Meaning of life

The concept of the meaning of life exists in any developed worldview system, justifying and interpreting the moral norms and values ​​characteristic of this system, demonstrating goals that justify the activities prescribed by them ^[1] .

The social status of individuals, groups, classes, their needs and interests, aspirations and expectations, principles and norms of behavior determines the content of mass ideas about the meaning of life, which in each social order have a specific character, although they reveal certain moments of repeatability. Subjecting a theoretical analysis of the idea of ​​mass consciousness about the meaning of life, many philosophers proceeded from the recognition of a certain invariable “human nature”, constructing on this basis a certain ideal of man, the achievement of which was seen as the meaning of life, the main purpose of human activity ^[2] .

Great philosophers - such as Socrates , Plato , Diogenes , Descartes , Spinoza , and many others - had clear ideas about which life was “best” (and, therefore, most meaningful) and, as a rule, associated the meaning of life with the concept of good .

Ancient Greece

Socrates believed that the purpose of the human mind is not to explore what is "in heaven and under the earth", but to explore the nature of virtue in order to perfect the soul and build life on the basis of ethical knowledge.

The ancient Greek philosopher and encyclopedic scientist Aristotle believed that the goal of all human actions is happiness (eudaimonia), which consists in the implementation of the essence of man. For a person whose essence is the soul, happiness consists in thinking and cognition. Spiritual work, therefore, takes precedence over physical work. Scientific activity and art are the so-called dianetic virtues that are achieved through the subordination of passions to the mind ^[3] .

Epicurus and his followers proclaimed the goal of human life to receive pleasure, understood not as sensory pleasure, but as getting rid of physical pain, emotional restlessness, suffering, fear of death. The ideal is life in a "secluded place", in a close circle of friends, non-participation in public life, distant contemplation. The gods themselves, according to Epicurus, are blessed beings who do not interfere in the affairs of the earthly world ^[3] .

Cynics ( Antisthenes , Diogenes of Sinope ) - representatives of one of the Socratic schools of Greek philosophy - considered the ultimate goal of human aspirations to be virtue (happiness). According to their teaching, virtue consists in the ability to be content with little and avoid evil. This skill makes a person independent. A person must become independent from the outside world, which is unstable and not subject to it, and strive for inner peace. At the same time, the independence of man, which cynics called for, meant extreme individualism, denial of culture, art, family, state, property, science and public institutions ^[3] .

According to the Stoics , the goal of human aspirations should be morality, impossible without true knowledge. The human soul is immortal, and virtue consists in human life in harmony with nature and the world mind (logos). The stoics' life ideal is equanimity and calm in relation to external and internal irritating factors ^[3] .

Medieval Europe and India

Among Europeans and Indians, despite cultural differences and geographical remoteness from each other, the idea of ​​the meaning of life was very similar. It was associated with the veneration of ancestors, adherence to widespread religious and mythical ideals and the repetition of social status obtained at birth ( Vanina E. Yu. “Medieval Thinking. Indian Version”, 2007):

“Medieval thought considered the main goal of human life to be the absolute embodiment of class values, the maximum repetition of the lifestyle of ancestors or heroes especially revered by this group, therefore, as soon as such perfection was achieved, often in the first years of life, the further evolution of the human character from one age group to the other, and within them, lost its meaning, and therefore was not recognized and not fixed ” ^[4] .

Irrationalism

The 19th-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer defined human life as a manifestation of a certain world will : it seems to people that they act on their own, but in reality they are driven by someone else's will. Being unconscious, the world will is absolutely indifferent to its creations - people who are abandoned by it to the mercy of randomly occurring circumstances. According to Schopenhauer, life is a hell in which a fool chases pleasures and becomes disappointed, and a sage, on the contrary, tries to avoid troubles through self-restraint - a wise person realizes the inevitability of disasters, and therefore curbs his passions and puts an end to his desires. According to Schopenhauer, a person’s life is a constant struggle against death, constant suffering, and all efforts to free oneself from suffering lead only to the fact that one suffering is replaced by another, while the satisfaction of basic necessities of life turns into only satiety and boredom ^[5] .

