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The Meaning of Life — Five Answers From the Great Philosophers

The Visual Philosopher

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My book "Nothing Is Wrong With You" is about why the standard advice for modern problems doesn't work, who benefits from you believing it does, and tells you what's left. Please use the link below.
https://thevisualphilosopher.gumroad.com

In this video, we look at what five of the great philosophers actually said the meaning of life is.

Thinkers & sources

Leo Tolstoy — A Confession (1879–82), trans. Aylmer Maude
Epicurus — Letter to Menoeceus, trans. Cyril Bailey (1926)
Bhagavad Gita — 2.47 & 2.20, trans. K. T. Telang, Sacred Books of the East (1882)
Arthur Schopenhauer — "On the Sufferings of the World," trans. T. Bailey Saunders
Friedrich Nietzsche — Twilight of the Idols (1888)
Viktor Frankl — Man's Search for Meaning (1946)
Albert Camus — The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), trans. Justin O'Brien

#philosophy #meaningoflife #camus

20 Comments

@TheVisual.Philosopher Creator 1 month ago Pinned

@Jabjabs 1 month ago

"The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves." - Alan Watts

@maximus6588 1 month ago

The meaning of life….is that there is no meaning. No purpose. And that is freedom. Live your life by the Golden Rule and enjoy every moment.

@mkrtumian 1 month ago

Any one of us, even the mentally disabled, are more complex beyond our common psychology for any one man to be able to derive and effectively transfer a meaning of life onto the other.

But yeah, it can still be entertaining when we watch and listen to others who deconstruct and lay out their philosophy of life.

@ThePerfectPseudonym 1 month ago

Being interested is meaningful.

@willieluncheonette5843 1 month ago

"The word “meaning” is irrelevant to life. Life is neither meaningful nor meaningless. But for centuries man’s mind has been conditioned to believe that life has great meaning. All that meaning was arbitrary. Hence only in this century, for the first time in the whole history of man, has the question, “What is the meaning of life?” become one of the most important, because all old lies are exposed. Life was meaningful with a God. Life was meaningful with a life beyond death. Life was meaningful because the churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, were continuously hammering the idea in man’s mind. A certain maturity has come to man, not to all, but to a very small minority."

@JayadevJena-d7n 1 month ago

I can't believe you included a lot of indian philosophy too , It's mostly ignored but thanks ^_^

@eekns 1 month ago

Life is the meaning of life.

@nicklafrance5949 1 month ago

Excellent summary discussion. Thanks for posting!

@tomato1040 1 month ago (edited)

WITHOUT ME=mc2 & MY LIFE=mc2, THE FUTURE=mc2 IS NOTHING BUT VANITY.

@tfragia1 3 days ago

What keeps me going is the thought that tomorrow I might have some fun. No guarantee though. 😏

@npilgaard 1 month ago

Excellent video! The question is far to rarely seriously treated in contemporary philosophy. Thanks for providing the (very different!) perspectives on it :)

@aaronbeckett7011 1 month ago

This was absolutely beautiful

@tomato1040 1 month ago (edited)

The word is inner & outer comfort in bliss😊!

@JMcdonald-z6v 3 weeks ago

The meaning of life is to continue it

@samuelbruce4995 1 month ago

If they all agreed, only one of them would be telling his truth.

@JNO_JNO 1 month ago

I will follow Brian ….

@2KDUDE22 1 month ago

Another good one

@LorienSummons34 1 month ago

Note tome: i create meaning by being embodied. Bodies are the medium necessary for meaning making. Consciousness emerges through the body. Meaning arises from the interplay between physical experience and inner awareness. When I inhabit my own presence, I become the source of meaning

@casiandsouza7031 1 month ago (edited)

The purpose of living is as unique as the individual. Even the indoctrinated are uniquel within the indoctrination.
There is a melancholy joy and the indulgence of masochists. The blues and soul music.