life contents

1 Meaning of life as a question
2 Scientific inquiry and perspectives
2.1 Psychological significance and value in life
2.2 Origin and nature of biological life
2.3 The Big Bang and humanity's fate in this universe
2.4 Scientific questions about the mind
3 Philosophical perspectives
3.1 Ancient Greek philosophy
3.1.1 Platonism
3.1.2 Aristotelianism
3.1.3 Cynicism
3.1.4 Cyrenaicism
3.1.5 Epicureanism
3.1.6 Stoicism
3.2 Enlightenment philosophy
3.2.1 Classical liberalism
3.2.2 Kantianism
3.3 19th century philosophy
3.3.1 Utilitarianism
3.3.2 Marxism
3.3.3 Nihilism
3.4 20th century philosophy
3.4.1 Pragmatism
3.4.2 Existentialism
3.4.3 Absurdism
3.4.4 Secular humanism
3.4.5 Logical positivism
3.4.6 Postmodernism
3.4.7 Naturalistic pantheism
4 Religious perspectives
4.1 Western religions (origins in the Middle East)
4.1.1 Zoroastrianism
4.1.2 Judaism
4.1.3 Christianity
4.1.4 Islam
4.1.5 Bahá'í Faith
4.2 South Asian Religions
4.2.1 Hindu philosophies
4.2.1.1 Advaita and Dvaita Hinduism
4.2.1.2 Vaishnavism
4.2.2 Jainism
4.2.3 Buddhism
4.2.3.1 Early Buddhism
4.2.3.2 Mahayana Buddhism
4.2.4 Sikhism
4.3 Far Eastern Religions
4.3.1 Shinto
4.3.2 Taoism
4.3.3 Confucianism
4.3.4 New religions
5 The meaning of life in popular culture
5.1 Popular views
5.1.1 ...to realize one's potential and ideals
5.1.2 ...to achieve biological perfection
5.1.3 ...to seek wisdom and knowledge
5.1.4 ...to do good, to do the right thing
5.1.5 ...to attain spiritual enlightenment
5.1.6 ...to love, to feel, to enjoy the act of living
5.1.7 ...to have power, to be better
5.1.8 One should not seek to know and understand the meaning of life
5.1.9 Life has no meaning
6 See also
6.1 Origin and nature of life and reality
6.2 Value of life
6.3 Purpose of life
6.4 Miscellaneous
7 References
8 External links
8.1 General
8.2 Scientific
8.3 Philosophical
8.4 Spiritual

Life Ministry

This article is about the philosophical concept of the meaning of life. For other uses, see Meaning of life (disambiguation).

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?One of Post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin's most famous paintings.
The meaning of life constitutes a philosophical question concerning the purpose and significance of human existence. This concept can be expressed through a variety of related questions, such as Why are we here?, What's life all about? and What is the meaning of it all? It has been the subject of much philosophical, scientific, and theological speculation throughout history. There have been a large number of answers to these questions from many different cultural and ideological backgrounds. Albert Camus observed, we humans are creatures who spend our lives trying to convince ourselves that our existence is not absurd. [1]
The meaning of life is deeply mixed with the philosophical and religious conceptions of existence, consciousness, and happiness, and touches on many other issues, such as symbolic meaning, ontology, value, purpose, ethics, good and evil, free will, conceptions of God, the existence of God, the soul, and the afterlife. Scientific contributions are more indirect; by describing the empirical facts about the universe, science provides some context and sets parameters for conversations on related topics. An alternative, human-centric, and not a cosmic/religious approach is the question "What is the meaning of my life?" The value of the question pertaining to the purpose of life may be considered to be coincidal with the achievement of ultimate reality, if that is believed by one to exist.