existence to find the answer [ Quartz, 2018].

Iddo Landau believed that anyone who believes that life is meaningless also recognizes the importance of value. In other words, if a person thinks that his life is devoid of any meaning, then he believes that there is such a thing as value [The Philosophers' Magazine, 2018].

Many popular statuses about living with meaning claim that absolutely everyone is able to change the value of their life through practice, effort, action and reflection. The philosopher notes that the world is changeable: people change their place of residence, make acquaintances, gain interesting experience and knowledge, and encounter new ideas. As a person changes, his values ​​change, as well as his goals and meaning in life.

For life to not be meaningless, it does not have to be unique at all. According to Landau, believing that uniqueness is associated with meaning is another mistake that many make. This misconception, in his opinion, “leads some people to unnecessarily consider their lives to be insufficiently meaningful and miss ways to give it meaning” [Quartz, 2018].

Admittedly, this is important in several areas: for example, in creativity, value also depends on originality, since simply repeating what other artists have already created does not make sense.

Likewise, scientific achievements are valued for their originality and innovation. Blindly repeating someone else's conclusions has little value. And this, of course, means that at the time of presentation of scientific results they must be unique.

However, for the most part, uniqueness is not important in determining the meaning of life. Thus, for example, the love between parents and children is valuable not because it is different from the love between other parents and infants, but because of its warmth and emotional closeness.

Thus, focusing on uniqueness is another mistake in defining value. This mistake leads some people to unnecessarily consider their life to be insufficiently meaningful and thereby miss ways to give it meaning.

The presence or, conversely, absence of meaning is determined by the values ​​that are important to a person. Based on them, he determines whether his life is a success or not. For example, parents who have lost their child in a car accident find it difficult to perceive the present reality in the previous context. They may only see meaning in life again if they find other things that they feel are of high enough value (such as having or adopting a child).

Someone begins to consider their existence meaningless because they cannot achieve certain career heights in their work. For such people, the main or only important issue remains achieving excellence in their career. This blinds them to other issues that may be relevant. That is why they begin to feel the purposelessness of their existence.

It is important to note this close relationship between meaningfulness and value because it provides many insights that may be useful for people who feel their lives are not meaningful enough.

People's views on the meaninglessness of life can often be wrong. Some people unfairly believe that they are bad parents, while others incorrectly believe that their parenting methods are perfect. Some people unreasonably think that the art they create is not very good, while others mistakenly believe that they create masterpieces. Someone, for example, underestimates or overestimates their own sense of humor, knowledge, or ability to play a musical instrument.

This type of misjudgment occurs in many areas. This means that the same thing can happen with determining the meaning of life. Surprisingly, many people who consider their lives to be insufficiently meaningful are absolutely sure that this is so. They are convinced that their ideas about this must be accurate and reliable.

Noting that meaning in life is based on values, a person also focuses on bringing it through specific actions. To make your existence more meaningful, you need to improve what is valuable.

You can bring new values ​​into life, increase, re-realize or re-evaluate existing values. Many people, including those who feel like they're wasting their time aimlessly, devote more time and effort in one evening to thinking about which movie to see than to thinking about what could add more meaning to their lives.

Landau argued that meaning is a feeling of significance that everyone determines for themselves independently, based on different aspects - relationships, creativity, achievements in a certain field or generosity and other opportunities [Quartz, 2018].

For those who are concerned about the issue of living life meaninglessly, Iddo Landau suggests rethinking and searching for meaning in other things. So, for example, if a person does not feel meaning in life because he has not been fulfilled in his profession, he should try to find it in his other endeavors, such as relationships, volunteer work, travel or creative activity. Also, according to the philosopher, he should take a closer look at what he is doing - perhaps something significant and valuable is already happening in his life, to which he is not yet paying due attention.

A little about not having a life goal

The desire to find your purpose and life purpose is inherent, perhaps, in all people. But often, under the influence of various factors and circumstances, such as, for example, upbringing, the worldview of parents, the influence of the environment, imposed beliefs and ideals, the promotion of a certain lifestyle, way of thinking and everything that you need to have and want to have, lead to that people just lose themselves in all this. They seem to fall asleep, their whole life becomes unconscious and mechanistic, and their thinking becomes stereotyped and standardized. As a result, all questions concerning the meaning of life lose their relevance, fade into the background or are completely discarded as unnecessary.