In search of meaning, man creates various religions and philosophies to make life bearable. A. Schopenhauer believes that mankind has already invented a means of salvation from a lack of meaning - illusions, inventing activities.

Existentialism

Many existential philosophers of the 20th century wrote about the meaning of life - Albert Camus (“The Myth of Sisyphus”), Jean-Paul Sartre (“Nausea”), Martin Heidegger (“Conversation on a Country Road”), Karl Jaspers (“The Meaning and Purpose of History” ").

The forerunner of existentialism, the Danish philosopher of the 19th century, Søren Obu Kierkegaard, argued that life is full of absurdity and that a person must create his own values ​​in an indifferent world.

According to Jean-Paul Sartre , “existence precedes essence”, “a person, first of all, exists, runs into himself, feels himself in the world, and then defines himself. There is no human nature, since there is no God to have its purpose ”- therefore, there is no predetermined human nature or primary assessment, except that which man brings to the world; people can be evaluated or determined by their actions and choices - “life before we live it is nothing, but it depends on you to give it meaning” ^[6] .

Nihilist views

Friedrich Nietzsche characterized nihilism as the emptying of the world and especially of human existence from meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth or essential value. The term " nihilism " comes from lat. Nihil , which means nothing . Nietzsche described Christianity as a nihilistic religion, since it removes meaning from earthly life, concentrating in return on the supposed otherworldly life. He also saw nihilism as a natural result of the idea of ​​"the death of God" and insisted that this idea was something that must be overcome, returning meaning to Earth. F. Nietzsche also believed that the purpose of life is to prepare the Earth for the appearance of a superman: “A man is a rope stretched between a monkey and a superman,” which has certain common features with the opinion of transhumanists about the posthuman, the man of the future.

Nihilism, brought to an extreme state, turns into pragmatism, the denial of what is unprofitable and irrational in relation to one's own body, serving the satisfaction of basic human needs; in recognition that the best that can be done in this life is to enjoy it.

Positivist Views

As for the meaning of life, Ludwig Wittgenstein and other logical positivists will say: expressed through language, the question is meaningless. Because the "meaning of X" is an elementary expression (term), which "in" life means something regarding the consequences of X, or the importance of X, or something that should be reported about X, etc. Therefore, when “Life” is used as “X” in the expression “meaning X”, the statement becomes recursive and, therefore, meaningless.

In other words, things in personal life can make sense (importance), but life itself does not have any meaning other than these things. In this context, it is said that someone’s personal life makes sense (important for himself or others) in the form of events that occur throughout this life, and the results of this life, in terms of achievements, inheritance, family, etc. But to say that life itself makes sense is wrong to use the language, since any remark about the importance or significance is only relevant "in" life (for those who live it), such a use of the language makes the statement erroneous. Language can provide a meaningful answer only if it refers to areas "within" the area of ​​life. But this is impossible when the question goes beyond the boundaries of the area in which the language exists, violating the contextual restrictions of the language. Thus, the question is destroyed. And the answer to the wrong question is the wrong or inadequate answer. (See the answer to the main question of life, the universe, and all that .)

Other philosophers have turned to attempts to discover what is meaningful in life by studying its inherent consciousness. But when such philosophers tried to find a global definition of the "meaning of life" for mankind, they failed to find agreement with the linguistic model of Wittgenstein.

Pragmatic approach

Pragmatic philosophers believe that instead of searching for the truth about life, we should seek a useful understanding of life. William James claimed that truth can be created but not found. Thus, the meaning of life is a belief in the purpose of life, which does not contradict anyone's experience of a meaningful life. Roughly speaking, this might sound like: “The meaning of life is those goals that make you appreciate it.” For the pragmatist, the meaning of life, your life, can only be discovered through experience.

In practice, this means that for pragmatists, theoretical requirements should be tied to the practice of verification, that is, it is necessary to be able to make predictions and verify them, and that, in the end, the needs of mankind should guide human research.

