Ultimate Meaning: We Don’t Have It, We Can’t Get It, and We Should Be Very, Very Sad
1 Scripps College;
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 28 May 2020 / Revised: 20 Oct 2020 / Accepted: 21 Oct 2020 / Published: 25 Apr 2021
Abstract
Life is pointless. That’s not okay. I show that. I argue that a point is a valued end and that, as agents, it makes sense for us to want our efforts and enterprises to have a point. Valued ends provide justifying reasons for our acts, efforts, and projects. I further argue that ends lie separate from the acts and enterprises for which they provide a point. Since there can be no end external to one’s entire life since one’s life includes all of one’s ends, leading and living one’s life as a whole cannot have a point. Finally, I argue that since we live our lives and structure our living-a-human-life efforts both in parts and as a whole, it is fitting to be sad to recognize that leading and living a life is pointless. My discussion helps make sense of the literature that frequently talks around this topic but often does so vaguely and indirectly.
Keywords: meaning of life; ultimate meaning; pointlessness; everyday meaning
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CITE
Weinberg, R. Ultimate Meaning: We Don’t Have It, We Can’t Get It, and We Should Be Very, Very Sad. Controversial_Ideas 2021, 1, 4.
Weinberg R. Ultimate Meaning: We Don’t Have It, We Can’t Get It, and We Should Be Very, Very Sad. Journal of Controversial Ideas. 2021; 1(1):4.
Weinberg, Rivka. 2021. "Ultimate Meaning: We Don’t Have It, We Can’t Get It, and We Should Be Very, Very Sad." Controversial_Ideas 1, no. 1: 4.
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