[MD] The meaning of "meaning".

[Steven Peterson]

> Steven said:
> ...obviously I wasn't referring to the meaning of the word "life." I was discussing the meaning of life. In pragmatic terms "what does life mean?" cashes out to "how is life used?" Obviously,life is used in lots of ways. Some good and some bad. The intent of someone asking the original question is then likely more clearly stated as "how ought life be used so as to be a good life?" That is, unless someone presupposes that life has some externally imposed purpose in which case the question amounts to "why was life created?", but that is a question that anyone who does not believe in a great nonhuman power with intents and purposes does not have.
>
> dmb says:
> Well, no. If you check the archives you'll see that you had posed a more specific question about the meaning of "meaning"....[blah, blah, blah]...

Steve:
Perhaps, but this was a response to Craig rather than to you, you
narcissistic asshole.

Why does every conversation you have on this discussion group always
turn into an argument about what the hell it was you were arguing
about? I think it is because your worst fear about yourself is
actually true. You really are an intellectual fraud.


> Steve said:
> Obviously there is a boot strap problem with humanity thought of as sustaining its own value, but note the inherent problem with the notion that the value of human life can only come from something non-human. By attempting to ground human worth in a God, one has to start by devaluing the worth of humanity as incapable of sustaining its own value. (There is also the problem of regress or the same bootstrap problem in the question of the value of God.)
>
>
> dmb says:
> Who said being precedes essence? I think Sartre formulated it that way and it means, basically, that there is no inherent or pre-existing meaning to which we must submit but rather meaning is created in the process of living. We see the same sort of thing in Nietzsche, wherein the death of God forces a revaluation of all values or in Dostoyevsky dark and pithy lament, "without God all things are permitted" (or something like that). I mean, at this point in history we find ourselves...[blah, blah, blah]...

Steve:
Jeez, why can't you just say "point taken"?