Russian prisoners who survived the Gulag Archipelago, Jewish prisoners in German prison camps as depicted in Man’s Search for Meaning, African slaves, prisoners of war throughout history, all have been able to valiantly find meaning in the worst atrocities committed to human beings – all without medication, or vice, to alleviate their suffering. How can we justify crutches, moral vices, or medication for less traumatic, less suffering inducing stressors, when those before us have endured tenfold and been able to survive, find meaning, and live happy, despite their much greater suffering, misfortune, and injustice?
If none of these people were afforded an escape, or an alleviation, and they had to find meaning, find a way to psychologically remain strong and continue living, why do we, who find ourselves in much more fortunate circumstances, deserve the ability to escape? How can we justify the escape from the misfortune of life when the rest of the world suffers, and has suffered, to a much greater extent? Everyone goes through horrible mental states, not everyone has the same experiences, and obviously some people’s justifications and circumstances imply a more profound suffering than many, yet given the horrendous crimes against humanity which we’ve valiantly overcome, individually, and societally, how can many of us still not see the potential as proven by our forefathers of the human ability to overcome the most horrendous difficulties, and in so recognizing not be utterly convinced of our own inert potential to do the same in our own lives?
If those in the worst situations imaginable, such as those who underwent the atrocities of the twentieth century, were offered medication to alleviate their suffering they surely would have taken it. If they were offered an escape, a pleasure, a pastime, a way out of their situation, they surely wouldn’t hesitate in accepting it. Yet the possibility of such things doesn’t make it optimal. The virtue of forbearance and courage in not reducing the experience through artificial means implies a greater potential gain in the overcoming of challenges. The task of running one-hundred miles barefoot is more impressive than he who runs one-hundred miles in shoes. He who undergoes the pain of existence through the strength of his character and will develops a stronger character than he who alleviates his suffering. There is a line, discernible with wisdom, of the place in which we should take medicine, at the place in which we should shirk responsibility and discipline for the optimization of wellbeing, a point where continued endurance would not provide a character benefit, but rather be harmful. That line is separate for every individual, yet we must not, in anticipatory anxiety, relieve ourselves of self responsibility and independence too soon, we must push to that line, rather than alleviate ourselves of the burden through fear of failure while we still contain the potential of going farther and thus overcoming more. This takes wisdom, and it is a necessary caveat to the voluntary “cross bearing” and suffering inherent in facing the demons of existence. Temperance through fire, forging through pressure, character creation, virtue establishment, these are things which any individual, in effectively integrating his psyche, should wish to promote. It is in those challenges that present themselves to us, in those moments of mental weakness, anxiety, anger, and sadness, that we are tested the most, and to which, in relation to, we have the greatest potential for improvement. The only determining factor is how we deal with these moments, these period, how we choose to cope with existence itself in its ups and downs. That which we do in this world has an effect on our character, on the totality of our Being. The way we navigate life now, influences our further navigation of life. The more inclined and susceptible we are to vice in the moment, the more we indulge in it, the more likely we are to in the future. We must not set ourselves up for continued suffering, nor continued weakness, we must only act strongly, in that which is most virtuous, in order to increase in virtue, and increase the probability of responding to difficulty with strength and virtue in the future.
Character development is more important than hedonistic pleasure. That truth, virtue, and personal growth, in the ability to overcome life’s challenges independent of substance or external aide, is more valuable than ignorance, bliss, and crutches upon sensual and psychological pleasure. Derivation of pleasure from virtue and from truth is greater than the pleasure gained from ignorance and sensory stimulation. I’m arguing the pleasure of truth, and virtue, outweighs any potential pleasure of ignorance and sensory pleasure, while drugs surely register higher dopamine, I argue, that a life in abstinence and of pursuing virtuous conduct outweighs one to the contrary, but of course, the issue becomes more complex as we balance the two, and it becomes a question under which domains is ignorance better than knowledge, under which domains should we pursue virtuous conduct or prolonged gain over immediate pleasure, etc.
It’s just hard, and by hard I mean impossible, in practical life, to prove one course of action is better than another, given our lack of foresight of all the variables and the unquantifiable nature of wellbeing, especially in relation to long possible future time branches in different action causal chains. These things are easy to philosophically reason but hard to apply in convincing others of their actual implementing. While the pursuance of meaning and the voluntary undertaking of difficulty in the pursuit of what one values, in personal growth, is accepted by all on a theoretical level as being “good” and praiseworthy”, to see it implemented in the lives of people who haven’t experientially realized the actual benefit in carrying out such activities, the change in lifestyle towards one in this direction is almost impossible to instantiate from the outside. It merely is an individual choice, a path to be undertaken by the willing participant, who opts for it himself. While we can gain inspiration, and the thought may come from outside, the undertaking of voluntary change, the adoption of responsibility and the pursuit of what one considers consciously as meaningful, is something that must be pursued from the individual of his own volition. All we can do, as contemplatives, as philosophers or psychologists, is point out the potentiality of such a path existing, and offer logical and rational explanations to its benefit, then, the individual must do more than believe in said justifications, he must test them in his own life. If they are optimal, and provide the meaning which he seeks, he will inevitably fall under the sway of such meaning seeking and carrying out. If he doesn’t find the optimal experiential evidence, he will revert to nihilism, or a less optimal pathway through life.
That which produces the totality of our dissatisfaction, which produces our suffering and our problems in life, that which is underlying any trouble we may face is an inherent desire, more specifically, a desire for things to be otherwise. What we find in comparison to our desires for things to be otherwise, in a retrospective deterministic causal explanation, is that things could not have been otherwise, in a historical sense that is. While the past is overdetermined, and we can see its solidity, desire permeates our present moment in aspiring to produce an idealized future. This desire for our present moment to be fulfilled, for our dissatisfaction and our striving to produce a state that is altogether content, and free of desire, the striving for a better mode of being, station in life, or other aims and goals, naturally occupies our minds, and can be a catalyst for change. Regardless of the nature of desire, being that it ultimately causes us dissatisfaction, sometimes that dissatisfaction is what we must be okay with in order to initiate a meaningful change in the future. It is not the suffering we must aim at removing, or the desire, it is our aversion to desire, and our aversion to fail in achieving desire.
The whole “be okay with the present moment,” seems to be an endeavor of self-preservation, a sign of weakness in escaping from the dissatisfaction inherent in attempting to create something worthwhile. It is not a sign of strength to be okay with yourself in the present, but a lack of courage in striving for a better future. While inner peace is great, and with less desires we can achieve higher degrees of it, the growth of consciousness, in understanding reality, and the pursuit of wellbeing for yourself and those you care about in the future is not a lesser good. While it may take removing unwholesome desire to be able to spend more time engaged with the things that are important to you, and that is undoubtedly a good thing, the notion that we should be okay with how things are in the present is only half of the truth. We should not be irrationally guided, or act out of anger or hate or revenge in the moment, the feeling of which will naturally arise, and we must be okay with inaction in regards to the carrying out of such phenomena, but on the flip side we should seek to foster an environment that is conducive to meaningful growth, and not settle for what is currently at hand. In this way, desire, or will, and the dissatisfaction it brings, is both a positive and a negative, and it is with practical wisdom in knowing which phenomena are worthy in pursuing, and which distract us or are a hindrance to us, that truly counts.
We must look to see both sides of all phenomena, and strive to minimize the effect of the side we rationally judge to be inconsistent with our values, while diligently pursuing the other side, yet keeping both in mind under a larger umbrella notion that they both are within us, and two sides to the same truthful reality. Wisdom is knowing how to deal with the knowledge consciously, and how to utilize it practically within our lives. Many people claim they believe something but their actions reveal their true beliefs. It is in actively pursuing in spite of dissatisfaction, not any desire which arises, but those desires aimed at what our consciously constructed interpretation of our underlying value structure deems to be most important, that we create a meaningful life. It is in the pursuit of meaning, that we find meaning, and it is in accordance with out constant dissatisfaction, our imperfection, our flaws, and our will to change, that we must learn to embody in directing our Being towards meaning. It is in their integration, and their utilization, that we best navigate life. If we do not do so consciously, the will, the desire, the dissatisfaction, will not disappear, it will merely subconsciously exist and drive our Being in the directions which our perceptual and embodied totality deems to be most important. We must guide this process consciously, towards directions which produce the most optimal results, the said direction, the aims, the results, ought to be consciously formulated and deduced rationally, rather than be the unconscious pursuits of the biological and culturally conditioned system. To pursue our own values, is to live authentically, to follow the course of a cultural and biologically guided existence is to live unauthentically, and in discordance with what truly matters to us.
How is one to escape from the suffering and consummation of one’s character inflicted by the memory and assimilation of one’s own historical malevolence and shortcomings? This question is not to be posed to those of perfect character, but being that such a thing doesn’t exist, except in the minds of the mentally diminished, we must admit of having been cursed with periods of retrospectively found evil volition, and later discovered inner peace. It need not be discussed as to the causality and manifestation of such periods, as the factors present in any individual’s life range from ignorance to misfortune, what must be addressed is how to deal with our consciousness once it is consumed by the memory of one’s own moral ineptitude, and character traits resulting from historical events which one desires to escape from.
There is an absurd feeling which emerges when one compares who one is today, with the person one was in the past, growing more absurd the bigger the gap in time. New knowledge and wisdom has taken us to this place, recognizing the suffering produced in the present moment, the flaws in our current condition, and through understanding the conditionality of such a state, we choose to rebel against the state of affairs inflicted upon our experience of the present. We wish to escape the historical antecedents causing unrest within our conscious experience. But to escape the web of causality is a logical fallacy, and attempting to do so necessarily creates cognitive dissonance at the expense of the individual’s sanity. To escape the suffering caused as a result of moral shortcomings implies a purging of moral shame and moral dread from one’s experience. This means no longer feeling remorse for one’s malevolence, and no longer fearing the result of repeating or taking part in a future unholy endeavor. This attempt to escape ones suffering from historical causes appears to be an escape from conscience, which is far from the answer to our original question, being how to cope with the inevitable suffering of falling short of one’s present ideals.
It’s clear that any advancement in one’s personal morality, both practically and abstractly, can be seen as being a result of what in Buddhism is regarded as the twin foundation stones of morality, moral shame and dread. Feeling the pangs of one’s past transgressions, recognizing the current repercussions in one’s experience and the conscious experience of suffering due to such actions, forces one into the biologically necessary position of dreading such an experience in one’s future, aiding the development of a character aiming at avoiding said moral infringements to one’s system. Being that we are discussing a system of beliefs in the ethical sphere, it’s worth noting that such a conscience is in no way universal to all, but can be judged according to universal principles. This means we may not share the current conscience, view of good and evil, which doesn’t mean that the validity of such developed systems lies in the relativity of one’s society and culture, ultimately, only apparently does.
Sam Harris’s conceptualization of universal principles which encapsulates all of mankind moving in a positive direction towards a better humanity, and away from universal suffering, gives us a good description on the structure we should be using to judge the state of one’s conscience, or in comparing multiple individuals to one another and their relation to higher shades of meaning and moral recognition. But here I digress only to state that what we are concerned with is the individual, and not the validity of his conscience, which should be analyzed and constructed through the accumulation of experience and wisdom requisite to be a man wishing to rectify his current experience with past malevolence. Thus one is necessarily in the correct state of mind to answer and proceed such inquires if he reaches the point in life where he poses the question, and sees finding its solution necessary, for the good of one’s own experience foremost, with a thought towards its influence on humanity at large.
