The Meaning of Life (Chapter 4):Imposing Meaning on Life

Philosophy: the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, and the basis and limits of human understanding. (Oxford English Dictionary)

As I said earlier, the question, “What is the meaning of life?” has several different meanings because the word “meaning” means different things to different people.

Scientists have addressed versions of the question that are within their purview, namely, “What is the origin of life?” and “What is the nature of life and the universe in which we live?”. Those questions, however, are not really ones to which I am searching for answers and, in any case, the answers the scientists have come up with are far from complete.

Theologians are willing to address a question that does interest me, namely, “What is the purpose of life?” but, as you’ve seem, I found little consolation in the variety of contradictory answers that they have proposed.

Another definition of philosophy (besides the one quoted above is “the systematic consideration of the topics that are the greatest concern to mankind” (Merriam-Webster Encyclopaedia), so it is not surprising that some Philosophers are willing to address the questions, “What is valuable in life” and “How should one live?” and those questions are close to what I mean by “the meaning of life”. Many schools of philosophy claim to have answers but, like religion, philosophy offers a variety of contradictory answers to the questions, so that in the end it is really a matter of opinion. Here are some philosophic answers to the questions, “What is valuable in life?” and “How should one live?” (I am not attempting to survey all of the main philosophic positions, in part, because I am not competent to do so and, in part, because some of them are irrelevant to my personal search):

• Socrates, who lived in the fifth century B.C., believed that the best way for people to live was to focus on self-development rather than the pursuit of material wealth. He always invited others to try to concentrate more on friendships and a sense of true community.

• There are several varieties of Pragmatism. The American psychologist, William James, is the most famous Pragmatist. The central tenet of Pragmatism is that the test of a theory, belief or doctrine, must be its effect upon us, its practical consequences — the pragmatic test: whatever works is true. Knowledge is an instrument for the sake of life, existing as practical utility. Truth, therefore, is not useful because it is true; it is true because it is useful. The Pragmatists would say, for example, that belief in God is pragmatically justified if it makes a positive difference in the experience of the believer.

• There are as many definitions of Humanism as there are Humanists. It started in the 14th century with the poet, Petrarch, as a shift away from religion to more secular concerns. There was a revival of interest in Greek and Roman literature. The Humanists believe that the most significant thing in life is the human being. Three Humanist Manifestos (1933, 1973 and 2003) have been published. The newest one is much shorter than the other two, listing six primary beliefs, which echo themes from its predecessors:
o Knowledge of the world is derived by observation, experimentation, and rational analysis.
o Humans are an integral part of nature, the result of unguided evolutionary change.
o Ethical values are derived from human need and interest as tested by experience.
o Life’s fulfillment emerges from individual participation in the service of humane ideals.
o Humans are social by nature and find meaning in relationships.
o Working to benefit society maximizes individual happiness.
Signatories included 21 Nobel laureats.
Sounds very similar to what Socrates was saying fifteen centuries earlier.

• The Existentialists say that although life, per se, is apparently or obviously meaningless, a person can and should impose meaning on his or her own life by making choices. Some of them even suggest where to look for meaning.

I personally find the Existential position the most satisfying (I hesitate to say “true” or “correct” since these philosophic position are so much a matter of belief). But before I tell you more about the relationship between Existentialism and the meaning of life, you need to know something about the philosophic movement called existentialism.

Existentialism

Existentialism n. A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one’s acts. (The American Heritage Dictionary)

Existentialism is not a single philosophy but a label for several widely different revolts against traditional philosophy. Most of the living “Existentialists” have repudiated this label, and a bewildered outsider might well conclude that the only thing they have in common is a marked aversion to each other.

A bit of history:

The Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, who is considered the founder of Existentialism (even though he never actually used the term), lived in the nineteenth century; he died at age 42 in 1855. Kierkegaard argued that life is full of absurdity and the individual must make his or her own values in an indifferent world. For Kierkegaard, people can have meaningful lives if they can commit themselves unconditionally to something (in his case Christianity) or someone – even though by doing so they make themselves very vulnerable. Existentialism became popular in the mid-20th century through the works of the French writer-philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre.

A word on the derivation of the term “existentialism”:

Despite the lack of a consensus on many things, most Existentialists maintain that a person’s subjective experiences (the person’s “existence”) and the interpretation of these subjective experiences is the only reality for a person; it is what determines how a person acts. The opposite of the Existentialists are the Essentialists who maintain that there is a reality (an essence) that underlies and accounts for our actions.

A corollary of the existential assumption that our experience is the only reality is: the only meaning life has is the meaning that we impose on it. And we impose this meaning on life by making choices. Choice is very important in Existentialism. One learns from making choices, and committing to those choices.

Generally, Existentialism tends to view human beings as subjects in an indifferent, objective, often ambiguous, and “absurd” universe in which meaning is not provided by the natural order, but rather can be created, however provisionally and unstably, by human beings’ actions and interpretations.

One of the best descriptions of the Existential view of life – the one I use in my Theories of Personality class when I discuss Rollo May’s theory – is from a Woody Allen movie, one of Allen’s few serious movies, Crimes and Misdemeanors. The movie’s story: The long-time mistress (Angelica Huston) of a wealthy ophthalmologist (Martin Landau) threatens to expose their affair to his wife (Claire Bloom). Desperate, the Landau character seeks advice from both his brother (Jerry Orbach) who has ties to the Mafia, and one of his patients, a rabbi who is going blind (Sam Waterston). His brother suggests that the problem be taken care of “permanently” while the rabbi tells Landau that he should come clean in the eyes of God and take a chance and tell his wife about the affair. Landau doesn’t take any chances – he gets rid of his mistress. Across town, the rabbi’s sister (Joanna Gleason) is suing her loser filmmaker husband (Woody Allen) for divorce. The Allen character is a conscientious artist who makes money-losing documentaries on toxic waste and starvation but he takes on a money-making project: a television segment on his pompous TV producer bother-in-law (Alan Alda). Allen sees the project as a sell-out on his part and agonizes over it but he has no moral qualms about making a move on the television show’s producer (Mia Farrow). Farrow is offended by the idea of a married man (Allen) coming on to her and she retreats and runs into the arms of Allen’s number one enemy. This movie (made in 1989) was Allen’s 19th and, I think, his best. But back to the point I was about to make. In the final scene, the daughter of the rabbi is getting married and during her dance with her father, a philosopher whom Allen made a documentary about, does a voice over while the couple are dancing:

“We are all faced, throughout our lives, with agonizing decisions – moral choices. Some are on a grand scale. Most of these choices are on lesser points but we define ourselves by the choices we have made. We are in fact the some total of our choices. We win and fall so unpredictably, so unfairly; human happiness does not seem to have been included in the design of creation. It is only we, with our capacity to love, that give meaning to the indifferent universe. And yet human beings seem to have the ability to keep trying and even to find joy from simple things like their family, their work and from the hope that future generations might understand more.”

In the very first chapter I mentioned Viktor Frankl, the Austrian psychiatrist and Existential philosopher, who spent three years in German concentration camps. It is impossible to write about the meaning of life without extensively quoting Frankl, who has written thirty-two books on the subject, including Man’s Search for Meaning, which at the time of his death in 1997 had sold 9 million copies. The next chapter is all about Frankl and where he says meaning can be found but before I leave this chapter on Existentialism and the idea of imposing meaning on what is otherwise a meaningless life, let me quote Frankl again:

“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.”

Two other existentialists have said something similar:

“There is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives to his life by the unfolding of his powers.” (Erich Fromm, psychologist)

“If, after all, men cannot always make history have meaning, they can always act so that their own lives have one.” (Albert Camus, novelist)