If a person is still concerned about such topics, and he has not completely lost his individuality, selfhood and the feeling that he needs to strive for something or at least look for it, the answers to the questions posed above are often difficult to find, which often significantly darkens existence , creates a feeling of purposelessness of existence, becomes the cause of apathetic or depressive states.

The lack of a life goal has an extremely negative impact on a person’s life. This is the inability to fully reveal your personal and creative potential, and the duality of thinking and behavior, and the loss of interest in activities and in life in general, and real happy moments can be counted on one hand. You can endlessly analyze this topic piece by piece, but this is not what is important at all, but what is needed, and most importantly, you can come to an understanding of your true purpose and determine specific life goals.

How to understand your meaning in life?

You can endlessly re-read hundreds of statuses from social networks about the meaning of life, but you can understand what really motivates each of us only by understanding yourself well.

Often, people who have experienced serious trials, such as, for example, an incurable disease, the loss of a loved one, or major bankruptcy, come to an understanding of their own destiny. Having experienced severe stress, they reassessed their values ​​and stopped taking the life given to them for granted. Many of them found themselves in charity and helping those who faced a similar problem [The School of Life, 2021].

Fortunately, to understand the purpose of your existence, you don’t have to wait for bad events to happen. To do this, it is enough to devote a little time to reflection and introspection.

To determine what is truly close and important, you need to understand yourself well. It's worth asking yourself a number of questions :

1. What brings me genuine joy?
2. Why am I ready to wake up in the morning with pleasure?
3. What tasks do I complete while in a state of flow?
4. What am I not ready to live without for a day?
5. What makes my life worth living?
6. At what moments do I realize that I am truly happy?
7. If I could do my dream job, what would it be?

It is important that the meaning of a person’s life is correlated with his true values ​​and sincere interest. For example, not everyone cares about medicine or social work. Some people find fulfillment in helping those in need, while others define professional fulfillment or spiritual growth as their highest value.

Meaning for different people can lie in different moments: in supporting a football team, in conquering new mountain peaks, in conscious parenting, in music, in helping others, in finding truth through philosophy, etc. But the characteristic feature of all these examples is a consciousness that is positively and constructively absorbed, involved, expanded and realized [Philosophy Now, 2021].

You can get to know yourself even better using the right techniques and questions in the online Self-Knowledge program. Correct reflection allows you to determine not only the meaning of life, but also to understand your strengths, which will help you realize this meaning. Having found answers to many questions, you realize what is important, close and valuable to you.

While there is no single meaning, each person can live his life in such a way that each day brings him as much satisfaction as possible. As Konrad Lorenz put it: “Life itself is a process of learning.” According to this interpretation of evolution, the essence of life is the pursuit of knowledge: knowledge about the real world, which is constantly tested for relevance to this world [Philosophy Now, 2021].

What works and is in this sense “true” is preserved. Life, according to the scientist, is proven knowledge that has stood the test of geological time. From this perspective, accepting the pursuit of knowledge as a possible meaning in life seems literally a natural choice [Philosophy Now, 2021].

The highest goal is the source of happiness and perfection

The highest goal is to achieve a spiritual level at which existence in the kingdom of God is possible. This is achieved through the methods of the spiritual path. What role do perfection and happiness play in this process—are they the goal or should they be ignored?

Happiness and perfection are the naturally occurring consequences of following the spiritual path . Happiness arises from the feeling of spiritual happiness in which the soul resides, and perfection comes from the perfection of the soul. As the spiritual path progresses, the spiritual nature becomes more and more evident and manifests itself, as if the light of a lamp which manifests itself through many layers of cloth will become brighter as the cloth is removed from the lamp. The spiritual nature will also manifest itself stronger and brighter, until there are no more tissues left that connect the soul with the material world. There is no need to worry about involuntary departure from the world: as long as there is a desire to remain in this world, the soul simply will not leave here.

Thus, happiness and perfection arise as a natural consequence of the spiritual path, manifesting from the spiritual nature itself. Happiness and perfection come by themselves and are not the goal of the spiritual path. They are both what makes it possible to verify the effectiveness of the spiritual path, and what proves the spiritual nature of a living being. It is extremely difficult to achieve happiness through material means, but in spiritual life, happiness is a state of being that arises on its own and does not depend on external circumstances. The same goes for perfection. No matter how much a person works on his own development, his body and mind will grow old and weaken, and all experience and skills will end with death. Spiritual progress does not depend on the body, but on the soul, and therefore it remains with a living being forever.