What the courageous man wishes to embark on, is a rebellion against the constraint on one’s character and psyche imposed by a literally different person, oneself, in one’s past. The difference in the two people need not be noted, separated by time, one creates and destroys, changes, and evolves, in directions only recognized as positive or negative due to comparison in phenomenological data and subjective judgment, and this process of transfiguring is proceeding to be carried out from moment to moment. Thus one rebels against the human condition, against that absurd contradiction not between the outside world and the inside world, but between ones perceived past and ones perceived present, between what was, what is, and what could be, between the contradiction herein, and the immediately illusory belief that the same person is inhabiting all three positions.
The unrelenting drive of the psyche to push one’s consciousness to accept the validity of one’s own ability to volitionally act outside of the bounds of causality, free will, as well as believe in the permanence of a central Being (a self), serves to undermine reality, necessarily creating an absurd view of the state of our being as we perceive it. Those who have struggled to emerge from such illusions here should consider themselves blessed, as one obstacle in our pursuit is no longer an issue. The proof of such phenomena being falsehoods, is expanded upon in “The Causal Tethers Which Bind Us”. Seeing ones past as a series of acts done by another person (a previous version of the current “self”) doesn’t aide the individual upon first glance as we perceive ourselves as constant through time (albeit – an illusory view), but one should rebel against the nature of the mind to see oneself in this way to attempt to cut through the illusion, if not experientially at least abstractly. While it is necessary to experience the moral shame and dread proceeding an unjust act, as it is a necessary place in psychic growth and wisdom in producing a mind better able to act in accordance with itself, we must not allow ourselves to act from the habits formed by someone who lives in a distinctly different time in place. Rather, we should rebel against the strings which move us, and attempt to cut our ties to the character traits we consciously wish to separate ourselves from. Our suffering acts as an indicator of where to approach, where to learn, where to grow, and we should follow it, and when based on misfortune, accept it stoically, when based on our own acts, rebel.
Fight against the tendency to continue in darkness, fight against the stagnation of unrelenting conscious stability, fight for a better experience, a better life, a better humanity. We must accept that we deserve our punishment which we created for ourselves, and in rebelling against the idea that we still are the person we used to be, we become the person we have the potentiality of being. Rebel against any tendency towards a rigid conception of eternal permanence. Whether we find ourselves suffering for the misfortune of a past, or of an act of immortality sparked by the cursed nature which we inherited, whether through ignorance or awareness of rage, the suffering which we currently experience must be fought off with the aim of creating the space for the new to replace the old. The mind is consciously attempting to manifest order to combat the chaos of past experience, we must not hinder it by further pursuing dissonant thoughts, or acting in accordance with our outdated philosophy. We should strive to build upon the biological framework, the universal scaffolding, which we encounter within the present moment. To tear down the edifice, to cause a revolution of the spirit, to attempt to escape the causes which fabricates the present, is a dissociative endeavor, causing only future confusion and voluntary ignorance. Through denial of past events we serve only to fool ourselves into insanity, to accept the occurrence of the past, and work to overcome its negative effect on the present, is the task of the brave.
We must bridge the gap between the unchanging past and the changing present, and see that it is possible to accept the validity of both, while transcending them both to a higher level of conceptualization, and from there incorporate the truths we have thus far encountered. To escape one’s history is never the goal, to overcome misfortune and the evil discovered in one’s own heart is the task at hand. The emergence of the realization of one’s own malevolence is unearthed only through conscious retrospection, and is only conquered through conscious pursuit of a character in accordance with ones developed conscience. Effects of one’s own evil manifestations, such as those upon our character, and those which are experiential, such as memories, are overcome psychologically through rebelling against the principles one once stood upon, through fighting against our nature to habitually indulge in bad intentions, through pursuing a morality based on the lessons one has acquired, which is constituted by a factual interpretation of reality. Historical rebellion is combated by rebelling against the restraints, the universe which holds us attached to it.
We should fight against our biological drive to see ourselves as being the same as our experiences, and rather frame the situation realistically, in us constituting the current production of history. One should strive to extract the gold in the lessons we’ve learned while simultaneously avoiding over encumbrance by the content of memories.
We recognize the outdated version as being us, yet distinctly different, thus in our comparison we conclude the situation is patently absurd. In addition to us never being able to truly know who we are now, or understand the totality of past states of being which make up the foreground of our present experience, there is the fact of other individuals having even more ignorance of our historical being. The separation we feel within, between our old self and new self, our recognition of ignorance, coupled with the isolation we feel in reference to others, undoubtedly creates an absurd mindset. Not to mention, if this line of thought is carried out, we realize our ignorance of others to be incalculably greater than the ignorance of ourselves, which if honestly admitted, is unbearably large as it is. This puts us in a strange place mentally, but not necessarily in a situation without hope, and not within a challenge too great to not be worth rebelling against, and overcoming through wisdom itself, aided by reason, virtue, discipline, and persistence.
We ought to rebel against the constraints of determinism in confining you to a predestined path by conscious effort towards escaping the confines consciously imposed through recollection of your past character, and instead pursue the character, state of being, place in reality, which you desire and claim to be better. Do not let the chains of your past hold you down, even though they literally do, even if we know that we are permanently chained through causality, that does not mean to give up on a path to greater heights than we have experienced, nor to sacrifice our thoughts and actions toward goals we set, but rather we should accept our condition in history, and fight against our inner demons urging us to immorality or to the ruin of our current condition through complacency.
The error with duality, and with certain philosophies, specifically absurdism, is the fundamental claim that humans are somehow distinct and separate from the universe. To distinguish man, and the universe outside man, as two separate groups, conceptually, is useful and descriptive of a real situation, but it doesn’t mean that it accurately reflects a reality outside of our conceptual usage, to which, such distinction does “truly” exist. The trouble comes in making exclusionary claims about either two of the groups without depicting the role the opposite has in its functions. This distinction causes us to have a gap between the two concepts that is larger than it actually is, and is ignorant to the inclusion of man within the bounds of the universe, and the presence of the universe in man’s reality. We are most obviously rudimentary aspects of the universe, neither divine nor lowly, yet part of the whole. To distinguish the universe from ourselves is to leave out an integral part, it’s literally separating advanced biochemistry from reality as if it’s not part of the picture. Its saying that the teachings of physics don’t exist, it’s making a claim which doesn’t match up to established scientific truths and observational data.
Does it matter, to a human, if the outside universe is meaningless, when the human, himself, has found meaning or has the possibility of discovering meaning within the universe? It becomes irrelevant of the universe without him in it, as he surely is in it. Thus the distinction of absurdity in comparing the two is valid if recognizing that certain people are searching without finding, thus it is just a matter of them not looking hard enough, but it is not absurd for anyone who has discovered, or seen manifest in his consciousness, or who merely isn’t ignorant of his will to live, of a meaning within the individual’s life. The nihilist in the room is ignorant, easily cured by knowledge, introspection, abstraction, a leap of faith, or a change of perception. A pointed awareness toward the epiphenomenon of our own biology and will to live gives ground to sufficiently explaining at least one value system inherit within us.
Is it possible to escape the absurd through realizing truly real meaning in the universe? Perhaps it is not the contradiction between the humans seeking meaning and the nature of a meaningless universe that is absurd, perhaps the absurd is in the ignorance of our own selves being part of that very universe, and there being a meaningful path engraved into us biologically, paradoxically, or perhaps not so, created by this universe. Thus, if we are part of the universe, and there is a meaningful path to be taken through the passage of time that means something, perhaps only to humans or sentient beings, and morality truly exists in this sphere, without committing philosophical or physical suicide, we have stumbled onto a 4th solution that lies outside of the question. There isn’t any higher transcendental place to find the answers which we seek as most existentialist claim as they take leaps of faith. Nor is the absurd predicament a true predicament. But the universe itself holds meaning in the very fabric that gave rise to us humans. While we don’t matter to any other aspect of reality, the aspect of reality we do matter to is ourselves – and each other. Any being that can have a better or worse experience finds significant meaning within that experience, things matter to it, insofar as they have an effect on subjective experience.
Could this be the fundamental claim on which absurdism is broken? That the philosopher who compares the universe with the human, fails to recognize that the human, being a part of the universe, is in himself as much the universe itself as is anything else that is real. Thus, claiming the absurd arises when there is a human and there is a world, a world which is irrational and meaningless and a human which is rational, seeking meaning, rests on false promises, if that human has meaning within himself and which his seeking is able to find. This absolves the solutions of necessarily committing philosophical suicide, as nothing transcendental or supernatural is conceded. It is merely within the organization of one’s own consciousness that one discovers that there is meaning, it’s in one’s intentionality of our Being. Meaning, value, purpose, drives us through our desires and anticipations, our anxieties and our aims, it courses through our blood every moment of everyday, it drives us to continue living, and not only merely to survive, but to survive in a way which is optimal for us experientially. Our own subjective experience, our unconscious accumulation, our biological perceptivity, is all mediated with a purpose, it is transfused with meaning, whether we can conceptually admit to it or not. Our interpersonal relationships exist in a mode of being which is directed with meaning, it isn’t for no reason that we act the way we do, moment to moment.
The principle of sufficient reason applies to all phenomena, and that principle applied to our totality of being can reveal to us the value structure we contain, toward which we consciously and environmentally we modify, and pursue life through that modified mode of being as depicted in its total process in “Value System Instantiation”. Setting an aim to pursue, that aim being ours, and us being part of the universe which is “meaningless” (in its entirety, but not in its parts, obviously), gives us the fulfillment and purpose we have been searching for. We find meaning in the product of our actions, in consciousness intentionally directed, moment to moment, in alignment with a value structure (conscious or unconscious) – manifest in one’s relationships, in life, in experience, in subjectivity, which is part of this universe, not outside it nor transcending it, not more important than any other aspect of it, just part of it.
Albert Camus committed the universal danger of intellectual folly in pursuing absurdism with the either voluntary ignorance in the above information, or the omission of such information in his philosophical works. While his framework from absurdism, and the conclusions of rebellion and his answer to the “absurd” conundrum is all coherent and of a rationally unique philosophic spectrum, he commits the sin of omission, or ignorance, in regard to articulating the full picture in which we find ourselves. It is a great danger to any person who is brighter than normal, intellectually gifted, or extensively educated to use the enhanced power of critical thinking, reasoning, and logical coherence down a path with unstable roots, producing a product, a work of abstract conceptual explanation that is through and through coherent and revelatory, yet built on sand rather than bedrock. Thus the transient obsession of the intellect can lead one to profound experiences and insights along a path that veers away from concrete reality, beautifully explaining and rationalizing the journey in a way captivating to the intellect, yet unable to visualize one’s own digression away from truth. As the intellectually powerful yet deceived man continues an abstract journey down metaphysical pathways, explaining and rationalizing aspects of such a revelatory perception, abstracting and logically tying ethics or ontology or psychology into the mix and supporting claims with proofs and valid evidence, he invests more and more of his conscious attention, time and energy on the exposition of such realms, captivating audiences, yet, the great danger presents itself when discovered by a random onlooker. The beautiful construction was built from cards, on a bed of water, and elucidates an entire reality on which we are not part of, which doesn’t match up to the one in which we find ourselves. People have done this with religions, governments, philosophical concepts such as free will, self-hood, the list goes on and on, and the rabbit hole proceeds from false axioms. Perhaps the foundational claims or interests which springboard the philosophy into the genius’s production are based on premises that are falsifiable, perhaps the interest and discoveries prove truly unuseful, unmeaningful, to anyone except the dedicated expositor, perhaps the system is coherent if the laws of physics were different, if reality itself revealed itself through concrete evidence to contain the cornerstones of which the intellectual built off of. Yet reality doesn’t always contain that stone, and thus the exposition becomes a sham, and a convincing sham at that. Thus the danger of the intellectual, that he should lead his life in using his powers to discover nothing of value, nothing of meaning, and to falsely believe so. Thus, one should be grounded and fire a thousand bullets from every angle into any premise in which one desires to proceed from, and the analysis and criticism of one’s values should be in the periodical checklist of the person’s consciousness, to avoid pursuit down such paths, and to greater clarify and point one’s direction.
