Throughout my life I’ve struggled to find meaning. I’ve wondered, am I alone in this? I’d like to hear what others have to say. Particularly others that are more knowledgeable in philosophy.
Might I interest you in absurdism?
“I’ve struggled to find meaning” could mean quite a few things. You’re not giving people much to work with.
But here’s something with respect to one interpretation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx’s_theory_of_alienation
I suppose Marx’s discussion on alienation is less about some ultimate meaning of life (which many people have already talked about here) and more about how people find meaning in their work, their humanity and the wider world, and how the way our society currently works alienates us from those things and from finding our own meaning, instead pushing us to act like cogs in a pointless machine. For example, if someone’s waking hours are mostly spent making useless things for people they’ll never meet, or denying people medical coverage, they’re going to develop a very different sense of their meaningfulness than someone who builds houses in their neighbourhood, or who grows or prepares food for their family and friends. Both are labouring in order to survive, but the latter can see much clearer how their actions matter.
(I’m probably butchering it, this isn’t a theory I know much about, so check to see if someone else has corrected me)
Makes a lot of sense. I can’t help but feel like a lot of the work people do is completely detached from their own community. Which inevitably begs the question, if it’s so detached is it even worth it?
More than fair odds, life is a random fluke of chance, and it has no meaning. Some people see this as depressing, but I see it as an opportunity to create the meaning you want in your life.
404 meaning not found.
Have you tried psychedelics?
Nop, you’re not alone. Meaning is made up, it doesn’t exist outside of our minds. You’re going to have to create your own.
Self is the only thing we can be sure of, being selfless is possibly altruistic but could also be putting the only thing you can be sure of behind things that may not be important to ones being.
Not to say that being selfish is the way to be but giving all yourself away or keeping all for yourself are very unbalanced ways to get through the world, balancing the give and take of life is the path to living a peaceable life.
I think to make life about peace for the sake of myself would to only confine all the potential that the opposite would have to offer otherwise—to myself, like most people. Vanity for the sake of everything else is the only desire worth seeking, because it’s the only one that doesn’t end in inevitable disappointment, due to all desire for oneself being temporary, and selflessness the only one that holds the potential of even lasting forever.