System Analysis

From the point of view of system analysis, all goals, considered as the meaning of life, form the set of all possible goals . These goals can be compared with each other, which gives us the opportunity to rank all the goals in sequence. The goal, which will have the greatest weight, can claim the title of the true meaning of life ^[7] .

In practice, the result of such modeling is the theory that the meaning of life is to slow down the rate of growth of entropy. That is, if life grows sooner or later with increasing entropy in the Universe, then the meaning is actions to postpone this moment or, like utopia, to completely prevent the disappearance of life ^{[8] [9]} .

Opinion polls

According to a public opinion poll, the vast majority of Russians named the following goals in life ^[10] :

1. creating a good family (94%),
2. raising children and ensuring their future (95%),
3. maintaining and improving health (95%),
4. live in accordance with conscience (90%),
5. have good friends (89%).

Individual and social in psychology

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Austrian psychologist , psychiatrist and thinker Alfred Adler wrote:

“From a medical point of view, all organs develop in the direction of the ultimate goal ... The development of the soul is similar to the development of organic life. Each person has a concept of goal or an ideal necessary to achieve more than what is possible for him in an actual life situation ... Without a sense of purpose, an individual’s activity would have no meaning ”

- Adler A. “The Science of Living” ^[11]

At the same time, he adhered to the idea that the true meanings of life are common, those that other people can share and accept for themselves. Meaning is possible only in communication: a word that means something for just one person would be meaningless. The same applies to goals and actions; their only meaning is meaning to others.

Later, an understanding of the meaning of life in science began to shift toward greater individualization. Thus, the American psychologist Carl Rogers , one of the founders and leaders of humanistic psychology , in the book "Theory of Personality" speaks of a purely individual character of the meanings of life. According to him, each individual exists in a constantly changing world of experiences, the center of which he is, and only a small part of the individual’s personal world is experienced consciously.

“An important truth about the individual’s personal world is that only the individual himself can know the true and full meaning of it ... only the individual himself can know how he perceives this or that experience. I can never with all the evidence and fullness know how you perceive a pin prick or your failure in the exam. For each person, the world of his experiences is, in the most literal sense, an individual, personal world. ”

- Rogers K. "Theory of Personality" ^[12]

The topic of the meaning of life was carefully examined by the Austrian psychiatrist, psychologist and neurologist Viktor Frankl . Frankl maintains an understanding of the meaning of life not as universal, but as individual, dramatically different not only from person to person, but also at different periods of an individual’s life. The search for meaning by each person is the main force of his life, and not the "secondary rationalization" of instinctual drives. The meaning is unique and specific because it should be and can be realized only by this person and only when he reaches an understanding of what could satisfy his own need for meaning. The desire to search and realize a person’s meaning of his life in the modern sense is an innate motivational tendency inherent in all people and is the main engine of behavior and personality development ^[13] . The psychiatric school of speech therapy is based on the problem of losing the meaning of life, which the scientist himself called an existential vacuum ^[14] .

A number of recent studies have shown that people who try to live with meaning more often maintain a vivid mind in old age, are mentally healthier, and even live longer than those whose goal is to receive pleasure. David Bennett of the University of Rush Medical Center (Chicago) and his colleagues, having studied 950 people who were on average 80 years old, note: “Those who considered their lives more meaningful also experienced less difficulties in self-care in everyday life and movement. And mortality over a five-year period was much lower among them — about 57% —than those who did not have special goals in life ” ^[15] .

Most religions embrace and express certain concepts about the meaning of life, offering metaphysical reasons to explain why people and all other organisms exist.