Camus’ solution to the absurd in accepting a transitory meaning without philosophically forgetting our absurd position in the universe, smiling though accepting a meaningless fate, is thus discredited if the universe is framed differently as I have just shown. It’s not necessarily wrong, it’s just not a complete picture, it is omitting an important distinction, and caveat, to the distinction made between man and the world. Framing the universe as meaningless, is a false method of framing it, as there is meaning in life which is in the universe, which makes the inclination behind the premise lead to false conclusions. Of course the whole is different than the sum of the parts, but if a part has meaning, is made of meaning, is oriented and navigates experience based on meaning, then the whole necessarily contains meaning, albeit it may solely be one part of its totality. If we say, what is the meaning of the universe? For what purpose does the universe exist? The question makes no sense, as the arbitrary category includes literally everything, the only response would be to say it exists for the purpose of Being, so that its contents can exist, the totality exists for the purpose of supporting all existence (God?), as that naturally is what we see the contents of the universe doing, existing. If we make the clearer significant distinction, what is the meaning the universe has for us? For what purpose is our individual existence existing within the totality of existing things, “the universe”? Towards what end ought we pursue within this universe we find ourselves “thrown” into? That question itself is also slightly misleading, as shown above, we already have meaning which is driving us through every moment, we have genetically coded, biologically modified, culturally and environmentally shaped, desires and conscious experience which strive to achieve satisfaction of momentarily dissatisfaction. We can easily tell moment to moment what we want, and this desire stems from an evaluation of who we have the potential to be, or what we could potentially have. It is in this constant pursuit of the future that we uncover what we value, it is in pursuing what we value that we find the meaning the “universe” has for us, we find the fulfillment and the purpose for which we strive to conceptualize in the revealing of our value structures and the pursuit of that which is important to us, that which our care is directed towards. For more information on the topic: (It’s A Wild World, The Answer to the Absurd Conundrum).
Part of the fundamental problem we have as biological beings is the gap between our values and the production of meaningful solutions to the novel situations which we encounter. We know what actions are “good” yet the situations we encounter are difficult to discern as to what constitutes the optimal pathway for us to take. Our general mode of being and manner of operating in the world is dependent upon schemas of action that are responsive (adequately or not) to the multitude of situations we encounter in our environment. These situations elicit the manifestation of a schema through our assimilating the situation to the schema, and given that each situation (each present moment) is novel, we then have to accommodate that assimilated schema to meet up with reality in a manner that works for us. If we can intelligently adapt to novel situations, our schema likewise undergoes a modification that can adequately meet the challenge of the moment. Often times these schemas, which are always significant and hold our developed values in them, aren’t adequate, and for those situations, we have the ability to consciously manifest our values, in accordance with what we know, towards the production of a viable solution. In this manner we move through successive steps, albeit miniscule ones, in the manner Jean Piaget describes as genetic epistemological advancement. It is only when we reach an equilibrium between the assimilating and accommodating functions that our operations are adequately able to intelligently adapt to novel situations. This, as a requisite, is dependent on fleshing out the value structure that makes up the framework of the actions that are schematized.
Arising of the Existential question
Existential inquiry arises in every individual once he reaches the intellectual stage of being able to abstractly contemplate the nature of his own Being. This, for most people, begins at around the age of 12-14, and continues throughout life, constantly resurfacing. With the emergence of the problem of our own Being, and our place in the world, we seek for answers. We can find many of these answers in our values, which dictate those schemas which orient us in the world, and can prove of being better or worse at providing the fulfillment we strive after in life. The more effort, time, structure, discipline, and intellect one commits to the organization of one’s life towards a meaningful path will determine the amount of progress he is able to achieve in pursuit of the things he values, and the wellbeing extracted from such pursuits. Environmental factors, genetic disposition, culture, society, education, character disposition, all are relevant factors which contribute to the individual’s pursuit of meaning, and the amount of progress he is able to make.
Necessity of philosophy in evaluation
As always, we must live first, then philosophize. But in order to maximize our potential, in the directions we desire, we must philosophize, and we all do this, to a lesser or greater degree, whether it’s made explicit and regarded as such or not. Not only do we all philosophize, we can be better or worse at doing so, and the results of our philosophy are fleshed out in the experience of our lives, in the manner we live, in our subjective experience, in our relationships, and in how we tackle the present moments arising. We must seek to orient ourselves around a value system which can lead to the most desirable future, implying and necessitating an articulate defining, organizing, and implementing of actions in alignment with what we believe to be most important. Our time management and effort must be in accordance with the system of significance we place upon the values, rather than allowing ourselves to be carried along by the river of desire without receiving the potential wellbeing available to us through psychological integration and meaning optimization. While many values are inherent, those which we most seek to manifest oftentimes succumb to the temptations of others, unconsciously. The goal here is to philosophically uncover, organize, and optimize our lives towards the pursuance of a more meaningful life.
If Value’s Aren’t Regulated
If our value system goes unregulated, and we remain unaware of its effect on our lives, we run the risk of our lives being hijacked by things which serve to promote societal and biological desires, rather than the individualized desire which fulfills us. The assent to values which are of less importance and significance than those which we consciously can uncover as promoting wellbeing and providing meaning is the error we wish to correct for, for the benefit of our own psyche, and everyone else in our expanding circle of influence.
Given the potentiality of ideological possession, and the ever growing instantiation of ethics corrupting societally provided value structures, and the cultural importance placed upon material gain, our value system is becoming more vulnerable to the effects of powers outside our control, and less effective in providing the meaningful basis for a competent, efficient, creative, and fulfillment providing life. The question we must ask is whether we want our lives to be ruled by tyranny, do we want to be the slaves to our society and to our biology, or do we want to impose our will upon the content of our own lives, and by recognizing and optimizing the content herein, form a life which represents who we truly have the potential to be? Do we want to fulfill the potential we contain at being a competent, moral, beneficial human, or do we want to be swept along on the waves of misfortune produced by external and biological influences?
Conservation of the old
We should seek orientation of that which is available rather than throwing out the old system in its entirety, this problem of shedding off the traditional spiritual underpinnings was stated by Nietzsche as that which led to the nihilism and evil present in the 20th century after the scientific worldview become dominant and, in a causal sense, necessitated the potentiality of the “Death of God”. Novel explanatory conceptualizations of values aren’t impossible, just as novel “creations” aren’t impossible in any other domain, we just have to recognize that as with anything, the new necessarily contains the old, it stems out of it, in evolution and in technology, in morality and in science. The causal link between the datum of experience and potential values we have at our disposal is a link that cannot be sundered. As the value structure necessarily gives rise to what we place an importance on and what we pursue, it is an integral process of the mode of being which underlies all manifestations in our actions and experience.
Bottom Up Understanding of the Value System
One must first identify their value structure as it is built up biologically, in its embodied form, and secondly, in the conscious articulation of how it manifests itself consciously. We have an embodied perceptive system, that is built up from our genetic material upon conception. This perception seeks, from the first moments of an organism’s life, to “digest” and “filter” incoming datum through sensory receptors, which is mediated based upon, in the first case, genetic instruction. The schematic underpinnings that dictate our ability to do so, are encoded with reflexive abilities, and have the “ability” to perceive with the “meaning” of it being valuable to the continuation of the genetic material that instantiated it.
The perceptive ability of our Being is in itself our initial evaluation system, it discerns content in relation to the significance it has to us, and directs our nervous system towards mitigating and responding to stimuli, both external and internal. Two separate mechanisms take place in this initial evaluation of stimuli, on the one hand, our perceptive system is oriented around discerning content in our perceptible environment that has significance for us, which is one manner of saying that everything “naturally” has value to us. If things didn’t have value to us, we wouldn’t focus on them, and content wouldn’t ever be discerned and arise in consciousness. On the other hand, that very perception which selects significant content in our environment for filtration occurs based on our own perceptive systems modification by our value structure.
The system of perception is modified in infanthood, and onward, through its environment, and the causal nature of that which is available to influence us. That which is available to be perceived, is filtered by what the biological system believes would be most optimal to the propagation of the genome, which is the starting point of our values, and generally what they are “subservient” to. Such imperatives hold background significance throughout life. While this is the groundwork of evaluation, in biological imperatives that imply the continuation of the survival machine towards puberty in which the organism can propagate the genetic material, the value and method towards which it achieves inbuilt biological aims is modified by the cultural, environmental, and interpersonal relations of the individual. These effects modify the value structure which modifies perceptions towards that which is useful to react to, and in such reactions, optimize the “wellbeing” or “beneficiality” of response in regard to novel situations. The biological system that is modified through life in filtrating perceptive data, is integrally tied up with our conscious experience, and its contents enter consciousness.
As we biologically intuit datum which sensory receptors “discriminate” as being useful to perceive, so too does our Being intuit which perceptions arise into conscious awareness, based on the same desire and imperatives which run towards the optimality of the organism. The contents of consciousness are in alignment with these desires, as they are modified by the environment and totality of our Being in relation to what the individual comes to understand, and believe, and intuit, or know, is the optimal aim towards which to guide himself. Whether or not it actually is, is irrelevant. What matters is that one’s values, regardless of conscious recognition or not, guide the individual’s moment to moment conscious experience, as well as his bodily reciprocity to the situation one finds oneself in in the moment. We always are operating under this basic low resolution conception of the value system, arising from the bottom up, from perception to consciousness.
Top Down Directing the Value System
Every moment is necessarily supported by an inherent biological value system, and the contents of consciousness as well as our embodied reaction to the moment are products of it. While the bottom up description explains the initial instantiation of our value system, it does little to aide us from where we’re at in top down influence. We ought to be able to give assent to our values consciously, and consciously direct ourselves towards values and aims which are our own authentic expression. What is important to you? What currently is taking up your time, mental space, and what are you currently actively pursuing? The answers to these questions may never have been made conscious, or we might not know exactly where they currently are at.
