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May 15, 2007 · When the topic of the meaning of life comes up, people tend to pose one of three questions: “What are you talking about?”, “What is the meaning of life?”, and “Is life in fact meaningful?”.
- Existentialism. Existentialism is an approach to philosophy that focuses on the questions of human existence, including how to live a meaningful life in the face of a meaningless universe.
- Absurdism. Absurdism is a philosophy created by Sartre’s one-time friend and later intellectual rival Albert Camus. It is based on the idea that existence is fundamentally absurd and cannot be fully understood through reason.
- Religious existentialism. While the primary existentialist thinkers were all atheists — Nietzsche raised the alarm on nihilism when he declared “God is dead” — the founder of the school was an extremely religious thinker by the name of Søren Kierkegaard.
- Buddhism. Another religious take can be found in the works of Japanese philosopher Keiji Nishitani. Nishitani studied early existentialism under Martin Heidegger, himself a leading existentialist thinker, but provided a Zen Buddhist approach to many of the same problems the existentialists addressed.
Jun 17, 2023 · These five different philosophical answers and approaches to the question of the meaning of life showcase the vast diversity of human thought. 1. Existentialism - There is No Meaning
The meaning of life can be derived from philosophical and religious contemplation of, and scientific inquiries about, existence, social ties, consciousness, and happiness.
Scientific explanations of reality will never provide us with purpose, Kierkegaard argues, for by abstracting away our subjectivity we strip the world of meaning. To find reasons for getting out of bed in the morning, preserving our first-person perspective is crucial.
Feb 6, 2023 · Here we will consider some approaches to questions about the meaning of life. Does life’s having meaning depend on a supernatural reality? Is death a threat to life’s meaning?
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May 15, 2007 · One part of the field of life's meaning consists of the systematic attempt to clarify what people mean when they ask in virtue of what life has meaning. This section addresses different accounts of the sense of talk of “life's meaning” (and of “significance,” “importance,” and other synonyms).
