John McCone : Philosophy For The Future

Philosophy For The Future

Philosophy

Is There An Ultimate Purpose Of Life?

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Ultimate Purpose to Life
John Christian Fjellestad/Shutterstock.com

For many, the question: “What is the ultimate purpose of life?” may seem futile, even trite, when so many immediate and pressing issues abound, yet we must at least account for why some ponder this great question so intensely. This question is important because, while we devote most of our energy to our immediate daily concerns, many believe that the ultimate reason to put such effort into living is to do or accomplish something. Others make huge daily sacrifices to rear children who can accomplish something important…but what? If there is no ultimate purpose of life, how can any accomplishment have significance?

The question – Is there an ultimate purpose of life? – seems so straightforward. Yet it exposes the very limits of scientific inquiry – our civilization’s crowning achievement. This question is not scientifically tractable. Scientific inquiry can do a lot:  sensibly answer queries about facts (Do antelopes lay eggs? Do crocodiles eat fish?); answer “why” type questions (Why is the sky blue?) in the context of hypothesized models supported by evidence (because air scatters short wavelengths more than long ones) and determine instrumentally effective options for accomplishing a given desired outcome. (How can I make soap? Answer: by mixing sodium hydroxide with animal fat).

But science cannot tell us what we should want, or what we should do. So we set about life with various purposes in mind which we then try to accomplish. But no amount of scientific investigation can tell us whether these purposes are right or wrong. While we may choose to adopt some life purpose, no methods exist to ascertain whether it is a purposeful purposes, or a pointless purpose. Perhaps we can never know whether we are truly doing something meaningful with our lives – or just wasting time.

And yet, despite these difficulties, many strive to answer this question. Why? The main reason is because the brain’s job is to do things. We wouldn’t have evolved a brain, that consumes half our body’s glucose, if it didn’t do anything. Our brain must also work out what not to do – such as actions that might bring death or injury.

So the question: “What is the ultimate purpose of life?” strikes the core of our mind’s primary reason for being. Namely, to continuously answer that deceptively simple-sounding question: “What should I do now?” And to do it.

Abstract questions on the ultimate purpose of life have disturbingly practical implications. Why punish children “for their own good” if there is no absolute good? What purpose, for example, could disciplining children serve if there is no ultimate purpose? Presumably, when we put effort into rearing children, we are trying to get them to turn out one way rather than another. Why put any effort into child-rearing if all maturity outcomes are equivalently pointless?

Many seek the ultimate purpose of life in the hope of gaining meaningful fulfillment. Perhaps if we knew what the point of our life was we would feel whole, could sally forth, fulfill our destiny, and live life with high spirits and high morale. Perhaps that is the purpose of seeking the ultimate purpose.

And yet… if we seek an ultimate purpose of life in order to attain a sense of meaningful fulfillment and completion, then clearly not all purposes are equal. What if we discovered that the ultimate purpose of life was to sit alone in a dank cave fishing worms out of bat excrement while drinking our own urine? Would that bring fulfillment, comfort or joy? Furthermore, if you knew that an honest inquiry into the ultimate purpose of life would lead to this conclusion, would you still inquire, or would you cease your inquiry forthwith …or, perhaps, try to delude yourself into thinking that life’s true purpose was something more enjoyable and comfortable?

This blog article will not reveal the ultimate purpose of life. However, if the reason we seek the ultimate purpose is to find fulfillment, a sense of meaningfulness and contented satisfaction in what we do, then perhaps a more important question is:

“How do we obtain a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment from our actions in life?”

And, indeed, perhaps the main point of raising and educating children in a particular way should be to enable them to gain satisfaction and fulfillment from what they do in later life.

So how can we attain a sense of satisfaction from what we do?

Let’s make it simple:

The ultimate purpose of the brain is to generate action.

To act effectively on a system you must know:

  • The initial conditions of the system
  • The relationship of cause to effect that governs the system
  • The final desired state you want the system to adopt

 

Science deals with 1) and 2)

 

But without an answer to 3) people feel lost and incapable of meaningfully applying their knowledge gleaned from studying 1) and 2).

One answer to 3) is: “Whatever floats your boat.”

Unfortunately, the pursuit of our own personal, somewhat arbitrary objectives can interfere with other people’s incompatible objectives and annoy (even enrage) them.

This is our great dilemma: how to meaningfully pursue our own objectives without treading on the toes of others too much and to help them instead?

Humanity is, at its core, a social species. Our minds balance self-interest with concern for others. When we seek meaning through our actions, we seek this balance: to protect our own well-being while helping others. Actions that achieve both – feel meaningful.

