Does Life Make Sense?
Does Life Make Sense?
Five philosophers offer their opinions.
We asked young people what their most burning philosophical questions are. In order to answer them, we went and asked some of today’s leading thinkers.
The world often seems to make no sense and has been getting more and more scary. How is anyone supposed to make sense of life?
- Lloyd, 27
James Tartaglia, Keele University, UK
The traditional route to making sense of life is philosophy. When you’ve improved your philosophical understanding, I’m afraid it won’t make the world less scary – superpowers will still be facing off against each other with nuclear weapons. But if enough people learn to think philosophically about human existence, the world might start to make more sense and become less scary.
Stephen Stern, Gettysburg College
Perhaps we make little sense of life, at least not philosophically. We create our worlds and live with the consequences of our creations/choices. Humans have no last sense of creation. We create life together. A philosophical sense of life has little to do with it. In fact, thinking we may sum up life in a philosophical sense may lead one away from creative living. Life isn’t abstract, but sometimes intentionally abstracting aspects of life may give us perspective on parts of life and inform better creating. Philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel said: the question isn’t “to be or not to be, but how to be.”
Lewis Coyne, author of Hans Jonas: Life, Technology and the Horizons of Responsibility
It might be some consolation to know that what you're feeling isn't new to today: at many points throughout history, when a society or civilization was experiencing rupture, people have felt old certainties crumble away. This can be very unsettling - but it can also be an impetus to question what you thought was correct and see if the truth lies elsewhere. Studying some great philosophical, religious, and literary works from across the world and throughout history might provide you with it. At the very least, you'll gain a new perspective on the human condition, which could make you feel more at peace with the world.
Steven Gimbel, Gettysburg College
There are plenty of things in the world to be concerned about right now, from health worries during a pandemic to ecological concerns in a time of global warming to political threats with rising hatred. If you are scared, it means you are paying attention. The ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles argued that reality oscillates between order and chaos. Sociologist Pitrim Sorokin argued that society oscillates between the spiritual and the material. The fact that there is so much to be concerned about can seem overwhelming, but we might be able to make sense of it through a wider sense of history and an understanding of patterns of human behavior. Why did this threat pop up now? What is behind it? Explaining it might not make it less scary--and less in need of people working for positive change--but it might strategies to improve the world more effective.
Grant Maxwell, author of Integration and Difference: Constructing a Mythical Dialectic
We seem to be in the midst of a kind of multigenerational shamanic death-and-rebirth initiation on a global scale comparable to the Renaissance emergence of modernity from the Black Death. As Gilles Deleuze and James Hillman recognize, the emergence of a new phase of any process, including culture on a global scale, is inseparable from crisis. The more profound the crisis—in this case involving capitalism, climate change, pandemic, racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, religious intolerance, etc.—the more profound the potential transformation. But this transformation is not guaranteed, as crisis brings real danger, and our task is to navigate this critical transition in a creative and constructive way.
Other posts in this series:
What is the Best Way to Aquire Happiness?
Can We Redesign the Aggressive Nature of Human Beings?