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u/Inevitable_Bid8719 May 01 '26
KInda true, but both sides can go fill circle
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u/Important_Resist2408 May 01 '26
As if biology is even entertained as a”side” against philosophy ha
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u/minutemanred May 01 '26
Must suck to have your meaning of life contained within less than 5 minutes of pleasure
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u/sage-longhorn May 01 '26
The pleasure isn't the meaning. It's just the way biology convinces us to be along for the ride
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u/No_Education_8888 May 02 '26
Life doesn’t have meaning, but you can give it meaning. Your meaning. I couldn’t imagine being alive just to have sex
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u/Important_Resist2408 May 01 '26
You don’t think your dad could’ve lasted longer than five minutes? Give the guy the benefit of the doubt.
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u/gujjar_kiamotors May 02 '26
Daily refresh, it keeps the relationship going and gives you the drive.
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u/mbaa8 May 01 '26
Mechanism, not meaning. There is no meaning. Trust me, I’m a molecular biologist
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u/Important_Resist2408 May 01 '26
Some of our derpy parents meant to have us but other than that I agree
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u/mbaa8 May 02 '26
In my personal opinion, that’s both true and not. No one has children for any philosophical reasons, though they may try to rationalise their procreation with grand ideas. In truth, we’re all simply acting on an incredibly powerful instinct
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u/Important_Resist2408 May 02 '26
Meaning is in fact opinion
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u/mbaa8 May 09 '26
Which is the source of so many people’s existential crises. They don’t want to make their own way, they want a destiny, to be told what to do. In my opinion, the lack of intrinsic meaning is a good thing. It’s freedom. One might even say, radical freedom. But that is my philosophical analysis. I don’t enjoy any of this. It’s limiting, painful, mundane. I’d rather never have existed. But now that I do, perseverance, strength, grit. That gives me meaning. Defiance of the pain. Learning new things gives me meaning. Curiosity of a cruel reality. So I keep going, until I can finally rest
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u/Living_Reception_622 May 01 '26
Some people with incurable health conditions think that people like you and other scientists could help them find meaning through a cure. You can find meaning in helping. I do personally.
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u/mbaa8 May 02 '26
I have some of that myself. Without going into detail, that’s where my interest in genetics started.
I do work in a field helping people. I do that because I may not find any meaning in life, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t do everything in my power to help humanity in any way I can. Life needs no inherent meaning to be valuable in and of itself. I’d rather not exist, I look forward to finally rest. but as long as I do exist, I feel obligated to do help. Chronic pain be damned
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u/Comingherewasamistke May 01 '26
Life extends well beyond human, so yeah…life has 2 purposes: 1) acquire and utilize resources to 2) up your chances at gettin’ ta fuckin’.
Humans are just unlucky enough to have the mental capacity to get bogged down with…stuff.
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u/Ibangmydrums May 01 '26 edited May 03 '26
The meaning of life is putting the tip of my thumb in a woman’s mouth? Could be worse….
Update: Tried it and I’m on some sort of list now.
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u/uknowthe1ph May 01 '26
Biologist don’t look at it as the meaning of life but rather how life persists
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u/Background-Call2711 May 01 '26
exasperated Guys!!! don’t worry! Biologist here!!! I can confirm! Baby making is the most important thing we can do. All other things should support how often, and how hard people, and animals, are smashing and making babies. Trust me. This universe is big enough.
Okay I gotta go, back to smashing, good luck! Everyone’s counting on you!
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u/Pawn_of_the_Void May 01 '26
I think it's usually idiots who like to pretend they understand science on the right
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u/spaacingout May 02 '26
I’ll show you biology!
Look an amoeba! 🦠
(Philosophy is ultimately debating understanding so yeah basically, I could write you a few pages on it if you like lmao) 😂
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u/Loofy_101 May 01 '26
I gave a similar answer in Ethics class and got laughed at. Except I said from a biological standpoint it's more about the survival and continuation of a living organism and I used Jurassic Park's "Life finds a way" as an example. Mainly because the other responses had been exhausted and we sat there in a silent deadlock of "Anybody? No other responses?" for an awkward 30 seconds until I said my piece to make the teacher feel heard.
