Is there a path to wisdom?

[The Atheist]

Asking what the meaning of life is is not like asking what colour is the number five.

I find it is, because as Douglas Adams alluded to, we don't really know what the question actually is. What "meaning"? How do we know there is one? Why should there be a "meaning" to life? Does a tree's life have some "meaning" as well? Rocks?

The whole concept is an abstract construct.

[RichardHresko]

Adding some references to my previous post:

My allusion to Aristotle was to Book I Chapter 3 of the Nicomachean Ethics (1094b) where Aristotle points out that progress is made when we accept that the degree of precision allowed is a function of the subject matter.

There are numerous studies of tool selection and use among non-human primates. One book that references several of these studies is: Joanna Blake, Routes to child language: evolutionary and developmental precursors (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).

[NikolaiI]

I find it is, because as Douglas Adams alluded to, we don't really know what the question actually is. What "meaning"? How do we know there is one? Why should there be a "meaning" to life? Does a tree's life have some "meaning" as well? Rocks?

The whole concept is an abstract construct.

I can't answer a tree's life or a rock's.

About a human's... you know it may seem like that. Like asking the colour of the number five. It may seem like that because it may seem like life is meaningless. And so meaning is as foreign to life (which is meaningless) as colour is to a number.

My own use of meaning is similar to other types of the highest understanding of one's self. I mean in terms of self-realization. It is not the same, but it is simlar in that it is beyond ordinary experience.

One example, well, I would give a specific situation of walking down the hall, let's us say in a hotel, as it will give a point of reference, on a carpet. Now, in my opinion, based on my experiences, this has meaning. I know that saying this doesn't imbue meaning. But even if every time I do this act again in my life I do not experience "meaning," still, by my past experiences, I have become convinced that meaning still is there.

I know that saying that an experience such as walking down a hall on carpet has meaning does not convey that meaning. And saying that that meaning can't really be understood simply by normal experience doesn't convey it either. And I would try to continue to discuss it, even if it seems elusive. Meaning is elusive.

What I would say about an experience - could be any experience, doesn't have to be one or the other - is that the experience has meaning, beyond perhaps what we would understand just by experiencing it, if it is an ordinary experience, and further, that meaning has meaning. So there is infinite meaning. I was discussing this with Uberzensch and he said that we were saying the same thing, as he was saying that there was no meaning. And at this I had to agree. No meaning is the same as infinite meaning, but not if you think that no meaning means there is nothing to realize.

How can I know there is nothing to realize? How can I know there is nothing beyond what I know now? Actually it's the worst fallacy to imagine that there's nothing beyond what I have experienced, and realized, nothing true beyond what I have, by chance and circumstances, experienced in this life.

I hope this wasn't too long, but - anyway, I submit that there is meaning, that it is rare, and valuable, which is something similar to, but not the same as, self-realization. The meaning of life is something along the lines of other universal, self-truths, which exist. I guess the main universal is that non-injuring living beings is good.

What I meant was, that life has meaning, and that meaning has meaning, and that meaning has... and so on. It may seem circular to you, but to me it is infinite meaning, infinite growth. I may have a revelation, sudden or gradual, and then another. There is no end other than the journey, no end other than the present.

[backline]

...

One example, well, I would give a specific situation of walking down the hall, let's us say in a hotel, as it will give a point of reference, on a carpet. Now, in my opinion, based on my experiences, this has meaning. I know that saying this doesn't imbue meaning. But even if every time I do this act again in my life I do not experience "meaning," still, by my past experiences, I have become convinced that meaning still is there.

I know that saying that an experience such as walking down a hall on carpet has meaning does not convey that meaning. And saying that that meaning can't really be understood simply by normal experience doesn't convey it either. And I would try to continue to discuss it, even if it seems elusive. Meaning is elusive.

What I would say about an experience - could be any experience, doesn't have to be one or the other - is that the experience has meaning, beyond perhaps what we would understand just by experiencing it, if it is an ordinary experience, and further, that meaning has meaning. So there is infinite meaning. I was discussing this with Uberzensch and he said that we were saying the same thing, as he was saying that there was no meaning. And at this I had to agree. No meaning is the same as infinite meaning, but not if you think that no meaning means there is nothing to realize.

How can I know there is nothing to realize? How can I know there is nothing beyond what I know now? Actually it's the worst fallacy to imagine that there's nothing beyond what I have experienced, and realized, nothing true beyond what I have, by chance and circumstances, experienced in this life.

I hope this wasn't too long, but - anyway, I submit that there is meaning, that it is rare, and valuable, which is something similar to, but not the same as, self-realization. The meaning of life is something along the lines of other universal, self-truths, which exist. I guess the main universal is that non-injuring living beings is good.

Bravo.
Good example.
Well expressed (at least I think I get it).
Good job.

[NikolaiI]

Bravo.
Good example.
Well expressed (at least I think I get it).
Good job.

Thank you! I am sure you have got what I meant.
This was one way of addressing the issue, of meaning, that I thought of at least a while ago, and this is the first time I've ever successfully communicated it. So thanks.

[backline]

I like a guy with original thought.
Kudos (at least until the backlash)!

What's that siren sound?
Incoming!!!!!
Run!

[NikolaiI]

I like a guy with original thought.
Kudos (at least until the backlash)!

What's that siren sound?
Incoming!!!!!
Run!

No backlash has occurred, at least on this thread.

I have sorted my thoughts on it out a little. We can only understand meaning after some reflection on our life, and when we can understand our life more deeply. I think it is relative. What one finds superficial, another finds extremely important.