There is a concrete difference between what one’s actions show to be valuable to the individual, and what one believes to be valuable. Firstly, we wish to analyze what actually composes the individual’s life, and how it compares to what ought to compose the individual’s life. We must take an honest account of our time, and an honest account of our beliefs about what we desire to be doing, who we desire to be, where in our career we desire to be, where in our environment we desire to be, what kind of skills we wish to improve, what knowledge we would like to obtain, what character traits we would like to embody, and what psychological state we would like to have. In answering these questions as to where we currently are, we can find answers to what our unconsciously acted out belief system denotes as being our current value structure. In answering these questions as to where we would like to be, we can define what our consciously formulated value structure actually is. The gap between what is manifesting as an inherent value pursuit, and what we actually value will determine the difficulty in aligning the two. The goal, broadly speaking, is to bring the two into alignment so that our actions and time spent represents what our consciously formulated value structure is. In uncovering what is important to us, we can create a list of things we value, and in their evaluation, to the best of our ability, discover what it is that would provide us meaning.
Purpose of Uncovering Values
We must seek to uncover the values inherent in our deterministic biological nature, and in discovering their potentialities, consciously decide which we wish to embody and to which degree we wish to pursue their manifestation. The “creation” of values is necessarily a pursuit which is only possible with the addition of experience, and in fact, isn’t actually a creation. It is more a development, a modification, of inherent values imposed upon us through genetic and environmental influences. As far as our values as we find them in the moment, none can be created, but they can be altered through conscious direction towards novel experiences (all experiences). The prioritization, embodiment in actualization, and modification of what we value can be consciously directed. The derivation of meaning and importance allocated to the potentiality of value is what is “in our control”. While the values themselves are inherent, their discovery, and the systematic recalibrating of our actions and Being in alignment with them, or to modify them, is something possible to be directed consciously. The expansion of knowledge and experience exposes us to novel situations, of which we always are judging, and placing a value of importance on. This content of experience is the datum from which we have to work with in informing how to hierarchical order our values. We cannot value that which we do not know, or what hasn’t been integrated into our psyche as something holding value. This process ought to be done in a way which is optimal for you, and everyone else, now, and across time. The optimization process must be recalibrated as additional knowledge and insight into circumstantial navigation and our own nature become uncovered to us. As long as the value is in line with what is important to you, consciously, and is an accurate representation of that importance, then we can continue.
What Matters in Uncovering Our Current Value System
We necessarily find more meaning in the pursuit and attainment of the things which we consciously formulate as being of value rather than in the things which we unconsciously carry out in our daily lives (which still contain meaning and value, but they ought to become subservient to the higher goal). The reward system which manifests itself in pleasure and pride can aide the individual in determining if something is meaningful to them. If you gain a specific type of knowledge, create a specific type of art, make progress in a certain direction, and it feels good to do so, if it fills you with a sense of accomplishment, if it moves your psychological state to one of fulfillment, then it is being flagged through the reward system indicators that it is meaningful to you. That being said, every reward system flooding of the subjective experience doesn’t mean that it is a noble or consciously confirmed meaningful act, it merely can be analyzed in order to determine what consciously can be connected to something you value. If you find pleasure in food, sex, and alcohol, and the reward system floods you with a positive emotion which seeks to reinforce those stimuli, you must consciously analyze if they are in line with your value structure, if not, then they are not to be pursued in a goal oriented fashion towards the goal of a meaningful life.
If the activity is retrospectively analyzed as producing a fulfilling mode of being, as well as being in line with the consciously formulated conception of what your value system ought to be, then you can take that as datum towards something which provides meaning, and can be pursued in a goal oriented way. Pleasure and pain in this regard must be analyzed, in short, with discernment, in determining their potential for long term benefit, as well as to their usefulness and potential benefit for you, the people you care about, and the outward circles of influence with which we all are engrossed in (the chain of causality as it applies to relationships between sentient beings). This extrapolation and analysis can be carried out to a larger or shorter extent, but what is necessary before continuing on is that a number of values must be defined, even if it is rudimentary.
Prioritization Of Values
Once we have a list of values, we must hierarchically organize them in order of importance. This organization is predicated based on what we would spend the most time doing, and what would take precedence over the others in terms of effort. While philosophical articulation and elucidation may be high on my list, it always is superseded by people, in terms of family, friendships, coworkers, and any other human who needs help. In this manner, I’ve consciously chosen the value of compassion for people to supersede my most vehement interests. In this way we must organize our value system, in a way that is practical so as to be employable in our actual lives. The establishment of a hierarchy of values is crucial in future planning for how to organize time, and how to maximize the meaning and wellbeing provided to us by pursuing the values (and their distribution across our days/ lives).
Example of Value System Prioritization
The natural inclination toward hedonistic pursuits may result in overindulgence and a large amount of time loss as well as a decline in health. We may consciously and verbally state that we have a desire and find meaning in philosophical knowledge acquisition, in truth seeking and mental exploration, the pursuit of which would better serve to provide meaning in our lives than that sensual drive which could dominate the psyche. The value of power and dominance may fill the opportunity cost of pursuing competency in a skill we value. We find that our current value structure, that which is ingrained in us through society and our biology, doesn’t always serve to provide the meaning and wellbeing which we have the potential of attaining. We pursue what is less meaningful at the peril of our consciously formulated abstract belief system. We still may value the objects of sensual pleasure, and we can allocate appropriate time in their pursual and enjoyment, as well as continue to value ambition in our careers leading to a rise in our place in the dominance hierarchy, but the differentiation of the values, and assigning an appropriate role to them in our lives is here the mission.
Planning Value Pursuance
With the hierarchical organization of our values in place firmly, yet remaining open to further modification, we can then work out the envisioning of what their carrying out would look like. This is a contemplative visualization of what the embodiment, improvement, or attainment of our values ought to look like. With this in mind, we are better equipped to work towards something, and are able to consciously adapt our mode of being so as to be in line with what that visualized image appears to us to be.
Based on our contemplative image of what the embodiment of our values is, we can plan benchmark goals toward their attainment. These can be concrete material or temporal milestones, or abstract urgencies in which we seek to embody. These goals and aspirations we can separate between benchmark placeholders towards the attainment of a meta-goal, or simply as guidelines in which to follow in the progression towards the attainment of more concrete goals. This applies to character traits, virtue embodiment, career trajectory, familial planning, etc.
Habitualizing Values
We can use our ability to consciously direct ourselves to promote the advancement of values, in the form of reinforcing the actions and thoughts, the phenomena which, as manifestations of underlying modes of being, can be used in a reflexive manner to promote the underlying value. The habitualization is necessary to conscious value instantiation and reinforcement, and thus the transmogrification of our value system to that which we consciously assent to. Habitualization to those consciously assented to values has the negative tendency of reducing values which we consciously perceive as less significant, as less time and concentration is allocated to them, as certain things become more prominent in our lives, others become less. Discipline and conscious direction are used, and in turn, also gain from the positive feedback loop of their increased actualization. This adds to the advancement of our ability to consciously direct our experience toward such experiences which are more meaningful. Of course habitualization, whether consciously or not, is often enacted for other aims, and in pursuit of values which we may mistakenly lend our assent to. Experiential wisdom and conscious attentiveness to the process of change in our values and the mode of being which embodies it will serve to inform the individual whether he is on the right path or not.
The Navigation Problem
We ought to have an established image in mind of a future reality with which we look to pursue, which is in line with our hierarchically organized value system while systematically having definite goals in which to pursue towards the embodiment those values. We can then analyze how best to navigate our lives in the direction of the established system. This implies time management, dedication, distraction and entertainment reduction, effort and discipline. Morality comes into question here, and our morals, like everything else we do, will dictate our experience of life and our effect upon the world. Every decision we make can be better or worse at being “good”, if we take for our standard of “bad” the worst possible state of suffering for everyone, as Sam Harris explains in his novel the Moral landscape. In operating from a moral realist meta-ethical perspective, we hold that our actions can move the dial in one of two directions, and since we find value in our subjective experience, and presumably of those we love, those we come into contact with, and in extreme cases, all humans or sentient beings, it is essential that our morals stem from our consciously deduced evaluation system. As for a minor-ethical theory that is optimal to follow, we find that “Wisdom Ethics”, or moral particularism, is the only system that can account for the vast landscape we encounter in novel situations. Moral dread and guilt are our guide here, and our value system ought to be optimized to account for the effects our actions have on others, as it does more than impact their wellbeing, but has rational self-interested implications as well.
Moral Shame and Dread
A sense of moral shame, and moral dread, are the twin pillars in Buddhism of morality, and we can apply the concepts to shame and dread in the face of deviation from what is meaningful, so as to fuel us in the right direction. The negative emotion experienced in deviating from the optimal path we have outlined, denotes a flaw in our discipline and drive towards what is meaningful. This shame can be recalled, and transformed into a reminder of what it feels like to experience such negative self-image, and allows us to dread its reoccurrence in the future. In this way we can systematically forge our trait of discipline to be fueled by the negative reinforcing attribute of suffering when deviation occurs. In addition, the reward mechanism in pursuance of our values can be altered and consciously recognized so as to be inspiration for future discipline reinforcement, of a positive kind.
Structuring Time
How we spend our time, and the quality of that time spent, will be an integral factor towards our individual trajectory towards our goals. We can retrospectively analyze our current time usage, on a day by day, or weekly basis, in order to see which areas need to be modified, and which can altogether be cut out, reduced, or changed, to be in line with our newly established value system. The analysis of the current system and formulation of the ideal system will aide us in disciplining ourselves towards a pragmatic pathway and daily framework in which to pursue our values. While rigid order and structure of such a sort can be overwhelming and stagnating to the individual, as stated by an ancient philosopher, live first, then philosophize, we can find a medium between organizing the chaos, as well as instantiating novel conceptions towards the system we established. The discipline it takes to create a structured day, allows us the freedom to pursue what we value. Far from being rigid and entrapping of the individual, such a structured and analyzed time management plan actually enables the individual to cut out periods of the day in which he was pursuing things which he doesn’t value as highly as others and in turn replace them with things he values more.
Now such definite daily scheduling can be done to varying degrees, and is always open to re-evaluation, and to alteration by the ever spontaneously arising trials which we encounter on a regular basis. The general planning of how best we ought to manage our time gives us an idea of how we should spend the day for it to be optimal, the broadness of categories, and the designation in the day for ulterior pursuits, all can be part of the “plan”. An ulterior mode of pursuing goals and of planning for the journey to meaning can be used in a more practical prioritizing method, rather than on a concrete schedule. For example, a time expenditure modeled can be based on prioritizing interests in the hierarchically organized value system, so that each node gets touched upon at least for a short time in the day. Higher values in the system would take precedence over lower ones, and more time would be spent engaging in them. If I was engaged in progressing a lower value in the system, and some insight or issue or object which needs attention arises which is categorized in to a higher value on my list, then I would sacrifice the time in the lower for the higher.
The use of wisdom and insight into the pragmatic actualization of time management allows us to navigate how, and when, we should sacrifice values for each other, and in the ways in which we can compensate for the rectifying of time loss in a certain pursuant. Our moral system combined with the value system, combined with practical wisdom, experiential data, all are important factors towards the prioritizing of our values and the plan or framework we devise in the planning of the journey to a meaningful life. If a meaningful, fulfilling life, one of psychological wellbeing, pride in accomplishment, and beneficiality of our deeds to our own mode of being as well as to those we value, is something important to you, then the difficulty and time spent in creating an optimal path, the discipline required to stay on track, and the suffering inherent in the sacrifice of lesser values for higher values, will be surely worth it.
