Shifting Gears #6: 42 Feraco Myth to Science Fiction 30 April 2010

What is the Meaning of Life?  I Can’t Answer That For You  The Good Left Undone  A Different Kind of Dualism  The Good That We Do  What If Nothing Matters?  Considerations and Schools of Thought  It’s Someone Else’s Choice  It’s All Up to Me  No, Nothing Matters  What If Everything Matters?  A Constant Work in Progress

An Old Question to Start Us Off  Something left unstated during our death lecture – albeit something that most are already aware of – is the fact that time marches on without you once you pass away  Your children will age, your spouse will die, and new generations you’ll never meet will rise and fall  Would you want to outlive your parents?  Your siblings?  Your spouse?  Your children?  “Tuck Everlasting”

A Twist on Another Question  Assuming there’s something awaiting you after death – and assuming you won’t begin another iteration of the Samsara cycle immediately – would you want to be able to affect the present from beyond?  Would you want your widow to remarry?  “The Lady, or the Tiger?”

The Starter Questions  Are you afraid that you won’t have enough time to do the things you dream of doing, or to follow through on your best intentions?  We’ve talked about the possibilities for what lay beyond, and even allowed you to design your own Valhalla  What would the worst part about dying be? What do you fear you’ll miss?  Do thoughts of “the good left undone” ever give you pause?

A Different Dualism  The dualists – the interactionists, anyway – insist that there’s an interactive relationship between our bodies and our souls  I propose that a similarly dualistic relationship exists between our attitudes towards death and life  People who are truly terrified about life after death – say, those who are convinced they’re going to do something during life that they’ll pay for in death – probably aren’t going to live boldly  If you fear long-lasting consequences, will you still take risks?

The Good That We Do  I have also mentioned that we often do good things for odd reasons – in order to avoid a negative consequence, for example, rather than out of a genuine sense of goodness  Don’t behave cruelly, or the guilt will haunt you  Some of you only do your homework because you recognize the consequences of giving away points

The REAL Starter Question  Is that the purpose of life?  Eighty years of avoiding negative consequences long enough to make it to the next day?  Eighty years of “resume-building”?  I may be young and fairly inexperienced, with a whole lot left to learn, but I’m reluctant to believe that the ultimate meaning of my life is so narrow  So that’s my starting point: We’ll build on survival  What is the meaning of life beyond self-perpetuation?

Feraco Shares Opinions! ZOMG  I tend to take a lighter view of humanity than many of you; I don’t believe that we’re naturally evil  I used to teach SFHP  If I believed humans were naturally evil, what would “human potential” even mean?  I think that we do good things for a lot of weird reasons – but that we do good things for the right reasons as well  I don’t think creatures of evil could even conceive of some of our treasured concepts – love, preservation, loyalty, curiosity  What I wonder, then, is whether these admirable qualities give us a clue about what the ultimate meaning of life actually is – assuming one exists, of course

Meaning and Meaninglessness  What are we considering when we set out to study the “meaning” of life?  For one thing, we have to take an honest look at the possibility that life is meaningless – that not only were the monists right about human existence (with regards to the afterlife, not with regards to the “everything-is-made- out-of-the-same-stuff” business), but that there’s not even any meaning to the existence you’re currently enjoying

Space Creatures and Life Meanings  By doing so, however, we confront a variation on an old theme: How do you prove something that’s this abstract doesn’t exist?  It’s like saying “There’s never been – and will never be – a creature who can survive in the vacuum of outer space.”  Really? Never? In all of the universe?  How can I possibly prove that with any degree of verifiability?  We also need to examine whether something else confers purpose onto us – or whether the meaning of our own lives is within the realm of our control

Back to Teleology…  It’s worth noting that this is a teleological question (remember them?)  After all, teleological operating philosophy doesn’t just assign one purpose to life – it assigns multiple ones in the form of goals  Teleologists can believe in an external force that confers meaning on people, and they can believe that we create our own meanings  You can also talk about nihilists – those who believe life is fundamentally, unchangeably meaningless, and that nothing we do, say, or think matters (or ever has mattered)  They’re the flip side of teleology – no goal is meaningful at all

Purpose by Design  On the other hand, some belief meaning arrives from outside of us  If meaning is conferred upon my life (whether it’s some sort of “omni force” or not), does this infringe on my right to free will – and, in turn, my ability to make choices according to a morality of my design that lead to a sense of happiness that’s my own?  Four of our questions at once!  This sort of thing would be purpose by design

