virus: 'Meaning of Life' Memes
D.H.Rosdeitcher (76473.3041@compuserve.com)
Thu, 4 Sep 1997 01:36:51 -0400
Ken McE. wrote:
I wrote:
>The memetic/evolutionary paradigm seems to imply that we invent our own
>>"meaning of life" since we create a memetic construct called 'meaning of
>>life'. Does having a view that we "make up" our own 'meaning of life'
>>lead to a sense of meaninglessness?
.
> I have always suspected that the "meaning of life question" was
some
>sort of cousin to the "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"
>question. I think both of these are examples of how we can allow
>language to mislead our thinking. There are roughly eight ways to
>answer the "meaning" question, but the underlying truth is that the
>question is wrong.
> Because we can speculate about a thing, does not mean that it is
worth
>speculating about it. I rather think that any memetic expeditions to
>this neighborhood will die the same painful deaths as have previous
>religious, philosophical and logical inquests, but if you insist, don't
>forget to write...
If you read the question carefully, you might see that the question isn't
a meaning of life question and that it's a legitimate question since the
answer can get determined by testing for truth or falsehood.
--David R.