The answer to the question about the meaning of life in a particular religion is primarily determined by its idea of ​​God. According to Yu.A. Schreider , pantheistic religions identify God with the laws (dharma) that are inherent in the material world and control everything that happens, therefore the meaning (meaning) of human life in pantheistic religions is determined through its specific goals (meanings). This leads to the movement of goals in a circle: the laws (dharma) that determine the goals of being themselves are part of the world and its goals, which leads to human suffering from the infinity of the chain of meanings and the need to become insensitive to this. ^{[ neutrality? ]} In monotheistic religions, an essential distinction is made between God as the Creator and the world as his creation, therefore the goal (desired state) and the meaning (meaning of existence) of a person are different. This leads either to the fact that the end of the questioning always ends in God, or is seen in the restoration of the lost unity of man with God as a result of the act of the fall ^[16] .

Judaism

Within the framework of Jewish philosophy, various options for understanding life are presented: 1) knowledge of God (Deut. 4:39; Psalm 100: 3); 2) love of God (Deut. 6: 5); 3) a righteous life, keeping the commandments (Prov. 13:25) ^[17] .

Rabbi Shimshon Refael Girsch writes in his letters that the purpose of man is the fulfillment of the will of God - the management of the world in accordance with the Torah. Through the Torah, God protects a person from the dangers of pride, bias, and enjoyment of the material world (letter 5th). The purpose of Israel (the Jewish people) is to prove to all other nations by their own example (that is, the fulfillment of the Torah) that the true purpose of mankind is to serve one God (letter 7). The best form of service to God is the service of the heart, that is, education in oneself through the study of the Torah of respect for one's neighbor (love and righteousness), the replacement of evil with good. By perfecting himself, a man shows his love for God, performs worthy service to Him (letters 13-14) ^[18] .

The seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe (Rabbi) Menachem-Mendel Schneerson in one of his letters indicates that studying the Torah and understanding the meaning of its commandments is a duty prepared for every Jew. The Torah is both the path of life (action) and the key to understanding it (the knowledge that guides the action). It clearly indicates the meaning of human life: to live in accordance with the Torah, fulfilling its instructions (mitzvot-asse) and observing its prohibitions (mitzvot-lo-taase) ^[19] . Constantly keeping all the commandments (613 mitzvot) is difficult, but necessary to get rid of the darkness of the material world, which makes life aimless, fills it with fear and insecurity, devalues ​​good deeds. To fulfill the Torah means to be free from all this, to have a life full of meaning, to bring light and harmony of knowledge-action into this world, to take a step towards God ^[19] .

Christianity

In Christianity, the concept of the meaning of life differs from the Jewish concept of the Messiah (Jesus Christ) as the hypostasis of God and the God-man.

Orthodox Christianity

According to the Orthodox "Law of God," the existence of man on Earth has a deep meaning, great purpose and high purpose. They are determined by the nature of man, created in the image and likeness of God, that is, having a mind, free will and an immortal soul. Therefore, the meaning of human life is to be likened to God, the purpose is to inherit blissful eternal life with God, the goal is to know God ^[21] .

According to the teachings of Orthodox saints (St. Athanasius the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor, Seraphim of Sarov, etc.), the meaning of the life of an Orthodox Christian is to deify - to introduce a person to an incarnated God, to liken God by acquiring the Holy Spirit ^{[22] [23]} . For Christians, this is possible thanks to the Incarnation , which, as St. Athanasius the Great led to the renewal of people: their return to the knowledge of God and their return of hope for eternal life with God ^[24] . This is expressed in the formula of the Holy Fathers: " God became Man , so that man becomes God ." In this regard, in Orthodoxy, great importance is attached to the Transfiguration and Ascension of Jesus Christ , as events that demonstrate the deification of human nature and promise the reunion of people with God ^[25] .

As the Orthodox theologian George (Kapsanis) notes, the church is of great importance for realizing the meaning of the life of Orthodox Christians. She is a place of deification. The sacraments performed in it, prayers, liturgy, gospel readings, and sermons are aimed at deification and preparation for a future, eternal life with God ^[26] .

If we focus not on the nature of man at the time of creation, but on his fall and fallen condition, then the meaning of life can be defined in Orthodox theology as the restoration of a blessed union with God. Thus formulates the meaning of life, for example, the candidate of theology, hieromonk Tikhon (Irshenko) ^[27] . This wording brings the Orthodox idea of ​​the meaning of life closer to Catholic and Protestant.