Instantiating a Consciously Formulated Value System
We can to a greater or lesser degree forge an abstract conception of what an optimal solution to the embodiment of our values are. The pursuing and embodying our value structure in our daily lives is meaningful in itself. The path is itself fulfilling as we are spending time and effort towards that which we most value. As a caveat, the discovery of values, creation of a list which accurately represents our optimal mode of being, and the organization of time and effort, is a difficult process, but when the groundwork is laid, and the pursuit becomes habitualized, the wellbeing supplied by such a process is worth the strain. What is a better way to live, than the way you consciously decide is the best way to live? Necessary to the continued progression in the direction of your values is the constant recalibration, updating, and optimization of the path as well as the goals.
Preservation of Value
As we spend time in embodying our value system, in instantiating it into our daily lives, in pursuing what is meaningful, we necessarily gain experiential data and feedback from the real world which we can use to modify the entire system. This is a constant process, as we gain experience, we gain in wisdom, as we gain in wisdom, how we navigate our lives, and the structure with which we abstractly create in which to navigate it, all are modified and can be improved. We should be disciplined, yet hold ourselves and our plans as fallible, we must remain determined, yet simultaneously never hold ourselves to be infallible. What we pursue, the method we use to pursue it, the knowledge gained and the application of that knowledge, must be constantly evolving, in order to better serve our wellbeing and better represent our true values. The abstract ideal values we contemplate often don’t serve the pragmatic utility we gauged them to, and the plans we make always will encounter room for optimization. This recalibration process is something the individual unconsciously undergoes as he moves through life, but here, being as we are phenomenologically analyzing our experience and existential condition, the progression and concrete conceptualization of such novel insights and experiential practicality of actions and time management can and, in my opinion (for our pursuit and journey to be optimal) be something we formulate consciously.
Care and Concern in Attention
The amount of time and concentration any content exacts from us is in exact relation to the amount of “care” or “concern” it has to the totality of our Being. Any phenomenal state that arises merely signifies its meaning to us, in some fashion or another, and we ought to manage the causal foundation from which it stems if we wish to alter our experience away from it. This can mean pursuance, integration, removal of dissonance, or reframing. One way or another, all content of experience is open to modification, and if it happens to be aversive to us, we ought to put forth effort towards its integration, and this doesn’t necessarily mean it needs to be carried out.
One manner of promoting our values is in a “negative” revelatory strategy. This requires analysis of those things which fill our consciousness, with which our attention is more prone to be consumed by, give a semblance of meaning, challenge, and desire by their very nature of our directedness towards them. These positive phenomenal states (not optimistically positive, but rather manifesting) provide a clue as to what we value. Whether it be a memory, a skill, a topic, a person, a saying, a thought or an emotion, if it is constantly arising into conscious awareness, and modifying our Being in accordance with it, it is safe to say that it is something we value, whether it is a consciously deduced value or unconsciously embodied. An undesired mental content that produces a conscious concentration despite our desire to remove it from experience, whether it’s a moment or a mode of being, or an archetypal pattern, is content that has “consumed” or “overtaken” the psyche, and it must be something we haven’t adequately overcome. If something is adequately overcome, then it is stored in the unconscious as the conquered bit of chaos which has become ordered. If something produces enough negative subjective experience in us, it is due to the value of that content being high for us. Its integration leads to the baseline of our development that we have moving forward, and while its temporal modification is still inextricably connected to us, our schematization of it allows us to accommodate novel situations to it, and simultaneously to assimilate the schema to those situations. In other words, it becomes part of our pragmatic toolkit.
Benefit of Dealing with Reoccurring Problems
By analysis of what negatively affects us, we not only progress towards the removal of accumulated problems, but we better equip ourselves, psychologically and on a neuroplasticity level, to be better able to deal with challenges that arise in the future. Thus we should seek to optimize our being towards the ability to deal with the totality of problems, through the progression of a fortified character that can do so, and we do this through the individual “problems”. Problems here are any content of subjective experience that we are aversive to, that create dissatisfaction in us, that aren’t consciously desired. Even a deficiency of a conscious desire can be seen as a problem, the rectification of which would be the overcoming either of the desire itself, or of the fulfillment of the desire. The overcoming of the unconquered and the progressing of character enables us to be wiser in our dealings with any problem in the future, and thus is well worth our time in pursuing.
Hardships in Value Pursuance
The silver lining in the case of a meaningful life, necessarily entails hardships, tribulations, unknowns, and their confrontation and conquering. Such potentialities of misfortune or loss should be clearly visualized, even in the extreme case, so that if they arrive, we can be prepared and have an idea of what it would look like to best handle them. This is encapsulated in the Stoic concept of “momento mori” or “remember death”, in which the visualization of the worst, and the ideal way in which to handle such loss is consciously clearly presented to the individual, so that he can embody the virtues and the mode of being he deems most appropriate towards the handling of such challenges while remaining faithful to the developed belief and value systems which give his life meaning. The strength of will to be supportive of family, rather than to be traumatized and a burden in time of a loss of a loved one, or in sickness and in misfortune, provide the individual and those he cares about the best version of oneself so as to aide in the alleviation of suffering. While this may not be a value inherent to everyone, and this is necessarily making a value judgment which, to me, is real and important, yet may not be uncovered as the optimal path by everyone, but as an example this type of visualization enables the individual to embody that image when or if the worst so comes. The visualization of worst case scenarios enables the individual to be the least hindered from deviation of his value system in the face of adversity, as well as provides him the opportunity for character growth despite great tragedy. Our worst fears, the suffering and the undeserving pain which befalls all of us, can be navigated so as to be a positive and beneficial experience in the progression of moral excellence. Rather than view our challenges in pursuance of our goals as a hindrance, which they are, we can simultaneously view them as stepping stones to greater competency in their navigation.
While on this journey the difficulties and tribulations which we previously forethought of may not be the only difficulties to arise, and more often than not, novel distractions and impediments to our wellbeing will constantly prove to be challenges to us in the progression of our being towards the goals which we establish in line with our value system. Seeing as expected or unexpected trials are inevitable in the pursuit of anything difficult, and what is meaningful is never easy, their emergence and handling is of utmost importance to us.
The most difficult situations are opportunities for the greatest victories in our lives. There is no sense of pride, personal growth, and inner peace, without a necessary struggle to overcome difficulty. The opportunity for virtue grows in the face of adversity. When the going gets tough it is the most difficult to do what is correct, to remain virtuous, to sustain from indulgence or resist the urge to escape from reality and what is honorable, for this reason it is in those very situations which we are afforded the greatest opportunity to overcome, and by doing so to advance our wisdom, virtues, and self-image. The pursuit of goals in accordance with the predefined value system, towards those objects of desire which may include but are not limited to skill improvement, character trait growth, psychological wellbeing, career aspirations, relationship development, all are noble and worthy goals to pursue, and in their progression all require necessary hardships.
Once we have a well-defined value system, and goals have been established with a rationalized pathway towards their attainment, we must voluntarily opt to overcome any difficulty that is a necessary prerequisite toward the achievement of the goals, and any other hindrance which diminishes the progression must be dealt with. There is a necessary distinction between the potential hardships which stand as obstacles towards goals one is not inclined to pursue, and those which are directly in the pathway towards the values which one does value. The pursuit of unnecessary difficulty for the sake of difficulty itself, may be useful towards the development of confidence and discipline, and general ability to withstand pain and suffering, but we are not urged by optimality to pursue such tasks. Here I am speaking of only those obstacles which lie directly in the path towards our pre-established values. The unnecessary waste of time and effort to do something difficult in a field which holds no value to the individual, must be tempered by the individual’s intentions and overall insight into the benefit of such pursuit. If an endeavor is not beneficial and useful, yet it is difficult, the endeavor must surely be shunned and not pursued. This isn’t to say that there isn’t potential for personal growth, just that the aim of goal attainment and the difficulty here described are of those which directly hinder one’s progress to their established goals.
In not becoming aversive to sickness, misfortune, and disagreeable situations, we can develop discipline, temperance, and the equanimity to be better equipped at handling problems in the future. It is the meaningful journey of developing morals in alignment with our values that sustains and provides the meaning in which we are looking for in life.
The skills used and gained in merely confronting difficult challenges with good intentions and a firm resolve itself is enough of a reward for opposing them. While we cannot, as a determined being, choose our fate, we can through knowledge acquisition, habit, discipline, and consistent testing, improve the deterministic precursors which manifest action in a way to conquer fate itself in every moment. The voluntary forging by fire method is undertaken by the man who wishes to improve his character while at the same time prove to himself his character is worthy of being respected. The positive subjective experience felt after attempting to overcome a difficult situation in which we are uncomfortable is naturally produced in any situation which is “foreign” to our currently developed mode of being and subsequent experiences. In other words, the confrontation and voluntary decision to attempt to overcome an unknown or challenging situation, produces an inbuilt biological reward. There is something inherent in us which seeks to discover, to explore, to expand our horizon of knowledge and understanding, and it is made into an object of which we can consciously “desire” by the subjective reinforcement of positive emotion in its acquisition. Whenever we learn something new, adapt to a novel situation, become comfortable in an area of which we previously didn’t know how to handle, whenever we travel and discover new places, gain insight into better ways to live, we always are psychologically rewarded by a positive emotion. This can be explained evolutionarily.
Encountering the Unknown
Our emotional system evolved in such a way to promote survivability and reproduction. Ledoux states that “memory is first and foremost a cellular function that facilitates survival by enabling the past to inform present or future cellular function, whether in a single-cell of multicellular organism. The same is true of much of the rest of our psychological life and its manifestations in our conscious minds.” The expansion of memory, and thus the neuronal circuitry which underlies cognitive capacity, is expanded only in the face of novel situations, which gives us good reason to believe that the brain would develop in such a way to promote the experience of overcoming novel, difficult, unknown, situations. The emotional response system signals a positive emotional state in the achievement of such actions, improving the individuals instinctive drive to pursue such interests in the future. The memory of the emotionally positive state produces by the reward system was evolutionary developed to improve the organisms desire to repeat the action, in an operant conditioned way. Currently, we can consciously recognize this ability and, in self-directed conditioned way, seek to consciously direct our behavior with the “reward” of psychological wellbeing in mind as the outcome of pursuit of the unknown.
Richard Dawkins uncovered that the survival circuit (connections between different neuronal areas of the brain) is employed by modern humans, as well as our ancestors, in the promotion of the genes goal. The “method” to which our genetic material uses in its goal of reproduction and survival is that of employing a survival machine (our bodies) to defend, feed, and work towards the goal of the genetic material. Being that we have the subjective experience of consciously directing the survival machine entails that the greater ability we contain to confront novel situations, and overcome them, the greater chance our genes have in their reproduction and survival. For our ancestors, the expansion of knowledge was directed towards the goal in ways such as environmental adaptability, threat recognition, cooperation within groups, etc. The expansion of territory in the uncovering of unknown grounds, enabled the individual to have cognitive access (whether unconsciously habitualized and reactionary, or conscious, depending on which point in development) to more food and water, shelter and habitational resources within his “known” domain, which increases the opportunity of different choices better suited to different situations. This developed improvement in knowledge of the immediate environment, its predators, and in dealing with other individuals of the same species, contributed to a better ability to navigate life so as to increase the odds of the individual surviving and reproducing. This trait in uncovering the unknown, in knowledge acquisition, and the genetic basis for the ability to learn, in general, would naturally be a trait selected for, as those less equipped mentally would necessarily have less success in navigating life towards the age of reproduction, and their genetic material would be less likely to be passed down.
