The reason “What is the meaning of life” is such a hard question is because it includes part of a wrong answer right in the question. We should instead ask, what is a meaning of life, because there is no reason to think there is only one. Or if we insist on there being only one, then we have to narrow it down to, say, what is the meaning of my life.
Agreed. The question also hides the tricky issues of what is meant by the question itself (there are multiple interpretations of “meaning of life” [to name just one issue, the extent to which such a meaning is descriptive or proscriptive], and depending on how you define it, it may or may not even be a coherent question), how one should go about answering the question (LW readers no doubt choose some form of rational methodology, but that underdetermines the approach), and what sort of thing could/should count as an answer.
The reason “What is the meaning of life” is such a hard question is because it includes part of a wrong answer right in the question. We should instead ask, what is a meaning of life, because there is no reason to think there is only one. Or if we insist on there being only one, then we have to narrow it down to, say, what is the meaning of my life.
Agreed. The question also hides the tricky issues of what is meant by the question itself (there are multiple interpretations of “meaning of life” [to name just one issue, the extent to which such a meaning is descriptive or proscriptive], and depending on how you define it, it may or may not even be a coherent question), how one should go about answering the question (LW readers no doubt choose some form of rational methodology, but that underdetermines the approach), and what sort of thing could/should count as an answer.