However, Patriarch Sergius (Stragorodsky) in his master's thesis defends the position that Catholic and Protestant theology give the meaning of life a legal (legal) interpretation, while Orthodox - holds the position of morality. The first focuses on the act of the atonement of a person by Jesus Christ (that is, on the justice of God), the second - on the complicity (“boldness”) of a person following Christ in the process of salvation (that is, on the love and mercy of God) ^[28] .

In December 2013, Patriarch Kirill , as part of a special project of the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper, “100 Main Questions of Russia,” formulated his answer to the question about the meaning of life as follows: “ God predetermined the world to limitless development and improvement. Each of us must be a co-worker with God in this great cause ... Collaboration with God is the meaning of life. First of all, this is the improvement of oneself - mental, spiritual, physical ” ^[29] .

Gnostic sects

Gnostics denied Christ's physicality . They neglected everything bodily, considering it evil by definition. The meaning of life in different sects of the Gnostics could be formulated in different ways (or not formulated at all), but for the most part they saw the point in releasing a fragment of "higher reality" - the soul - from the "prison" of this world. It’s difficult to understand many of their religious and philosophical ideas. due to the confusion of their theogony with excessive emanations , and the teachings with “secret knowledge”. ^[thirty]

Islam

Islam implies a special relationship between man and God - “surrendering oneself to God”, “submission to God”; the followers of Islam are Muslims, that is, “devotees”. The meaning of a Muslim’s life is to worship the Almighty: “I did create genies and people only to worship me” ^[31] .

Hinduism

The well-known German and English Indologist Friedrich Max Müller examining the teachings of the six main orthodox philosophical systems (darshan) of India: Sankhya and Yoga , Nyaya and Vaisesik , Purva-mimansa and Uttara-mimansa, indicates their similarity in the main: they all consider salvation to be the main goal, achieving the highest bliss that is possible for a person. However, due to a different understanding of the nature and causes of suffering that impede bliss, each of these schools differently defines the nature of the highest good and the ways to achieve it: ^[32]

1. The “Jaimini System” ( Purva-mimansa ) focuses a person’s attention on his deeds (karma), on their motive and proper fulfillment. He believes that only deeds done without any desire for reward (that is, disinterestedly) are saving both on earth and in heaven.

2. Badarayana ( Vedanta ) sees true salvation (moksha) in the knowledge of Brahman, which is recognized as invisible and inaccessible to the ordinary abilities of the human mind. However, Brahman is cognizable through revelation (Vedas), and knowledge of Brahman is tantamount to identification with him: Vedanta formulates the principle of “Brahmavid Brahma eva bhavati” (“one who knows Brahman is Brahman himself”). Realization of this identity means the realization of all your desires and the cessation of all suffering (duhkhanta). From the darshan considered by M. Müller, he considers Vedanta the only philosophical system that recognizes salvation as conditional knowledge of Brahman and this knowledge immediately recognizes itself as a real Brahman.

3. “The philosophy of Kapila” ( Sankhya ) calls the highest bliss the term “kaivalya” (loneliness). Since Kapila considers the identification of spirits with purely objective or material to be the cause of suffering, he sees the path to kaivalya as a clear distinction between spirit and matter, between subject and object, between purusha and prakriti . The stop of the fascination with illusions and the passage of obstacles returns the unity to the purusha , solitude, independence and the perfect bliss that emanates from it.

4. The "Philosophy of Yoga " also refers to perfect freedom by the term "kaivalya", but emphasizes contemplation and self-concentration ( samadhi ) as ways to achieve this. Therefore, she insists on some spiritual exercises, through which the soul can achieve and maintain peace and tranquility, and therefore, free itself from the illusions and sufferings of life. An important point is also devotion to the Spirit ( Brahman ), the highest among all other spirits.

