%0 Journal Article
%A Weinberg, Rivka Weinberg
%D 2021
%J Journal of Controversial Ideas

%@ 2694-5991

%V 1
%N 1
%P 4

%T Ultimate Meaning: We Don’t Have It, We Can’t Get It, and We Should Be Very, Very Sad
%M doi:10.35995/jci01010004
%U https://journalofcontroversialideas.org/article/1/1/132
%X 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.