Dr. Jordan Peterson explains the neuroscientific literature on the subject of exploration of the unknown in his Maps of Meaning lectures in a way which also coincides with the experiential notion we gain by pursuing the unknown. He explains that the desire to explore and the optimization of the psyche in accordance with it has been discovered to be located in the hypothalamus, which, not coincidentally, is the home of the dopaminergic system which serves as producing an experientially perceived pleasurable response to survival related activities such as eating and sex. The relatedness between the stimulation of the reward system and the biological urge to explore are inextricably connected in our hypothalamus, and give sufficient ground in explaining the benefit of physical territorial expansion, which in modern life, can be expanded to the novel exploration of the unknown both psychologically and within different fields of knowledge which are connected to our biological value system, which we here seek to make consciously explicit and to consciously direct ourselves in pursuit of. The reward of meaning pursual is thus adequately expressed in the neuroscientific literature in this way. Thus we have a philosophic, evolutionary, and psychological foundation for which to explain why pursuing challenges is not only pleasurable, in their completion, but also to why it arose in us and how it is beneficial to survival for our ancestors.
An important distinction must here be stated, that the evolutionary system that drove our ancestors to develop these cognitive attributes was directed towards survival, but now, in the current zeitgeist, we have access to the same system and its benefits with the additional stipulation that they can be acquired without the direct pursuit of survival related knowledge. People find pleasure in gaining knowledge in the study of ants, or myremecology, which surely is not in any way beneficial to our genes. The areas in which we can employ our ability to explore and confront difficulty are not limited by those which increase reproducibility of the genome. That being said, our conscious goals have likewise evolved into a myriad of different interests and pursuits, and regardless of our current value system, the basis for growth remains, and is rewarded in the same way in which uncovering distant territories, or new food sources, which worked for our ancestors.
Given the evolutionary benefit of “uncovering the unknown”, “learning”, “desire to explore”, and its subsequent physiological change to the brains relational reasoning, and thus “wisdom”, we can likewise carry on the tradition in a novel way. The acquisition of improved mental capacities, and the expansion of knowledge, evolutionarily, would necessarily entail a greater survivability, but for us, in the modern era, it can entail greater psychological wellbeing for him who is seeking growth in any given area of expertise, or character improvement, or overall wellbeing. The application of diligent striving in pursuit of a value which we have personally developed as being “important” is the necessary “meaning” which can provide us with purpose and thus psychological wellbeing as we move through life, and here we have a scientific basis for why this is so. The philosophical school of existentialism has described many methods of which we might find meaning, but here we have a combined production of evolutionary, psychological, and philosophical factors which denote the reason why pursuit of further growth towards an object with which we value, can, and does, produce the meaning with which we can hold as a mitigating factor in the question of existential dread and mitigates the suffering of existence.
Purpose and its Inextricable Link to Difficulty
The fact that such a system exists within us, rewarding us with positive emotion after attempting and specifically achieving difficult tasks, shows that we are built with a source of purpose that is tied into exploration of the unknown, as well as tied to moral duties. This is both biologically, and socially explainable, and is a major reason why virtue ethics, and the continued effort to improve one’s own character and focus on the greatest virtue one might be able to embody in the moment, is so widely accepted and implemented. This is why the stoics make sense to us, and why people choose to embody stoic philosophy in daily life. There is an intrinsic biological reward for consciously carrying down this path, and in viewing the world from a meaningful perspective expressed in the ability to act virtuous in every moment. We gain psychologically the power and embodiment of the wise old man archetype (Carl Jung), as well as reliving an individualized version of the heroes journey (Joseph Campbell). The hero goes out to enforce order upon chaos, to confront difficulty, for the good of the people. He encounters trials and tribulations, he falls down, he stands up and continues. He faces the ultimate source of tribulation, chaos embodied, which in our case is a difficulty which we do not currently known how to handle. In the persistent conscious decision to overcome, and in the victory over the “dragon”, or that which symbolizes a pressing difficult task, the individual receives the treasure, the gold, the fountain of youth, the immortal elixir, the philosophers stone. In our situation, he progresses in the direction of the area which he wishes to pursue, he gains in virtue, expertise, wisdom, or knowledge in a specific area. The hero then returns the boon to the people, he saves the world, he shares his loot with the broader society, and is hailed as a hero. We take the knowledge, the benefit, the gain acquired through difficulty, and are able to manifest the newly developed benefit in our interactions with others, in a way which is beneficial (if the goal is noble). We utilize our psyche to attempt to overcome unknown. In so doing, we organize the chaos in our lives, and we experience subjectively the greater ability to exert our power and influence on the world.
Phenomenological Analysis
The meaning seeking mode of being itself is something which can be elucidated by a phenomenological analysis, as can the mode that attempts to overcome challenges based upon these values. By understanding these modes of being, we can both understand our own nature, as well as the necessity for us to employ them. When analyzed retrospectively using a phenomenological method, the mode of being which is employed in the pursuit of meaning through opposing difficulty is marked by its intentionality, as is every noesis. The noesis here, we will denote as “difficulty opposition mode of being” which is marked by a noema which is abstractly defined as the conscious recognition of difficulty and conscious volition to confront and overcome it. The noetic characteristics here implies directionality tempered by temporality, in so far as the present moment is characterized by the pasts values directed towards future overcoming. Care or concern is uncovered as being directed upon a content which is valuable enough to be consciously assented to in its significance in overcoming. Therefore, in any matter of meaning pursuance, we ought to be embodying the values that authentically represent ourselves in our temporalized care structure.
In encountering difficulty, and embodying the mode of being which is voluntarily inclined towards its overcoming, we experience a negative emotional response in the perception of the object, but the mode of being modifies the object so it is simultaneously something which we strive toward. This noesis is more readily available the more we experience it, and we can more readily experience it through the pursuit of such difficult objectives, the positive feedback loop between the noema and noesis is strengthened. The more difficult situations we encounter, and in reciprocal fashion confront and oppose, the more the noesis is instantiated as a response to future novel unknown or difficult situations. The benefit of this mode of being is clearly seen in the individual’s reinforced psychological state in encountering difficulties in life, a benefit which necessarily entails an increase in wisdom (the ability to navigate life regardless of the situation). The secondary characteristics influenced by such a mode of being would be psychological confidence in confrontation, discipline in maintaining a value system regardless of external factors, and wellbeing produced by the meaning derived through such pursuits.
Existential Benefits of Meaning Pursuance
As we become more competent and efficient at embodying our values our ability to consciously direct our Being towards that mode of being previously described as “difficulty opposition mode of being” becomes more desired and readily available. The conscious recognition of our own carrying out of difficult tasks creates a psychological influence that lends itself to the dopaminergic strengthening of meaningful actions. As we strive on diligently in conscious pursuance of our values, we become the person we had the potential of becoming.
Of course this whole structure of biological imperative, moral imperative, will to overcome, benefit of overcoming suffering and difficulty, the meaning inherit in all these claims that arises from the nature of our being, the nature of the universe, is arising within a universe that ultimately that has no meaning in itself. It is only due to our being humans, due to us arising as beings that have the biological inclination to transform our experience into one in which meaning exists explicitly for us, albeit for the transient lengths of our short lives, that enables us to uncover the meaning which we always contained, and continue to contain as a potentiality. The meaning created in this meaningless framework truly does matter, yet only to us, as the experience of pleasure and pain in sentient beings is the necessary precondition for meaning and morality. The modification of our subjective experience through the pursuit of overcoming difficulty is one that isn’t a zero sum, we have more to gain from it than to lose. The time, effort, diligence, in pursuit of a value which is important to us, fills us with meaning, and entices us to strive on through this life filled with the slangs and arrows of misfortune.
All humans follow a philosophical existentialist doctrine, whether or not they recognizing or fully become conscious of it. It isn’t a necessary precondition to meaning seeking to recognize the absurdity, or meaninglessness of existence. One doesn’t have to be interested in formal philosophy, to follow a philosophically analyzable lifestyle, and the same applies to our pursuit of meaning. I think humans are hardwired to seek meaning, and to follow it, whether it is the will to survive and preserve the organism, or protect one’s family, or pursue success, everyone unknowingly follows a meaningful path that exists in an un-meaningful world. Thus, anyone who hasn’t killed themselves, has essentially followed some source of meaning and purpose whether they consciously know or accept that fact. Even the staunchest nihilist is a hypocrite in this regard, they are still breathing, they find some meaning in being alive, even in the worst case if it solely is the biological imperative, their being, the totality of the individual, has found some meaning in this existence. Solely stating that life has no meaning, and that meaning is un-findable, doesn’t make it true. Ones actions say otherwise. From an objective perspective, life has no meaning, in its particulars or in its totality, but all life has convinced itself, at least at the lowest level, evolved, so that it believes, or acts out the belief, that there is some reason to live. Life keeps on living, regardless of its meaningless place in the continuity of the world. Thus, all life, that is, somehow, miraculously, still alive, has a meaning in reference to itself that is sustaining its life. Whether this is consciously conceptualized, or not, it exists in all life that is not attempting to annihilate itself.
A rock thrown across the yard has no objective purpose to continue moving in that direction it was thrown, and will keep moving till it reaches its destination, it is simply the laws of physics at work, and if the rock was conscious of its own existence, and became aware of the physics moving it across the yard, and the inability for things to be otherwise, whether his thought mattered objectively or not, he could consciously believe that following that path he is on inevitably matters, revolt against the nihilistic tendency of reality, be happy with his situation and find a transitory purpose in moving to that determined location. This understanding, acceptance, consciousness, and transitory meaning I believe to be truer to reality as well as more psychologically beneficial than holding the belief that one has the “power” to move out of the laws of physics governing the situation inevitably. This revolt against meaningless, and the acceptance of a transitory meaning within this world where death is a given, is the solution of absurdism given by Camus.
We are the rock thrown. We can realize that the universe is at work, that we are part of it all, we are just an aspect of the physics of all nature, becoming conscious of ourselves, and while we can see that from an objective, external source, our lives have no meaning, as they are positioned in a meaningless world, we can accept our condition, smile at the absurdity, accept it, and revolt against the meaninglessness by creating or following values we ultimately know to be valueless, outside of ourselves and other life. Life is the criteria for meaning.
Some conclusionary states that a human may find themselves in, in regards to meaning are: 1) consciously finding the meaning inherit in the physics which created our biology which makes up the fundamental levels of our psyche which pushes us to survive, or 2) unconsciously following that meaning, or a meaning, without realizing it, one way or another staying alive or 3) while following that biological, psychologically inherit deterministic meaning, also become conscious of the absurdity, that meaning itself, and then create a further abstract ideology, morality, or system of meaning in addition to that which is naturally within all life, additionally in all human life, etc., 4) be unaware of our place in the universe, unaware of absurdity, yet consciously create a structure of meaning to be fulfilled in the world, or have a psychologically more pleasant experience through various sources such as the adoption of responsibility or pursuing something your psyche/culture/influences has deemed important or meaningful.