5. “ Vaisesika ” considers the main way for a person to know the truth: the elimination of false knowledge should automatically lead to bliss (apavarga). The truth is the knowledge of six or seven categories postulated by Canada.

6. “The philosophy of Gotama’s logic” ( Nyaya ) believes that the state of perfect freedom (apavarga) is characterized by renunciation of all the pleasures of this life and rejection of rewards in the future life or indifference to them, that is, the same being in which Brahman himself resides - without fear, without desire, without falls and without death. Gotama also calls this state “nihshreyasa” (literally “that which is better than nothing”, “non plus ultra”). The path to it is the correct knowledge that can be obtained through a clear understanding of the sixteen subjects discussed by Gotama . M. Müller also emphasized the similarities between nyaya and vaisesika: both systems do not recognize anything invisible or transcendental (avyakt) corresponding to Brahman or prakriti: they are content with the teaching that the soul is different from the body and believe that if we leave faith in the body as our own, then human suffering, as always coming through the medium of the body, will cease by itself.

Buddhism

According to Buddha’s teaching, the dominant, inalienable quality of life of every living being is suffering ( dukkha ), and the meaning and ultimate goal of life is to end suffering.

The source of suffering is desire. To stop suffering is considered possible only when a special fundamentally inexpressible state is achieved - nirvana - a state of complete absence of desires, and hence the absence of suffering ^[33] .

From the point of view of Buddhism of the southern tradition ( Theravada ), the meaning of life is to study one’s own consciousness, increase awareness, achieve a natural state of mind and, ultimately, completely cease to be in the usual sense of the word (that is, achieving nirvana ).

Buddhism of the northern tradition ( Mahayana ) considers its motivation to be more elevated than other traditions. Mahayana vows require the practitioner not to go into nirvana until all beings have attained enlightenment. It is also in Mahayana that there is an idea that enlightenment can be achieved not only through practice, but also through a righteous life in the world.

Some schools of Tibetan Buddhism define themselves as an independent direction; this current is called by his followers Vajrayana . Despite the difference in some formal aspects, the fundamental statement of the purpose of existence in Vajrayana is indistinguishable from that adopted in Mahayana.

Confucianism

According to Confucius , the main goal of human existence is to create an ideal, perfect society - the " Celestial Empire ", which allows you to achieve harmony between people and Heaven. Everything else is subordinated to this goal. A person is considered as part of a single society with its own specific responsibilities, part of a single mechanism in which the interests of society are priority. A person can fulfill his destiny only through self-improvement.

Human nature in its essence is blameless, but each person has freedom of choice - he can become a "noble" or "low" person. A noble person sets his goal of self-improvement through comprehension of the highest virtue, combining self-esteem and humanity (humanity). Virtue itself is something peculiar to man, and therefore it is enough to follow the instructions of his nature in order to follow the right path. Behavior leading to the achievement of nobility implies, first of all, moderation, the choice of a “middle path”, the desire to avoid extremes. Maintaining family ties, following numerous rituals and traditions, education and culture is extremely important ^[34] .

Taoism

The founder of Taoism, Lao Tzu , unlike Confucius, called not to interfere in the process of life, not to engage in its arrangement, improvement, and correction. According to Lao Tzu, everything that exists should be left to its own devices , and a person should adhere to the principle of “non-action” ( wú wéi無爲). This is not inaction. This is human activity, which is consistent with the natural course of the world order. The Universe is generated by the great Tao , the universal Law and the Absolute, which expresses the universal unity of the world and is a source of harmony and balance, therefore everything in the world must remain as it is in its natural state.

The meaning of human life consists in knowing Tao, following it and merging with it. To do this, a person should be distracted from the world of forms and colors, from unnecessary unrest of thought and spirit. The main virtues of a person, according to Lao Tzu, are love, moderation and humility ^[34] .

• Book of Ecclesiastes
• Motivation
• Scientific picture of the world
• The meaning of life according to Monty Python
• The answer to the main question of life, the universe and all that
• Fedorov, Nikolai Fedorovich
• Meliorism

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