Blog

(Post ID shown: 32)(Post Category: phil)

The answer to every question - it depends[Philosophy V5(/∞)]

Introduction

What is the meaning of life? Is there purpose in life? Is there an overarching ‘plan’ set in place by some deity? All questions asked over and over again; yet still there’s no consensus, no true answer, no ultimate answer – Yet there is: It depends.

‘It depends’ The ultimate answer to any question – philosophical or not. What is the meaning of life? From a purely logical perspective or Absurdist perspective there is none, no purpose to continual existence; Yet, to a Monk there is – to serve ‘God’, to a Humanist it is to create connections and share experiences,To the Stoic, it is to live in accordance with nature and reason — accepting pain but not being ruled by it.. Overall – it depends.

It depends on your views, your values, your ideals. A purely subjective idea across time – yet the truest answer one can offer. So is there an ultimate meaning to life, a plan? That is to be answered by you, for I have laid out in the following document various viewpoints to this ultimate question.

Viewpoint of Absurdism

In absurdism one believes life has no ultimate meaning, or in one phrase the idea of existence is absurd. This heavily links to the question of the meaning of life. In simple the absurdist believes there is no meaning to life, its continual existence is but a fact that changes nothing in the overall universe – and even if it did, the universe itself has no purpose.

Viewpoint of Science

From a scientific perspective we understand how life exists, how it came to exist. Yet science has no true answer to this question, it just knows that it does exist. While it may not try to answer it directly, extrapolating from this idea that life just exists, we can infer an answer similar to that of Absurdism – there is no true purpose, existence is a fact without cause, that continues to exist despite this fact, coming back to nihilism.

Viewpoint of Religion

From a Religious perspective there is an easy answer to this question, as religion’s entire purpose is to answer this question. This answer is well known: To serve a ‘plan’ set in place by a deity of some sort – often a god or goddess, but in rare cases demons or beasts(Like Satan or Apep) the two views differ further yet. To a believer in a god life’s purpose may be to serve that god’s purpose for humanity, yet to something like a Thanatist or a believer of Apep the meaning of life is to end it – to create chaos. So yet again we come to a common consensus: It depends.

Viewpoint of Stoicism

The viewpoint of stoicism is difficult to comprehend for any organism on this earth, yet even it offers a further varied viewpoint to the question of an ultimate meaning to life. Stoicism teaches that nature itself is both divine and purposeful — and the purpose of life is to live in harmony with that nature, simply to let nature take its course. While on the surface this might seem like a straightforward answer in of itself, it’s not. Stoicism’s belief that nature taking its course is purpose doesn’t define one important — and highly interlinked question: What is then the purpose of nature, of life? This is a question for yet another philosophical rambling, but yet again the answer becomes the same: it depends — on whether one finds meaning in nature, in life.

Conclusion

Yet through these different viewpoints, we’re yet again presented with a binary question: Does life have a purpose to begin with? Is it worth questioning what the purpose is, if it’s possible there isn’t one to begin with? If the purpose of life is simple to exist, a fact without purpose? Is there truly a question in the beginning? Yet again, this question can be answered by it depends — it depends on your viewpoint, your ideals, your happiness, your everything. There is no binary answer to any given question, it depends.

Date of writing: 2025-6-12