Having purpose?
What does it mean to give oneself purpose? That almost sounds like that exaggerates ones own sense of importance if the individual is giving themselves this purpose or rather a "sense" of purpose?
If say I believed in God and they created me and told me clearly what to do I would have purpose and it wouldn't be limited to my sense of self and ego. Sure we assign ourselves with tasks to make life go better, but isn't "purpose" a bold thing to give to oneself?
If say I believed in God and they created me and told me clearly what to do I would have purpose and it wouldn't be limited to my sense of self and ego. Sure we assign ourselves with tasks to make life go better, but isn't "purpose" a bold thing to give to oneself?
Comments (35)
People talk about pursuing meaningful activities from which they derive satisfaction. Car collecting, helping at a charity, employment, parenting, study. I think this is normal. Some people might call this having a purpose.
Nothing more than "I gave myself an enema". :mask:
Extending one's concerns beyond the limitations of the self. We are fundamentally social beings. Being stranded on an island of self-indulgent thoughts and actions can only lead to isolation. Believing that our actions contribute to an overall good, on the other hand, can be very rewarding in and of itself.
I assume you mean that someone sets a purpose for me (e.g., God, parents), which indeed is not a good idea at all and most probably it won't work. Otherwise, to set a purpose for myself, a goal, something to achieve, is a very good idea.
As for the "sense of purpose" I'm not sure what does that mean. Something indefinite, illusory, fake, etc. that can think of as a purpose? A purpose is generally something specific, concrete. It's not like, e.g. freedom, which is an abtract idea and a "sense of freedom" has indeed a meaning.
Which kind of meaning? Are you referring to politics or democracy?
A beautiful question! Hats off to you señor/señorita.
(Re:"sense of freedom"). Democracy can be included too. But it has really a lot of applications. It is actually a very common phrase.
Here's one of the definitions DICTIONARY.COM offers for the word "sense", which pertains esp. to the meaning I used it with:
"A more or less vague perception or impression: a sense of security."
In fact, we always live with a "sense of fredom", i.e. an idea, a feeling that we are free (regarding something). We are never totally, absolutely or actually free, are we? Freedom is something relative.
Agreed. Very good thought :up:
I see it that, as children we are mentally free but physically bound.
Then by the time we get physical freedom, are mentally bound
To know what one lives for.
Glad you agree. :smile:
Nice. :up:
Quoting TiredThinker
Why do yo ask? Does misery seek company?
Quoting TiredThinker
Yes. If you try, you can fail.
But look at your question; it takes a whole life, yours or mine, and abstracts it from anything personal, then reinserts the personal as an arbitrary "purpose", and demands that there should be some "meaning" of this abstract "life" for its impersonal "self". If you spend your life on meaningless questions, your life will indeed have little meaning. Find a more vital question for God's sake. Make that your purpose for a minute.
Dracula dead and loving it reference. Nice!!
We live with or without inventing a mental/behavioral occupation?
I even think suffering is inherent to us. It is not a "purpose" but a state of mind or at least an important chain of the human evolution and progress.
Well, that is a possibility that I didn't consider but isn't it true that when people sense a purpose in suffering, it kinda takes the sting out of it? Hence, I believe, the parallel quest to seek meaning in suffering.
What is it that you think you're here for? What are you meant to do? What do you want to do with your life?
When you answer these questions by yourself, without looking no further than your own values, you have given yourself a purpose.
Recall that Leibniz called our minds little gods; giving yourself a purpose is (a little) god self-assigning a task.
Those are two different mindsets. I think your prospective date meant someone with ambition -- they have a plan and they're going to follow through with it.
Mr. Smith lives in a much more immediate, urgent, and universe-bending reality. They're lucky to have that kind of challenge that we don't have here on Earth.
It means you believe purpose is self created.
If I asked you to give yourself a cause for your existence, you'd likely tell me that whatever caused your existence existed without any effort from yourself.
I'd say the same for purpose. You have a purpose and it isn't created by you.
If desires are our purposes, why confuse the issue with the pesky term "purpose" and just instead say "desire"?
I think we have the separate terms because we mean different things by it.
Your invoking little gods here begs the question of why you don't invoke the big God here. If we're going to speak of God or gods, then why not ask what your divine task is, as opposed to your personal desire?
Well, as far as I can tell, what God desires of us is what religious folks would consider our purpose. I just ran with that when I said what we want (to do with our lives) is our purpose.
Quoting Hanover
Because, in my humble opinion, god provides us hints & clues as to what He wants us to do in what we want to do.
You are just surviving, not living. Stay strong!
I will be strong if and only if medical advances focus on health span and not specific diseases when they show up inevitably due to poor preventive medicines.
[quote=Agent Smith][ ... ]After that, I understood the rules, I knew what I was supposed to do, but I didn't. I couldn't. I was compelled to stay, compelled to disobey.[/quote]
:grin: and bear it!
Quoting Hanover
Would you say that the purpose of a virus is to replicate or to make humans ill or both?
Does a virus therefore have a purpose or perhaps even an intent?
I think some purpose IS inherent in humans and at its most basic level it must be 'to ask questions.'
From that our purpose or perhaps our intent seems to be to act as as agent of change.
We cause changes mostly deliberately but also sometimes, without intent on just due to our presence.
The presence of humans means that change is not completely dependent on random happenstance. Humans can be agents of intentional change. Could this be claimed to be their 'universal' or 'absolute' purpose? If not, then why not?
Well a virus isn't intelligent and doesn't need to think about purpose as it can't suffer or feel comfort. Also it isn't an organism and arguably isn't even alive. Perhaps just incomplete DNA protocol from long dead lifeforms.
If our purpose was to ask questions what purpose do those questions serve if we get no closer to answers?
I don't think it matters much, when it comes to inherent purpose, whether or not a virus can suffer or feel comfort. Science cannot confirm for sure that a virus is alive and does not suffer or feel comfort but I agree that it probably doesn't 'feel' at all. BUT that is not proof that it has no inherent purpose.
From YOUR perspective rather than the perspective of a virus. Do you think virus has a purpose.
Quoting TiredThinker
From https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/the-origins-of-viruses-14398218/, we have:
[i]
Where Did Viruses Come From?
There is much debate among virologists about this question. Three main hypotheses have been articulated:
1. The progressive, or escape, hypothesis states that viruses arose from genetic elements that gained the ability to move between cells;
2. the regressive, or reduction, hypothesis asserts that viruses are remnants of cellular organisms; and 3. the virus-first hypothesis states that viruses predate or coevolved with their current cellular hosts.[/i]
There are other interesting small paragraphs and details in the single page of text linked to above such as: Are viruses alive?
Quoting TiredThinker
So what do measurements (even if they are subjective) such as 'progression' mean to you or a metaphor/analogy such as 'We see further as we can stand on the shoulders of giants,' mean to you?
Very insightful. Thanks.