Life
Being · Journey · Purpose
“What does Life mean?”
Both a biological category with fuzzy edges and the name for the thing we are trying to make sense of.
Overview
Biology defines life by a list — metabolism, reproduction, response, evolution — and the list keeps failing at the edges. Viruses sit awkwardly on it; so does anything sufficiently unlike us.
The other sense of the word has no list at all. 'What do you do with your life' is not a question about metabolism.
Perspectives
There is no single answer here. Each reading comes from a different tradition and should be judged in its own terms.
Biology
A process that maintains itself against equilibrium, and passes on the instructions for doing so.
Existential philosophy
Meaning is not found in life but made in it. The absence of a given purpose is the starting condition rather than a defeat.
Contemplative traditions
A human life is treated as an opportunity with a deadline — the framing behind most practices of attention.
Related ideas
Further reading
- The human search for meaning
Why the question keeps returning, in every century that thinks it has outgrown it.
Sources
This entry still needs sources. It is marked as needing evidence rather than presented as settled.
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