Quotes about the meaning of life

Public pages on social networks are replete with a large number of quotes and statements by famous people dedicated to the meaning of life. We have prepared a selection for you in which everyone can find something interesting for themselves:

“The meaning of life doesn’t matter what you attribute to it. The point is to be alive."

Joseph Campbell

“Whoever we are, whatever we make of ourselves, that is all we will ever have, and that, in its deep simplicity, is the meaning of life.”

Philip Appleman

“Our main goal in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them."

Dalai Lama

“There is not one big cosmic meaning for everyone; there is only the meaning that each of us gives to our lives, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like a separate novel, a book for each person.”

Anais Nin

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees whose shade you wouldn’t expect to sit in.”

Nelson Henderson

“The meaning of life is not just to exist, to survive, but to move forward, to rise, to achieve, to win.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger

“Life should be fun, joyful and fulfilling. May each of you be like this."

Jim Henson

“The ultimate goal of the human mind in all its manifestations is to become acquainted with the truth.”

Eliza Farnham

“I am of the opinion that my life belongs to society, and while I live I have the honor of doing what I can for it.”

George Bernard Shaw

“I feel that the ability to care is what gives life its deepest meaning.”

Pablo Casals

“A man born with a talent which he is called to use finds his greatest happiness in its use.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Our goal is not to become each other. This means getting to know each other, learning to see the other and respecting him for what he is.”

Hermann Hesse

“Start living right away and consider each day a separate life”

Seneca

“Every moment of your life is infinitely creative, and the universe is infinitely generous. Just make a clear enough request, and whatever your soul desires should come to you."

Mahatma Gandhi

Each of these quotes about the meaning of life illuminates precisely those values ​​that were close to its author.

The meaning of life is determined according to the beliefs that people hold. However, all human belief systems are, to varying degrees, accurate or erroneous in their description of the world. Moreover, belief systems change over time: from generation to generation, from culture to culture, from era to era [Philosophy Now, 2021].

The beliefs held today even by large sections of the population did not exist yesterday and may not exist tomorrow. Therefore, given belief systems, whether religious or secular, are arbitrary, and in order to determine one's purpose, one must abandon these systems. Otherwise, the meaning of life cannot be determined [Philosophy Now, 2021].

Parable "About two wolves"

Once upon a time, an old Indian, sitting by the fire, revealed one vital truth to his grandson:

- You see, baby, there is a struggle in every person. This fight is very, very similar to the fight between two wolves. One wolf represents evil: envy, jealousy, regret, selfishness, greed, lies, and other bad qualities of a person... The other wolf represents good: peace, love, hope, care, kindness, loyalty, truth... And other good qualities of a person.

The little Indian, touched to the depths of his soul by his grandfather’s words, thought for a long time, and then asked:

- Grandfather, which wolf wins in the end? Bad wolf or good wolf?

The old Indian, smiling faintly, replied:

- Remember: the wolf you feed always wins.

Does the world need what you do?

You can often hear that people are passionate about something, but are firmly convinced that their hobby is not intended to make money. Would you change your point of view if you knew that there are such professions as wildlife ranger. The worker's task is to wake up the kangaroo at the right time, swim with the dolphins, monitor the island, and so on. It will prove that today you can find a job for absolutely every taste, such a profession as a professional sleepyhead. This is not a joke, there is a hotel in Helsinki where they were persistently looking for people for such work. The idea is to sleep in each room one at a time to determine your comfort level.

And there are hundreds of such professions, there are enough strange positions today, the main thing is to grasp the essence. Everyone can find a job they like. And even more so in the modern world, at least everyone’s favorite Internet can help you make money on anything. Of course, there are also pitfalls; you will have to be patient and spend a lot of time searching for decent options for earning money.

Do you need to have a goal in life?

A huge number of people live their lives without global goals and do not experience any discomfort and do not strain either mentally or physically. The same cannot be said about those who have a goal; such people are often in a state of stress and a tense atmosphere. Do you need it? The answer is clear: of course, it is necessary! After all, when a person has that same global goal, a great desire appears and not to exist. Friedrich Schiller said:

A person grows as his goals grow.

It is also worth mentioning that those around them treat such people with great respect. Make sure that the path to your goal matches your ideas and expectations.