The Meaning of Life
Amazon returns department, please.
What is the meaning of life?
Yuval Noah Harari thinks that’s the wrong question to ask.
When you ask, “What is the meaning of life”[…]I don’t think that the main question in life is the question of meaning.
He has a different candidate in mind.
I think that the main question in life is the question of suffering. What is suffering? Where is it coming from, and how can we be liberated from it?
Ironically, the drive to search for meaning itself emerges from suffering.
Even the depression or the suffering that you experience from feeling meaningless, that’s where the question arises.[…]Why should you feel miserable that you are not part of some big cosmic drama?[…]It’s something immediate. You suffer, and you don’t want to suffer. What could be more simple than that? It’s here and now.
How can we be liberated from suffering?
Fortunately, Yuval drops us a helpful hint in the last sentence:
References
[1] https://freakonomics.com/podcast/yuval-noah-harari-thinks-life-is-meaningless-and-amazing-2/
[2] https://www.omaritani.com/blog/the-meaning-of-life