Proposition 1) It is possible to believe that every moment in your subjective experience has meaning, every thought you experience, word you say, action you take has meaning. It’s possible to do this because these things all become prior causes with future effects. Thus you are impacting the future. The problem comes when objectively stating that this impact matters at all, is good or bad. This in turn, depends on the perspective, or lack of perspective, taken. When examined from a life-form, proposition 1 matters in its ability to affect the subjective experience of the being, for better or worse, in the present or in the future. Thus, where there is life, there is an importance to one’s action, from the perspective of that life which can be affected. But from the perspective of the universe, or from the inanimate, the nonliving, from reality as a whole, or as a collective of all its constituents, there is no meaning, as there is no reference, no individual, no experience, no consciousness, no suffering and pleasure, no better or worse state, thus no importance, no good or bad in proposition 1 “Answer to the Absurdist Conundrum”. Thus, being that we are life, and being that we want a beneficial experience, and recognizing there is other life, and other people are able to have better or worse experiences, better or worse conscious states, we are able to 1) act out unconsciously a (biologically/socially/culturally reinforced) system of ethics, 2) consciously adopt someone else’s or some organizations, system of thought or ethics, etc. or 3) consciously reason out a reasoned philosophical system of ethics, and develop morality, with a spectrum of integrity and thoroughness, and a range of influences and factors, yet consciously compiled.
Once consciously considered, one may ask how do I most honestly articulate where this morality comes from? I propose, through phenomenological means, or introspection, and the primacy of subjective data given through our experience, including; meditation, mindfulness, contemplation, philosophizing in general, studying other philosophers work, talking to others, wisdom gained from experience, etc. Maybe one asks, what are the basic constituents that must come into being to create morality? I propose that this is best articulated as morality comes into place once we take into account our own situation, of being alive, and our own conscious states (self-interest – in either its rational or irrational forms), and the existence of other life forms in a similar situation. It’s absurd to consider that a nonliving object would take on a moral code or act morally. As for itself, and for everything outside itself, from its perspective, the possibility of better or worse situations is nil. Life itself implies meaning, and the existence of life outside oneself logically produces morality, that is, at least from my perspective, as I believe other life has consciousness and an experience similar to mine, therefore better and worse states, therefore my actions truly matter in that they affect other life form’s experience.
If you reject the claim that any other being has consciousness, an experience, or that that experience can be better or worse in some way or another (solipsism), then you reject morality and our ability of effecting others. A question arose to me in considering this, could morality exist in this type of universe? You cannot deny that your own conscious has better or worse states, “Basic Moral Realism”, and perhaps morality, stripped of external meaning, stripped of belief in other beings’ consciousness, can at its base find morality, good and bad, in how thoughts/speech/actions are proceeding effects that are produced within itself, producing better or worse states. In this way it’s possible to produce a morality only concerned with oneself, placing good and bad value on what is better or worse for yourself, in terms of suffering and wellbeing. This value judgment exists upon the spectrum of what one considers is better for oneself, in one’s hierarchical value structure, it could be; hedonistic pleasure, usefulness, growing towards truth, etc. As philosophical positions and focuses can vary, their ethical systems naturally express the ideas behind each respectively. This says nothing about different philosophies and their overall ranking in a hierarchy which we ourselves create, or, to confuse the subject one last time, says nothing about the meaningless of every philosophy as it relates to a non-living phenomenon, including the universe or reality or time, themselves.
Since I was young I have been saying “it’s a crazy world” in that the unexpected, the irrational, the unknown, always seems find a way of manifesting itself when we least expect it. A couple years ago I re(discovered) the song “wild world” by Cat Steven’s, which deeply resonated with me, and expressed a similar sentiment to that phrase which I had repeated over the course of my life. It seems like in times when reality appears to contradict itself, when what I never thought to be true, suddenly appears to actually be true, in times of revelation, and understanding, in rational conceptualization, insight of the nature of the world, in discoveries such as determinism, the lack of a soul, the lack of inherit meaning in the world, with insight into the vastness of the universe, and the minuteness of finite human life, of the unimportance within us, yet the ability to change so much; I state that it’s a crazy world, expressing my amazement with the irrational, seemingly contradictory, aspects of the true nature of things. I realized just now this was an intimation of the philosophical term, the absurd, and the feeling, and thought, that accompanied such circumstances that merit the utterance or thought of, “it’s a crazy world”, is what Camus called the feeling of the absurd.
The Absurd is a description of the situation that arises between a human and the universe, it requires both, it is, in its essence, reality, yet it is in recognizing realities strange dualistic nature, its absurd qualities, the conflict between characteristics of the world, and characteristics which humans possess, that constitutes “the absurd”. For example, the universe is meaningless, purposeless, just a determinate web of cause and effect, with no intrinsic objective morality, nor any meaning or purpose. Yet humans run around their whole lives searching for meaning, or believing in a meaning which doesn’t exist outside of their belief in it. This is the absurd. The search for meaning where it doesn’t exist is absurd. It is contradictory, irrational, yet, it really exists, and we all are engulfed in it. If you were to learn of a man who is spending his entire life counting the grains on the beach, and he is content doing so and finds profound beauty in the act, and feels it is meaningful, your response would be that it is absurd. This is, in effect, what all of us do every day. We feel as if our actions first are produced by us (freewill), second as if they are meaningful and matter, yet, in the grand scheme of things, both these conceptions are starkly not true. Even when someone has this insight, they continue doing the same things, living in the same manner, due to the habitual and various other factors involved. This is truly the absurd.
When faced with the absurd, philosophers such as Camus and Kierkegaard both devised strategies, to how one should deal with the absurd, once it is realized, and contemplated. One is suicide, an attempt to negate the absurd reality, to end what doesn’t matter anyway. To escape the pointless suffering of human existence. Of course, this solution isn’t any way in which to live, it’s clearly a way only to die, yet it is a way to react to the realization, but from the perspective of the universe, it merely is another effect, with a cause. It is neither good or bad, just an event. Camus points out it actually makes the whole situation more absurd.
The second solution purported is the general existentialist point of view, which Kierkegaard urged us towards, to create your own meaning, or to act on faith in following an arbitrarily man made meaning, believe in an idea, a moral, a transcendental reality, supernatural phenomena, god, religion, etc. Create your own morality, philosophical structure, in something which is outside, above, or more encompassing than the absurd, thus creating meaning, and a path to follow. Once you have found or created the meaning, you no longer believe the universe is meaningless, you have past that, you have taken a leap of faith, a leap beyond the originally noted fact of the unimportance of our actions from the universal standpoint. This is what Camus calls philosophical suicide, as opposed to the first option, physical suicide. In essence, by supposing something that transcends the absurd you are removing your awareness of the absurd, as if what is rational and true to this reality isn’t important if there is a higher reality. This view replaces a recognition of the absurd, with the belief that what one has created (the meaning) is the true reality, which it can be, for you, subjectively, but never objectively, and that is the aspect which most existentialists fail to realize. This option is only valid if you wish to sacrifice reason, logic, and a valid, untheoretical, un faith based, understanding of reality, for something which makes you feel better, solving existential dread, solving the problem of the finitude of human life, solving death, solving the search for meaning we all experience. It is the easy way out. It is the belief in God at the sacrifice of reason. It is, in a way, a rational leap of faith, in that the leaping will make you better, whether the landing place is real or imaginary, your life will be happier, and the suffering of the realization of the absurd is suppressed by the higher ideal.
The third solution is Camus’ choice, the acceptance of the absurd, yet the continued searching for truth and meaning within its structure. It is the rational understanding of the absurdity of existence, coupled with the human ability and perseverance to discover meaning and truth, to continue on without laying yourself sacrifice to what you “wish to be true”, accepting what you know to be true, and moving onward. People say this means rejecting morality, but it is possible to strive onwards while upholding a temporary morality which best fits reality as to your current understanding dictates, without believing it to be infallible, permanent, or all pervading.
I think there is room for expansion in this final solution, in that we can discovery that there is a meaningful, best way to live, science can help show us this, the road that leads to the best human life, this is what objective moralist regard as the movement away from the worst possible misery for everyone, i.e. moral realism. (Basic Moral Realism) Any step away from that would be morally correct, if we accept the axiom that the worst suffering for everyone is itself something that is true in the context of morality. From the absurd perspective, this axiom is valid only within the individuals, human conception of morality, which itself doesn’t hold ground on a universal scale. Since we’re recognizing reality, and the absurdity of it, the coupling of these ideas necessarily entails the conceptual understanding, and for success, acceptance, of the fact the universe is purposeless through and through. But, since we are human, and are alive, we must recognize morality, since we fall under its sway in our actual experience, yet we cannot escape the broader domain of the universes “point of view”. So it is possible to recognize absurdity, the absence of morality, and meaning in the universe from a perspective that is anything but life itself.
Since we are human, we are life, not philosophical abstraction, we must operate under the purview of some morality whether known or unknown. Something within us forms a conscience whether we like it or not, this is actually, part of the absurd itself. Our conscience dictates our conceptions of right and wrong and is alterable due to influence. Even if we conceptually fall into the sway of a philosophical doctrine such as nihilism, within the absurd framework, this holds only as a conceptual framework. It is a word game that never represents a human life, as one can think there is no right and wrong, good and bad, you can’t escape determinism, and each moment will prove to any observer what you (as a living organism) believes to be right or wrong, based on your action. There is an inbuilt biological value system within any life system, whether known or unknown to the organism, we know this because we choose to focus and pursue certain things, and not others. We contain, as part of our being, a perceptual filtration system, which is strained through the developed (both genetically and learned) value system, which, produces our conscious experience “Universal Existentialism“. We pay attention to certain things, spend time with certain people, participate in certain activities. This is a product of evolution, culture, genetics, environment, an amalgam of all life experiences leading up to the present moment, including consciousness itself. The conscious awareness of suicidal tendencies is somewhat of an issue philosophically in how it fits into this picture, but it does have a rational deterministic path towards its fruition, no matter how irrational and contradictory to inert value systems it appears to be. This is obviously quite absurd.
All things considered, where life is, morality is always there, as morality contains human action, and humans always act, every moment, where humans are acting, there is an experience, this experience can be better or worse, subjectively. If there can be better or worse subjective experiences, better or worse methods of navigating life to produce an optimal mode of Being to the individual, than there necessarily are better or worse methods towards that aim. Within this bracketing of human life, in this way, we can determine meaningful solutions. Outside of the bracket, these meaningful actions, pursuits, and their accomplishment or not, merely are null in meaning. This is the absurd contradiction we must face and work within. In this way we all have a philosophy, including a morality, including a world view, including beliefs, this is all real, and unavoidable in any life, while outside of subjective experience, from an objective point of view, there is no meaning or purpose to this process, it merely is. I think recognizing the absurd necessarily requires a divorce from this type of subjective purpose perspective and the acceptance of the consequences of an objective answer to purpose, but it is absurd to think it’s possible for a conscious entity to lose that subjective perspective entirely. It truly is absurd that it exists at all. The solution, from my perspective, which, obviously isn’t universal, is in rebelling against the contradiction we find ourselves in, and in pursuing meaning in our bracketed universe regardless of the overarching evaluation. For a critique of Camus’ perspective see – “Critique of Absurdism“.
