Coven Gallers: The meaning of life and other absurd and hopeful things

What is the meaning of life? If you google it you'll find thousands of vague quotes and backgrounds with the "answer", like this one. It's a question that has been embedded in us since the dawn of humanity. Right? We have always wanted some reason, some purpose, some explanation for the harms and challenges of our lives. But that’s not exactly true.  

In chapter 6 of Life is Hard, Kieran Setiya tells us that the phrase actually originated in the year 1834, only two centuries ago. It was formed in the mouth of a character, written by British author, Thomas Carlyle, on the subject of isolation and despair. (pg 153) Which makes sense. We seek answers the most fervently when we need something explained, and what better explanation to demand than the reason for pain and suffering?  

Setiya writes that what we actually want when we ask this question are “truths that will tell us how to feel...and why” (pg 154). We don’t want our pain to mean nothing. We don’t want our suffering to be the mark of the absurdity and uncontrollable nature of life. That’s terrifying. When we ask what the meaning of life is, we want to feel better about all the bad things in the world. We want something else, something “true” (and as we read in the chapter on truth in Sick Souls, Healthy Minds, truth is mostly self-experienced anyway), to console us about our pain.  

The reason the phrase originated in the 1800s and not thousands of years ago was mostly due to religion, Setiya argues. A majority of people across the whole world believed in some religion for the majority of history, and the purpose of religion has always been to reconcile the absurdity of life with our desperate wish for it not to be. As Setiya put it, with religion, “there is a truth that tells us how to feel” (pg 155). That’s a lot more comfortable than attempting to grapple with absurdity on your own. But as more and more people moved away from organized religion, that was instantly demanded from them. What is the meaning of life without someone else telling you what it is? What does it take to answer that question on your own?  

I personally think that, no matter if you’re religious or not, you should take some time in your life to think about that question, as it pertains specifically to you. And when I say question instead of answer, I mean it. What is the meaning of life? Setiya talks for a while about whether the word “meaning” is even appropriate here. Is it supposed to be literal? Can we find a literary analysis of the meaning of life, like we would a book or a movie? Or, is it defined as purpose, point, or function? Should humanity be described by what we are “supposed” to do, whatever that means? (pg 154) Think about these things instead of just trying to find the answer. When it all comes down to it, I find the question in and of itself pretty useless, at least in reference to my life. I don't personally need some big truth to tell me how to feel; I'm a little too self-centered for that. I like to think that I decide what and how I feel because that empowers me. Actions tend matter a whole lot more than their reasonings or purposes.

That’s why the early philosophers were so much more focused on living meaningful lives, through their actions, instead of finding the meaning of life. According to Susan Wolf, a meaningful life prioritizes engaging “in activities that matter” (pg 150). The best part of that statement, is that we all get to decide individually what matters. Frank Ramsey, for example, decided that what mattered to him was thought and love, something that every human is capable of and what the vastness (and often humbling nature) of the universe is not.  

He said, “[Humanity] I find interesting and on the whole admirable. I find...the world a pleasant and exciting place” (pg 159).  It serves him to live in that way, and on general terms, I agree with his view of life. I think that we might all be a little happier in our day-to-day if we embrace those ideologies, we think and we love, therefore, we matter and our lives matter. There doesn’t have to be some big capital-t Truth that gives us meaning. I believe whole-heartedly that we matter simply because we exist. Our meaning comes from that, comes from the one life we get and the things we choose to do with it. But how does that simplicity fracture when it comes to injustice?  

Setiya chose to write the last part of his chapter on absurdity about the nature of absurd injustice and how that relates to our assumed “meaning of life”. How can life truly have meaning when so often justice (which is defined as an adherence to consequences based in fact or reason) is ignored? Setiya says that that’s the point. Injustice is a part of the absurdity of life, and so overcoming injustice “[forges] a truth that tells us how to feel” (pg 166). That’s meaning.  

With the recent rise of attention towards modern injustices, Setiya pleads with us to keep that in mind. One of the largest issues he identifies with the world was climate change, and he recognizes how easy it is to fall into the trap of believing there’s nothing we can do. That promotes nihilism and that prevents us from answering the question we all want answered. Meaning comes from what we decide is our problem, and Setiya believes that it is our job to “fix the future”. It is up to us to do our best to prevent the absurdity that we can control, through practicing justice. If we don’t want to end our species prematurely, or shamefully, we need to learn from the past and understand how to apply justice to similar situations in the future. (pg 162-168)

That’s where hope comes in. In chapter 7, Setiya makes an argument against the common conception of the word hope, by claiming that it does not beget action in the way we like to think it does. He writes that “Hope is the point at which we can be moved to act. But it is not the source of heat that brings us to that point or the force that moves us forward... by itself, hope does nothing at all.”  He goes on to say that the feelings that prompt actual action are grief, rage, and fear, not hope. And that action is what we should all be striving for because that is how change happens. (pg 175)

But that does not mean hope is useless. It just means that we have to know how best we can use our hope to create opportunities that allow for justice. Just hoping that climate change will be halted is not enough. Put that grief, rage, and fear to work. See what you can do to make the world a little less absurd. And when things seem lost or unknowable or meaningless, Setiya tells us to hope, and to believe that meaning will always lie in the “slow, steady march toward a more just future” (pg 180). That’s the point. That’s the point of all of this.  

The difference between the ought and the is, from when we read Why Grow Up? shows up very blatantly here. (pg 32) Hope is what we think it ought to be, and our actions are us trying to get there. Growing up is the point, the “meaning of life”, because it leads to us facing the absurd and fighting back. A meaningful life, with actions that matter. If things are not how they ought to be, what will you do about it?