Atheism and purpose in life.

[Angrboda]

Apophenia: I somewhat agree so what would be your thought on a cause?

My ideas stem from some ideas in computational neuroscience and various bits of philosophy here and there. But to try to paraphrase and describe without all the technical details, "meaning" is just a constructed aspect of our conscious experience that encourages us to act in ways consistent with some greater need, usually that of the probabilities of biological evolution. Just as we "conceive" of the world as having three dimensions because to do otherwise would be maladaptive, or raping babies is perceived as having a moral dimension to discourage us from doing it, meaning is a qualitative experience that encourages us to behave in certain ways.

I'm going to break away from the actual details to give an account that is more metaphorical than literal. I view the self as a cognitive concept that isn't a static, but represents a process, the process that is who you are (as opposed to what you are). Similar to Heidegger's Dasein, our 'self' has both a past and a future, or perhaps, a set of possibilities about the future. That I am female likely means that I won't be impregnating any women. That I am skilled at philosophy means pursuits involving philosophy are more probable than those involving skills I don't have. As a result of academic failures, it's highly unlikely I will ever get a college degree. These are not facts, per se, but inclinations based on who I have been. In this sense, implicit in the self are a bundle of "projects" related to history, values, desires and so forth. If I really want to become a plumber, going to dancing academy is at odds with the project I inherit as a part of who I am. If I'm an accountant, I could work at Burger King and McDonald's as a cashier, but those behaviors wouldn't "complete me" in the same way that working at Ernst and Young would. We certainly can deviate from the demands of our meaning (especially if it is meaningful to do so - see what I did there?), but in general, we are inclined to feel an emptiness toward activities that don't further our "selves", and feel fulfilled when doing things that do.


Note, this isn't necessarily an all inclusive picture, nor is it essentially complete in every aspect. For example, young people like to play video games. Older people may look upon this activity as meaningless and wonder why people spend so much time doing it. Younger people may even be at a loss to explain why they do it in terms of meaningfulness. I can think of two possibilities off the top of my head. First, meaning may simply be one among a number of competing biological imperatives that we must satisfice with the others. Another, perhaps more difficult sell is that video game playing is meaningful in non-obvious ways. Or, it could be something else.

A quick example at the tail end to underscore the biological connection. Say, in a hunter-gatherer tribe. If mothers in the tribe don't have a high probability of fulfilling the role of mother, the group, and ultimately species will suffer. If a boy decides to be a hunter one day, a berrry picker the next, and a shaman the third, he's not going to productively contribute to the whole. In that sense, our "sense" of meaning keeps us on track and doing things that, in the short term we may not directly perceive the benefit of, yet over the long term result in a productive and successful species.

Note, that because in the main we have no control over who we are (as that meaning of "who" is based on who we have been + our values, tastes and desires), we have no control over what we find meaningful at the very moment. We can choose to behave in ways which add or subtract from the "who" we are right now, but we won't be that until we do, and until then, our meaning, based on who we are, comes to us as a consequence of our past.