← See the axis · The meaning of life
ArgumentA meaning you give yourself does not bind
A meaning I give myself I can just as well take back; only a meaning found, inscribed in an order that surpasses me, can truly orient a life.
Supports
- A meaning I give myself I can just as well take back: nothing holds me to it but my decision, and what depends only on my decision cannot truly bind me.
- Yet a life needs a meaning that surpasses and orients it: something in whose name it is worth acting even when it costs, and that no whim can undo.
- Such a meaning cannot therefore be an invention: it must be found, inscribed in an order that precedes me, nature, the Logos, a design, whose assigned place for me it is my task to decipher.
Therefore So meaning is not to be created but discovered: existence is inscribed in an order that surpasses it, and to live well is to learn to attune oneself to it.
How far does this reasoning convince you?
Not at all
Entirely
Put to the test