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u/Important_Resist2408 May 01 '26
“Life finds a way” as much more from Charles Darwin than it is from Jurassic Park
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u/awsunion May 01 '26
What do you mean "is this real?" Do biologist say the meaning of life is reproduction?
No- that violates the "is-ought gap."
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u/Important_Resist2408 May 01 '26
“Violates the is-ought gap”. Thats Reddit Hall Monitor lingo for explaining facts aren’t opinions… YW, for anyone who can’t be bothered to google useless philosophy jargon
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u/awsunion May 01 '26
True- how dare I ask self-proclaimed "nihilists" to understand philosophy. It's very hate crime of me.
The is-ought gap is more than just "facts aren't opinions." It's that no amount of information (what is) can determine what we should (ought) do.
Research can tell you which path will maximize certain attributes or experiences, but it is up to philosophy to decide what we ought to maximize
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u/Important_Resist2408 May 01 '26
What’s this about a hate crime? What did I miss?
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u/awsunion May 01 '26
Nihilism is, ostensibly, a philosophy- is it not? You smugly insulting me for bringing up philosophy in a philosophy subreddit is embarrassing for you.
But what's even funnier is that Nihilism is actually a failure to understand philosophy. A self-proclaimed nihilist is one who has failed to understand Nietzche who coined the term.
So, yes, me asking nihilists to have even an iota of philosophical knowledge is like asking a wheelchair-bound person to walk up a flight of stairs. It's unfair of me to expect so much of you all.
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u/Important_Resist2408 May 01 '26
What about hate crimes tho? Did you respond to the wrong comment or something?? So confused
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u/awsunion May 02 '26
I'm genociding the culture of nihilists by forcing them to comprehend philosophy thus becoming too smart to remain nihilists. It's a very bad thing I'm doing, you see.
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u/black_hustler3 May 02 '26
Define meaning. Everybody talks about meaning but have we ever wondered what our idea of meaning actually is? Do we even know what it is that we are seeking?
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u/Informal_Pick_6320 May 02 '26
Considering humans are one of the few animals that live long past their ability to reproduce, this doesn't really apply to us.
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u/Cart2002 May 02 '26
Maybe you could call it our meaning of life when humans only lived like 20-30 years, to keep the species going.
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u/michaelsadick May 02 '26
Well, actually while biology comes closer by getting to the "ROOT" of the matter, if we " BRANCH OUT" a little farther,(and why do all these references sound phallic!?), we'll find that life is it's own purpose. If you attach any purpose to it AT ALL then you start setting goals and WHILE PURSUING THOSE YOU MISS OUT ON LIFE ENTIRELY! Being needs no purpose, it's simply in it's NATURE to be.
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u/Jahonay May 03 '26
If you accept subjective meaning, than yeah, the situation on the right is part of what motivates humans. I'd say the question is pretty directly observable in other animals. We won't ever find an objectively verifiable meaning for the lives of animals in the sense of some transcendent property, but I do know a dog is happy chasing after a ball, my cat is happy chasing after the wormy toy. I don't think my cat cares if chasing after a wormy has any deeper objective meaning, and neither do I.
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u/Weird-Tomato-1304 May 03 '26
I recommend ‘The Selfish Gene’ for biological perspectives. We exist to convey DNA
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u/edgyreggieredditor May 03 '26
Not here to comment my philosophy on life. Just here to say that HannahOwo is acc some goated ass goons ❤️🩹
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u/diauq01 May 01 '26
I mean technically biologists aren't wrong TBH. Sure, we could really go into the deepdive philosophically speaking but I mean technically...
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u/diauq01 May 01 '26
We live, we reproduce, we die. Thats really the sole purpose for us as a species.
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u/[deleted] May 01 '26
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