No meaning is inscribed in things in advance: it is for each of us to create our own, through our choices and commitments.

Supports

Sartre · Existentialism Is a Humanism · 1946

No meaning is inscribed in things in advance: the world is there, with no instructions; we exist first, with no essence or end given to us.
But this absence is not a lack: it is our freedom. Since nothing dictates what my life should be, it is for me to decide, through my choices and commitments.
Meaning is therefore not found but made: it arises from what I devote myself to, and this commitment makes me fully responsible for what I become, with no received order to unload it onto.

Therefore So there is nothing to discover and everything to make: the meaning of a life is what each creates through their projects, not an order they undergo.

How far does this reasoning convince you?

Not at all

Entirely

Put to the test

Will any meaning do?

Problem

Meaning of life, or in life?