Whether the universe cares or not, (which it doesn’t!), we care, our Being is defined by the care in which we use to navigate our experience. We like positive states of consciousness, produced by what we value, or find meaningful, this doesn’t mean it actually has meaning, or that we’re fooling ourselves, but in pursuing these things, with a recognition of the absurd, we are rebelling against nature, rebelling against reality and choosing our own way, despite it, yet, within it. This is the option I believe we ought to choose, because any other pathway, would either result in a terrible experience, psychological suffering, or in some form of deception, rather its deceiving ourselves into thinking something is true that isn’t, existentialism, or in believing that nothing, not even from our own perspective, has any meaningful significance, nihilism (it does, to us). While this method appears as the only option left for the truth valuing and life affirming individual, it still must be recognized in its ultimate fallibility, it is the best option which currently makes sense; my morality, understanding, intelligence, reason, beliefs, knowledge, wisdom, are all subject to change, it is my mission, my arbitrary meaning, in a meaningless universe, to improve them, because, I will not sacrifice the greatest aspects of which make me human; reason, mindfulness, the present moment, under another human’s supernatural ideas. I won’t sacrifice the highest form of life currently known, human life, the human brain, in believing in an imaginary reality outside or after the one I’m embedded in. I won’t sacrifice my search for truth for an untruth and a pleasant life, I’ll push the capabilities of this brain to develop in a way which I deem to be good, which is itself arbitrary, and knowingly so, but it is personally the only road I see left after the others have burned away. It is the only path standing, the path to truth, wisdom, knowledge, understanding, virtue, within a meaningless universe. The whole endeavor of my life may be meaningless, but it means something to me, and it means something to my family and those who know me. For them, for all humans, we make this endeavor, to aim for the stars while staying grounded.
When something is no longer useful, it ceases being used. When something becomes known as being more useful, it necessarily will replace the outdated version for those who contain that knowledge. The trickle-down effect of stolen intellectual property extends into the realm of ideas, and the beneficiality and believability of belief structures becomes itself reinvigorated by more novel conceptualizations which pose a higher probability of being truthful, beneficial, or useful. Unfortunately, people still continue to adhere to ancient dogma, in spite of modern evidence to the contrary, as the value of believing in supernatural, and outdated claims – as far as psychological wellbeing is concerned – is perceived as more beneficial than the alternative by its adherents. In these cases, the belief is supported by the utility, and the internal logic within the religious system, as in between its beliefs, outweighs the potential shift which would require multiple belief changes to create a worldview free of dissonance, based not on the perceived usefulness but on the practical truthfulness.
This applies to social constructions as well as technology. Language, a human social constructions, constantly changes as old words become dated and no longer useful, and new ones becomes more useful. Ancient religions die out because they no longer are believable and lose the utility they once had (Greek mythology). A large number of former adherents to the world’s supernatural based belief structures, from the modern religions, aren’t merely becoming pagans, or converting to other religious systems, but are actively losing the belief in the things they once had, due to the overwhelming evidence which overturns the central tenants of such religious, and the ability for people to believe in a religious worldview, despite its usefulness, is becoming more and more difficult to do as scientific rationale is becoming more widespread. The integration of rational, logical, and experimentally verified knowledge naturally creates a problem for religions, as their truth-claims do not align with the modern understanding of verifiable phenomena, nor do they contain the required proof and logical cohesion between truth claims to which we have evidence to the contrary for.
It is the socially constructed beliefs, opinions, philosophies, religions, and ideas that are not grounded in evidence based claims that are more susceptible to being changed, disregarded, or replaced by more accurate ideologies once the social constructions lose its value in usefulness, through it no longer being believable by the advent of scientific knowledge, which, with the loss of belief, (often against our will) also necessarily makes it not useful. Scientific materialism in the modern age is one of the driving causes to all metaphysical beliefs founded on supernatural claims to come under scrutiny as more rational explanations are swaying the minds of the people and thus losing their beneficial use in society, for which they were originally created.
Nietzsche is often associated with being a nihilist, but his position is much sincerer, he warns us against the potentiality of slipping into nihilism as supernatural belief structures begin to crumble under modern knowledge. Many Nietzscheans misinterpret his writings by their unwarranted pride in “killing God”, in their lack of nuanced version of will to power, in the over stimulation of the ego at the exception of the higher parts of the psyche. They disregard others, undermine the beliefs of others, and unwisely handle the opinions and beliefs of others. This gives Nietzsche, and his genius, a bad reputation, through his unvirtuous adherents who are merely misinterpreting the notions which he sought to warn us against. The death of God isn’t championed by Nietzsche, he doesn’t think it is a good thing, he thinks the implications will be a lot more complicated than we initially intuited, and we need to fortify ourselves against the potential evil that would fill the void where ancient belief once stood. This evil, in the absence of traditional religious values, reared its head most prominently in Soviet Russia, in Communist China, and Communist Cambodia. As the people disregarded the traditional values that developed over thousands of years and provided a moral basis and cohesive structure for which to turn, they turned their heads to Nationalism, and were swayed by propaganda in the form of ideological possession by men who capitalized on the weakness which ensued the Death of God. This ideological takeover of the masses is a problem which we still are dealing with, as people still promote the Marxist ideal utopia, which, founded on seemingly good intentions, we have already seen the results of it imposed in experimental capacity and concluded in the mass genocide of millions of people.
The fortification of a value and moral system grounded upon secular beliefs, in Objective morality based upon wellbeing and Suffering, rather than commandment and ancient texts interpreting the will of God, will be our saving grace. Rational moral improvement, based on a foundation that is experientially verifiable, and philosophically coherent, enables people to have rational grounds from which to practice good-will, to avoid ideological possession, and to safeguard our societies against those who wish to capitalize on the psychological weakness which follows from a progressively nihilistic worldview.
With the absence of an objective purpose, from which we have derived meaning from for thousands of years, our societies simply do not know how to psychologically cope. Existentialists have undertaken this task, in their attempts to rectify human psychological wellbeing with the instantiation of a new purpose, but their influence has fallen mostly on deaf ears. The value of philosophy in the modern age is itself underappreciated and mostly unutilized, as pharmacological solutions to psychological suffering places a band aid on our open wounds. “God is dead, and we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us?” To me the question isn’t of who, as I believe it is our own responsibility to wipe the blood of ourselves, the question is how? How do we clean up our lives, trash the clothes now covered in blood, and forge new ones out of the scraps that remain? We ought to pursue evermore diligently this question now that what is most at stake is the quality of our experience devoid of a “higher power”, which is quite overwhelming to most, and I argue, we do this through secular meaning and purpose.
We must accept the truth of absurdism, that we find ourselves seeking meaning in an altogether meaningless world, and are overwhelmed by the absurd contradiction that arises in that recognition. We accept the truth of the matter, yet choose to rebel against the meaninglessness of existence through the creative pursuit of individual values. The development of a resilient, brave, altogether virtuous character, the seeking of truth despite the costs, the uncovering of a value system not based on dogma, but based on individual interests and importance. There are sources of meaning from which we can uncover that drive us regardless of our beliefs, and we truly have better reason than “God” in which to pursue morality, such as wellbeing and reduction of suffering, and we truly have available to us a more meaningful system, not based on dogmatic truth claims that are spoken as infallible supernatural wish-fulfillments, such as heaven, but rather meaning grounded on the value and importance of content within this life. While this is easier said than done, as noted by Nietzsche, and as fleshed out by the horrors of the twentieth century, it still remains a potentiality. While many people slip into nihilistic despair, and lack a purpose and thus additional psychological suffering arises in the minds of the once devout minds, the people lose hope and virtue sees a decline.
Where I see the actuality of weakness, of virtue being disregarded, of psychological suffering increasing while physical and technological growth ensues, I also see the hope for us to look inwardly, find meaning and continue living and improving ethically. While the blood has surely stained us and the shame and confusion of performing such a heinous act surely takes its toll, the responsibility we have to ourselves to rectify the situation, the responsibility we have towards the improvement of our own experience, is placed on our shoulders. We must become Atlas, and Atlas must never shrug! As Nietzsche said, “Better no god, better to produce destiny on one’s own account, better to be a fool, better to be God oneself!” While many believe that the continuance of their evidence lacking and science disproving beliefs give them comfort and security in which their absence would fail to supply, they may be right, but for him who is courageous and brave he can find the strength to carry through valiantly a life based on rationality, on meaning which comes from his own wellbeing, and the wellbeing of others he cares about. Albert Camus gives us the ultimate rationale which we must adopt to face this Brave New World in which Huxley warned us and is coming to fruition, “The struggle towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” It is that pursual of meaning in a meaningless situation which we must rectify through acceptance of the conditionality and determinacy of the truth of our predicament, and through the struggle towards the heights, find the psychological wellbeing that we naturally thirst for.
The universe is mostly empty space, as far as material things (not atomically or energy wise), it is filled with stars and galaxies made up of certain elements we have discovered. To be a human, on this planet, a rational conscious animal, on a giant rock, and currently living in the present, is such an improbably situation to find oneself in, especially in today’s day and age in comparison to any previous epoch. In a universe filled with inorganic non conscious materials, here I am, aware of a piece of it, among other humans like me. It’s absurd the miraculous nature of life, even existing in the universe, not to mention human life, able to consciously observe itself existing. We are all existing here, surviving, as such a small part of the entire universe. This gives me a sense of wonder and makes me think, why be agitated and filled with unwholesome desire, greed, lust hate, or ill will? It’s a miracle to be alive, why spend it unhappily, causing others to experience suffering? For what? To fulfill a desire ingrained into us by evolution, while ignoring our capabilities to rise above these sensual desires, these petty wants? Evolution has equipped us with the ability to not act in response to every stimulus, but to choose what we do, and don’t. The implications on our experience are clear, we can have better or worse experiences, and can influence other’s experience, so, if we care at all about suffering and wellbeing, which we do (admittedly or not), we ought to work away from the former and towards the later.
There is an extremely small amount of time I have to be aware of this universe, to experience it, to understand it. I will try to spend my time in the present moment, where everything truly exists outside the bounds of illusion and ignorance. I will attempt to not get lost in the evolutionary animal nature that fights against me, in a man-made illusion, living for the sake of money, reputation, or fame. I would prefer to experience this life to the greatest extent that I can, in the best way possible, and help others to do the same, over constantly running after an unguaranteed happiness through fame, power, riches or momentary sensual pleasures, that ultimately will be lost. You can spend a lifetime seeking these things, and either never achieve them, or achieve them and realize that inner peace and reality existed in the present moment the whole time.
Life is precious, and amazing, and we have it, for a short amount of time, and it goes quickly. Live this life fully, the right way, or be filled with regrets and miss the only chance you will ever have to experience something real. A sense of wonder, gratefulness, amazement, in this life, human life in general, in this universe, and this present moment. Love is the greatest feeling on Earth, and our ability to experience it, and to manifest it in our actions, justifies any suffering we may undergo. Understanding the truth, and the reality which we find ourselves thrown into, enables this astonishing perspective of how beautiful everything in existence is. Over the period of recorded human history, many have put in the effort towards the great task of understanding, and conceptualizing reality, in finding the truth. This includes philosophers, religious contemplatives, scientists, in short; thinkers. They have come up with explanations, perspectives, views, proofs, and ideas, of which someone who hasn’t put in the great effort and critical thinking could ever come up with. I devote my life to following in this tradition, to being a seeker, to seek the truth. These writings are part of what I found.
Seek Truth 