Does It Infringe?  Well, not necessarily  The conditions are set, but not the result  All we’ve specified is that something else is in charge of your life’s purpose – and not, say, whether that purpose is to discover new things via the exercising of your free will  In other words, saying something else gives you purpose doesn’t wash your hands of responsibility – for better or for worse

Meaning of Meaning  Conversely, saying that we’re in charge of our own life’s purpose isn’t an argument that such purposes are somehow arbitrary  In fact, the idea of an arbitrary purpose is somewhat weird – since, after all, something has to be meaningless or purposeless to be arbitrary

The Calling  The idea of a person “finding his calling” can work both ways  It can mean he needs time to figure out what he’s supposed to do  It can mean he needs time to figure out what he’s good at, or what we want to do – and whether those things can be meaningful enough to sustain him  Think of how often college kids change their majors!  Think of how often professionals switch lines of work!  Again, this can seem arbitrary – but it can also seem like a logical process  It all depends on whether you believe “purpose” is static

Back to Nihilism  Nihilists want you to accept that life is fundamentally meaningless  They argue that there’s no great scheme, no grand purpose, to you or anything else  Nihilists say everything is arbitrary  We are random and alone, have always been and always will be  There are no universal moral values that humans should hold

Without Purpose…  While faith isn’t necessary for morality, purpose seems to be – for morality, in many cases, seems to be about upholding one’s ability to fulfill his/her purpose, or to avoid harming others in their quest to do the same  Without purpose, without meaning – what’s the point of a moral system? What are we even trying to protect?

Nothing More to Say About Nothing  There’s really nothing more to say about nihilism – either you buy into the idea that there’s no meaning to life (think monism stripped of purpose) or you don’t  We can’t really spend too much time on it, other than to wonder about the hypothetical consequences if nihilism is correct  After all, we talked about how morality would be impacted by either an affirmative or dissuasive knowledge of what awaits us beyond death  It could make morality easier – or people would still be tempted to push the limits and see what they can get away with  What would happen if we knew that nothing really mattered?

Back from the Brink  If purpose and meaning are conferred upon us, what are some conceivable meanings?  Perhaps to generously provide for others  Perhaps to search for answers and questions  Perhaps to teach and guide those around us  Perhaps to improve and evolve, physically and emotionally  Perhaps to carry on in our predecessors’ footsteps, or to protect our heritage  Perhaps to find peace and serenity  Any others?  Is purpose unique for every being, or is there a unified meaning of human existence?

The Questions…  Do you feel like you understand the meaning of your life?  If you don’t yet, do you feel like you’ll get it someday?  Is life meant to be complicated? A constant work in progress? Is it meant to be “solved”?

Chaos!  We’ve joked/observed throughout the unit that humans seem to gravitate towards chaos – that we complicate things unnecessarily, that we love questioning  However, that same tendency towards chaos might be what keeps us from stagnating – might even be what makes life worth living after all  The very chaos that nihilists cite as reason to believe that none of this matters could very well be the reason everything does

A Constant Work in Progress  “I often wonder if I'll ever finish all I've started, and the answer I have found is no! No, I will never finish all that I have started because life is about doing – the process – not the result…My life’s a constant work in progress, and I wouldn't have it any other way.” Set Your Goals, “Work in Progress”

Back to the Star…  We began this semester by talking about the five points of a single star: enlightenment, independence, identity, security, and love  None of our existential questions is about one of these points…and yet, at the same, all of them are

The Star and the Gears  Isn’t the question about choice really about independence and identity?  Isn’t the question about morality really about identity and (mutual) security?  Isn’t the question about happiness really about independence and identity?  Isn’t the question about the soul really about love and identity?  Isn’t the question about death really about love, identity, and security?  And isn’t this question – about the meaning of life – really about the whole thing?

The Star and the Cube  Life seems to be a wonderful, endlessly fascinating puzzle, like Wall-E’s Rubik’s Cube – full of trade-offs and mysteries to be solved, happiness to be won, and new frontiers to cross  Our myths and dystopias dare to ask the questions we need to ask ourselves along the way  If our dreams came true…would we be worthy? Would we be ready?  If humanity is meant to improve, how can we get better without losing who we are?  I appreciate progress, treasure it, learn from it…but never settle for it  If we’re going to build a better world, we can’t cheat when challenged by the cube  Solve a puzzle, and start another…because my life means more than 42