Yet this correct balance is the essence of morality. We cannot categorically state that life’s objective purpose is to live successfully and morally, but a successful and moral life does at least feel both meaningful and satisfying to those who live it. And while it may be impossible to objectively determine the ultimate purpose of life, objectively optimal strategies for balancing different people’s wills do exist ( which The Philosophical Method thoroughly derives) and the norms implied by this optimal strategy form the fundamental basis of morality.

I posit that scientific norms imply further norms concerning how we should live our daily lives in accordance with an optimal social contract.

A society which follows the path of objective morality will thrive and meet the needs of its members, keep conflicts at tolerably low levels, and achieve a sufficiently broad consensus over right and wrong, to ensure righteous people get due recognition.

Once we can live successfully and righteously, properly balancing our needs with others, we will satisfy our need for purpose. Indeed, the one of the primary benefits of reading philosophy is the acquisition of working principles to make good decisions in life and establish good relations with others.

Not because our lives will have an objective, ultimate purpose, but rather because we will realise that life never needed an ultimate purpose in the first place, and that our pursuit of “purpose” was simply the pursuit of a mode of living and action that:

  • Gains the goodwill and respect of others
  • Addresses our own needs and desires
  • Will not doom us in the long run

Our “pursuit of purpose” is simply the pursuit of this optimal mode of living.

Rationality is the optimal coupling of action to intention.

Morality is the optimal coupling of collective action to collective intention.

An irrational person is someone whose intentions are not self-consistent. As he pursues one interest, he undermines another. Without carefully thinking about all his different wants and whether they can consistently be accomplished together, he cannot avoid undermining himself at every turn. This leads to a miserable life.

An immoral society is one where the intentions of each member are inconsistent with the others. In such society, people constantly work to undermine each other. No one’s aspirations are safe. What one person builds and values, others will sabotage and destroy. An immoral society is thus a collectively miserable society.

But those who can live a rational and moral life inside a moral society are fortunate indeed and have no need for any objective purpose beyond this.

So perhaps the answer to the question: “Is there an ultimate purpose of life?”

Is: “Strictly speaking, no, but it doesn’t matter as we can gain satisfaction from seeking an optimal and just life – which we can use reason to identify.”

 

John

 

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Why Bother Reading Philosophy?

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What Is The Ultimate Benefit of Reading Philosophy?

We all want to feel proud of ourselves. To gain a sense of ultimate purpose. To feel we are living a good life the right way and, perhaps, through living well, find some way to answer that niggling question: “Why Bother?” To act morally, and with conviction, is to gain a sense of purpose, self-respect and fulfillment.

Many people just chug along in life. They make ends meet, but often don’t know why they should even bother doing what are doing. They exist but are unengaged. A lack of engagement, or sense of purpose, can have knock-on effects that damage us in very practical ways. When we don’t engage with life ourselves, we fail to engage others; we become uninteresting and people start to drift away. To compensate, we try to acquire expensive, interesting things and experiences, desperately hoping to draw people to our possessions in place of our character. The result is over-spending, debt, excess work and stress. This juggling of debt, lack of direction and precarious, eroding relationships leads to stress, demoralization, absentmindedness and tunnel vision which all press in on us and drain our will. We resort to comfort foods, drugs and alcohol with less time for exercise and sleep. A combination of poor physical health along with mental and financial stress can devastate our mental well-being.

While immediate practical problems usually have immediate practical causes (e.g. he had a breakdown due to financial stress, drug abuse and marital troubles) when we dig a little deeper down to the roots of these causes, (Why was he taking drugs in the first place? Why didn’t he manage his money better? – he was paid enough, why didn’t he spend less? Why was he having marital problems? etc.,) we find the origins of many a downward spiral start somewhere far less tangible: an inexplicable inner sense of purposelessness, a lack of value, a sense, which is hard to articulate, that there is no ultimate purpose, that things aren’t adding up… aren’t coming together.

At the core of this feeling is a constant, nagging doubt over the quality of our actions and decisions. At the heart of decisions are rules of thumb, maxims and habits. Many are unconscious, but together they form a kind of “life philosophy” that defines our actions and character. Quite often these implicit underlying assumptions, that give rise to our decisions and actions, are in conflict with one another; acting in accordance with one conviction thwarts another. When our various unarticulated drives, values and motivations become sufficiently tangled up and contradictory, confusion and self-doubt and lack of purpose inevitably arise.

We want to believe that our actions are right; that what we do has value. Yet how can we do what is right, how can our actions bring value, unless we know what “right” or “value” means? Or why we bother doing anything? Without this knowledge, an inner sense of pointlessness is unavoidable.

