Current State of the Meaning Project:
In August 2021, I started writing a sequence of blogs focused on what I called “The Meaning Project.” The goal of the meaning project was the explore the topic of personal meaning, and specifically answer the question: how can we know what is worth living for?
Since then, I’ve written about 20 blogs exploring this topic and still feel as though I am just scratching the surface. As I’ve explored, I’ve discovered a few things that I feel are trustworthy, and a giant pile of new and interesting questions.
The Apophatic Way: Everytime I’ve approached the meaning question, I’ve been blocked by the enormity of the problem. There are so many angles to consider and each one seems flawed in some crucial way. What I have discovered is that it’s almost trivially easy to carve off wrong answers. I explored this idea in Knowing and Knowing Not. I still intend to write an essay looking at the logic of the apophatic way and seeing if I can design an analytic argument that shows exactly when to apply this tool.
The Inside View and the Outside View: Something funny occurs when you try to gel an objective or intersubjective view of meaning with subjective view of meaning. They have fundamentally different truth orientations and seem like they produce contradiction. I wrote about this in relationship to qualia, depression, and self-esteem. I haven’t spent much time with this puzzle at a philosophical level, but using this framing with my coaching clients has been very helpful. A simple “Is that true for you or true of the world?” has a surprisingly high rate for producing insight.
Spirituality and Magic: I don’t believe that meaning can be solved purely through analytical means. It’s just not that sort of thing. It needs to tie to the spirit of what we are as human beings, and that’s much more than a rational approach. I’ve explored this in two threads. The first through the metaphor of alchemy and transformation (Alchemy, The First Rule of Alchemy, the Second Rule of Alchemy, The Third Rule of Alchemy). The second mode is in my pursuit of the gods (Prayer for the Tiny Gods, Sanctifying the Profane, and Prayer to Dionysus and Apollo). These explorations are rich with meaning, but by their nature, more diffuse and ethereal and uncertain. My hope is that by stacking up more of these writings and experiences, I might discover many threads that weave through this mode.
The Pile of New Questions:
Is meaning a social thing? Can you do it by yourself or must it be done in community?
What modes of meaning are there and are any coherent? (I began exploring this in Meaning: Eternalism and hope to continue that series.)
What’s the relationship between our goals and meaning? Do goals help or hinder meaning-making?
Does the metaphor of capturing and taming a genie help explain the meaning problem? Or does it obfuscate it?
I feel I have more meaning in my life than I did a year ago. Why?
