meaning

The experience machine and Jung’s symbolic attitude

I heard from one of my lecturers at Wits recently about a book called Better never to have been: the harm of coming into existence, written by a local lad, Professor David Benatar, HOD of the philosophy department at the University of Cape Town. As the title suggests Benatar proposes that it is far better never to be born; that one is irreparably harmed by coming into existence. The two arguments that Benatar offers for this view are: 1.By bringing someone...

April 25, 2012
By Philosophically, Symbols, , 0 Comments
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What Makes Life Meaningful?

This post is a brief look at what creates meaning in our lives. And a list of a few of the containers in which the gift of meaning is to be found. To watch this post as a video click here . Meaning is not the province of reason, it is an irrational phenomenon. We cannot arrive at meaning (in the sense we use the word here) through a process of logical deduction. Meaning is not quantative, it cannot be measured using...

October 25, 2010
By Living Meaningfully, Philosophically0 Comments
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What would Charles Darwin say about Satori?

This is the problem, as I see it, the Evolutionary Imperative, famously discovered by Darwin, which discovery ranks amongst the greatest ever (!), in the history of science, presents a problem for any form of Utopian Ideology. I quote Charles Linderman, mob boss, healer and co-founder of the Company, in the Graphic Novel (and now TV series), Heroes, in his conversation with Nathan Petrelli. “You see, I think there comes a time when a man has to ask...

May 7, 2010
By Living Meaningfully, Philosophically, 1 Comment
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What is the Meaning of Life?

This, my friends and only companions, is the question. In true paradoxical style it is both the most important and stupidest of all questions. And it is a question readily dismissed as meaningless by the bourgeois. Except possibly by some real dimwits who are simply too naive to realise how stupid (and dangerous) the question is. Stupid- because naturally there is no answer, or at least no definitive answer. The question is nonsense, at least in the rational sense. We may...

May 7, 2010
By Living Meaningfully, Philosophically0 Comments
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