Hopefully it is now clear that understanding the nature of right and wrong, and acting with conviction in accordance with right principles, is central to a sense of well-being, ultimate purpose and to a life well lived. On gaining that spark of purpose and fulfillment, an inner light ignites, we know why to bother about things and it becomes much easier to reign in spending, take control of our finances, connect with others, and improve how we relate to people, our health and our lives at every level.

So how can we gain that sense of inner purpose?

How can we gain that inner conviction that helps make sense of our lives?

Some people pursue religion. Arguably just believing that something is purposeful raises our morale, even if it’s actually pointless, and, for some people, participating in organized religion can improve their sense of well-being, physical health and social life…

…but if you find religion and spirituality a bit waffly, but still seek to understand what is truly right and gain a sense of purpose…

…then you need to start reading Philosophy!

Philosophy, at its core, is the examination and improvement of the set of principles we use to make decisions. One of the benefits of reading philosophy is that it leads to better decisions, and better decisions lead to better outcomes – across the board!

But know that the path to enlightenment can be difficult and arduous.

Religion supplies answers to all of life’s important questions.

Philosophy supplies the right answers to all of life’s important questions.

Philosophy is harder than religion because it is harder to obtain the right answer to an important question as opposed to any old answer (right or wrong). But the ultimate rewards for those who possess an active, questioning and rational mind are greater.

A major limitation with academic enquiry in the sciences, the humanities, and even in philosophy itself is specialization: the slicing and dicing of reality into ever narrower fields and sub-fields, disciplines and sub-disciplines. When we study the sub-discipline of a sub-discipline, it’s easy to lose sight of the wider scheme.

True Philosophy seeks to understand and piece together the totality of existence. It is only by engaging with reality at the broadest level that a path towards meaningful, fulfilling action and a sense of ultimate purpose can truly be obtained.

Another benefit of reading philosophy is to facilitate meaningful discussions. By discussing issues at the broadest level, a broader understanding of – and deeper connection with – those who join us in philosophical discourse can be developed.

Throughout my life, I’ve striven to devote my intellectual energies to the great problems that humanity faces. I’ve researched magnetically confined fusion plasmas for the first 10 years of my career, to bring plentiful energy to everyone without burning fossil fuels. However, as time progressed, I increasingly perceived the lack of coherence between the different academic disciplines – especially between ethical theories, fundamental truth, and political and economic systems – as the gravest problem that was not being satisfactorily addressed. Eventually I turned my attention to the mammoth task of synthesizing science, ethics, economics and politics – in other words, every important aspect of human thought – into a grand coherent narrative, a logical framework that would help orient and inspire readers, but, most importantly, provide a clear path of action into the future to solve pressing problems such as poverty, war, rights and freedom. This project was the driving force behind what ultimately became The Philosophical Method.

Self-help starts with helping others. Many financial problems arise simply because a costly activity has become someone’s driving motivation. The adoption of less costly habits and hobbies can dramatically improve your financial security. The trick here is to redirect your passions. Social disconnection can often be solved through finding a source of inner motivation, pursuing it with fervour, and connecting with like-minded groups and communities. Participation in these communities can also help you develop a professional network or even find the right romantic partner. Reading philosophy can help you to initial orient yourself. This enables you to take the first step towards pursuing a healthy passion that will allow you to grow as a human being.

But it all starts with finding your inner spark, a driving force that tells you why to bother and motivates you to push forward and take on the world, enabling you to act with a confidence and conviction that inspires others to join your quest.

I hope that by reading philosophy books like The Philosophical Method some people, especially rational analytical types, will find a way to ignite that inner spark and become a powerful force for good in this world. I believe my experience working in research institutions and engineering companies, my discussions with top plasma physicists, engineers, economists and philosophers and my wide-ranging interests in philosophy, biology, physics, technology, economics, history and politics have enabled me to produce a uniquely pragmatic work of philosophy that “plugs in” to the rest of human thought and into the real world.

So why bother reading philosophy?

Because bothering is the first step you need to take to gain that inner sense of direction and motivation.

Because bothering, and caring about the truth, could be your first step towards a better life.

 

John

 

Do You Have A Burning Desire To Leave A Comment?

 

Have you found this article thought provoking? Is there some message you desperately want to communicate to future readers but can’t because my comment section automatically closes 28 days after my posts go live?

If so, you might be interested to know that I reopen any comments section to members of my mailing on request as one of the perks of joining.

If you’d like to leave a comment, simply scroll to the bottom of the page, sign on to my mailing list and them email me with a request to reopen the comments section for this post.

Happy Commenting!

John