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Abstract. Why do people still anguish over the meaning of life? Hasn't philosophy had enough time to find the answer? In his First Critique, Kant famously wonders why science progresses while philosophy stagnates. Whereas the metaphysical questions he identifies could be rendered into antimonies, there is a bias toward thinking that life has meaning. Since this bias has not led to wholesale agreement among philosophers, it seems that something irrational has guided philosophers' answers. Using Denis Diderot's thought experiment about polyp-humans, I argue that the question of the meaning of life is a by-product of our species' reproductive strategy.
In 1975 E. O. Wilson called for biologists to appropriate ethics.1 Few philosophers worried deeply about this potential usurpation because they felt firmly ensconced on the other side of the Humean wall from the biologists. Science can provide neither guidance ("oughts") nor values. Perhaps nowhere is this more clear than in the crowning question of ethics; namely, what is the meaning of life? Since evolution proposes an ateleological account of the natural world, biologists can dismiss the question to which we all desperately want an answer as a category mistake. If pressed to understand the question metaphorically, biologists begrudgingly reply that the meaning of life is to get as much of your genetic material into subsequent generations as you can.2 While this answer might have a certain prurient appeal at first blush, the consequences of pursuing this goal would surely dampen anyone's enthusiasm. Besides, this is the goal all life forms pursue, metaphorically speaking, of course.
Philosophers should not get too smug at this point. After several millennia of working on this problem, we lack a definitive answer. To be sure, most agree that at least part of a meaningful life is creating and fostering deep, abiding relationships with other humans, but we haven't progressed much beyond Aristotle's lauding of friendship.3 Nor is this insight uniquely philosophical; psychologists report the same thing, and provide supportive data. Lastly, this answer merely postpones the question of meaning; it does not answer it.
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Behind the thicket of multiple approaches to the question of life's meaning lies a discernible predisposition toward believing that life has value or meaning. The wording of the question suggests as much. We ask,...