What is meaning? Is meaning inherent? Meaning, we can say, is the significance we attach to stimulus. It is the symbolic representation of what is. We create meaning for many reasons; for pleasure, the avoidance of pain, to pursue goals, to understand ourselves and the external universe. Is meaning inherent? Can we say that the pattern we call chair has any inherent meaning? If we are to make such a claim, we must posit the existence of an entity that *is* meaning, something that has as of today evaded all our efforts to pinpoint it. This to me sounds like Aristotelian essentialism, the idea that all things have an essence that defines them. But where is this entity of meaning? Where are these essences? To me, it seems more plausible that they inhabit psyches, much in the same way hours, inches and degrees arent found lying around willy nilly. So if meaning is a component of the psyche, we have created it. The mind has organized data in a way that we interpret as meaningful. So we can say that meaning is an active process, a creative process, not something outside of us but something we are. In some cases, the feeling of meaninglessness may be the realization that there is no inherent meaning. That meaning is, in that sense, simply the dance of neurons and chemicals in the brain, wooshing round. Who needs meaning to be inherent? Is it necessary to believe this in life? I think not. For me, part of the joy of life is to create meaning, new meaning, novel meaning, meaning that is structurally similar or coherent with reality. Meaning is like an artists brush, and when we learn to create our meaning in ways that accurately reflect what is, it is like learning to use a fine brush for detail and a broad brush for the sky.
Posted on: Tue, 06 May 2014 06:23:52 +0000
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