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On the Meaning of Meaning: What Are We Really Looking For?
Meaning: Global And Situational
- Global (or ultimate) meaning talks about the intrinsic meaning of life as it is, and is a functional way of understanding the world around us. It works on the notion that ‘ignorance is bliss’.
- Situational meaning is more dynamic and can be applied to every moment in our lives, looking at it as a separate, meaningful event.
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Well, fortunately, I figured it out while I was at the gym this morning. I'm pretty sure it's a ham sandwich. And no, I'm not saying that just because I'm hungry. There's an explanation here. I'm going to explain it, clickbait titles and all, in, oh, the next eight minutes or so.
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Key Ideas
Meaning is the associations that our minds draw
Our brains invent it as a way to explain all the crazy shit that is going on in the world around us. This helps us predict and control our lives.
Types of Meaning in Life
1. Cause/Effect Meaning primarily involves the logical parts of our brain: You kick the ball, the ball moves.
2. Better/Worse Meaning has to do with the nature of our values and relies mostly on the emotional parts of our brains: Eating is better than starving.
2. Better/Worse Meaning has to do with the nature of our values and relies mostly on the emotional parts of our brains: Eating is better than starving.
Meaning is nature’s tool for motivation
It’s how evolution made sure we got shit done. When there is great meaning attached to something, we will go to insane lengths to make things right.
We do not create meaning, rather we discover it, often when we are suffering. Learn about Logotherapy, Viktor Frankl's theory of man's search for meaning.
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Key Ideas
The Meaning Of Life Using Logotherapy
Logotherapy originated in the 1930s as a counter-response to the prevalent theories of the time, and examines the physical, psychological and spiritual aspects of individuals. .
Its premise is that the strongest motivational force of an individual is to find a meaning in life and it was devised by Prof Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist.
The Spiritual Dimension of Meaning
Humans normally function on primal reactions like negative self-talk, emotional outbursts and irrational actions based on outside events and circumstances. The lost ‘spiritual’ dimension of meaning is brought forward by Logotherapy.
Recently, I found a book by Israeli philosopher Iddo Landau titled How to Find Meaning in an Imperfect World. This is not a self-help book. Instead, it's full of clear ideas on how to think about the meaning of life. Let's take a look. When a judge asks a man, "Why did you beat your wife?"
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Key Ideas
Questions about the meaning of life contain assumptions:
- “What’s the meaning of life?” Assumes that there’s a single meaning.
- “Does my life have meaning?” Assumes (or at least hints) at a “...
Problems of meaning=problems of insufficient value
Those who think life is meaningless feel that there is a gap between their expectations and reality: between the degree of value that life should have and the degree of value that it actually has. - Iddo Landau
To find meaning in life, we can either:
- Add more value: identify activities that are valuable to us or we can remove activities that reduce value.
- Change our thinking: Perhaps our life already has sources of value, but we just aren’t looking at things in the right way.