The following is an excerpt from the summary of The Great Courses "Big Questions of Philosophy," Lecture 36, by David K. Johnson.
Meaning, Purpose, and Significance
It is customary to believe that life is meaningful when it has a purpose.
Some think that God’s existence is necessary for life to be meaningful.
Our life can be meaningful only if God caused us to exist for a particular
purpose—because he had a specific plan.
The problem with this conception of meaning, however, is that having
a purpose is not the same as having meaning. What’s more, we cannot
say that whatever goal God has for us is, by definition, good. That
presents us with the same problem as in Plato’s Euthyphro: God would
choose such a goal because he recognizes it as good by some outside
standard. However, if there is a goal that is good by an outside standard,
then our life could be meaningful, regardless of whether God exists.
Some believe that the soul or afterlife makes our life significant, that
is, meaningful. Otherwise, we are but insignificant lumps of matter on
a speck of dust that will be obliterated by the sun in short order—if
we don’t obliterate ourselves first. An objection to this view is that it
doesn't seem that the soul is necessary for this kind of significance, nor
is an afterlife. What’s more, it’s not even clear that significance should
concern us at all.
Those who suggest that life is not meaningful are called nihilists. A
noted nihilist was French author Albert Camus. He agreed that God
was necessary for life to have meaning; only because God gives us an
essence, gives us function or purpose, does life even have a chance
at being meaningful. Because, as Camus suggested, God does not
exist—then life is meaningless.
For Camus, all one can do is realize that the game of life is
absurd and find joy in it anyway. Camus used the example of
the myth of Sisyphus—a man who was cursed by the gods to
endlessly roll a rock up a hill, only to have it always fall down
once he reached the top.
Camus argued that all that Sisyphus can do (and, indeed, what he
should do) is decide to “find meaning” in rock rolling and take joy
in it anyway, despite its absurdity.
Objective and Subjective Meaning
This brings us to the suggestion that life can have a subjective
meaning—a meaning that derives from our own purposes, plans,
attitudes, intentions, and mental states. One can have a meaningful life
by accomplishing goals, fulfilling desires, or attaining and promoting
virtues that one sees as worthwhile or significant.
For example, perhaps you think caring for others is important, and you
involve yourself in charities and organizations that do so. Perhaps you
value family and find meaning in raising your children. Perhaps there is
a political cause that you find worth pursuing and are engaged in that.
The idea is that we can have a meaningful life by accomplishing things
that we see as meaningful. It’s not an objective meaning, but it’s a
meaning all the same.
