Monday 25 July 2016

Woody Allen and the meaninglessness of Life

Woody Allen has said:
I firmly believe ... that life is meaningless. I’m not alone in thinking this — there have been many great minds far, far superior to mine, that have come to that conclusion. And unless somebody can come up with some proof or some example where it’s not, I think it is. I think it’s a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing, and that’s just the way I feel about it.

If many great minds have come to that conclusion, then this implies there are reasons why they hold this belief. So what are those reasons? I highly doubt if these are reasons I haven't heard of before! And I'm afraid I don't hold such reasons in high regard as I explain in my blogs and elsewhere on the net.

Nor do I see why the hypothesis that life is meaningless should be the default position. However, I would point to altered states of consciousness such as mystical states and so on, which imply that life has an ultimate meaning. Indeed, we would have to conclude we are being deceived whilst in such states if we are to suppose life is meaningless. With what reason do we have to suppose we are being deceived?

Also see another relevant blog entry by me in my other blog.

4 comments:

Chris Borrelli said...

I've never known someone so aimless in his personal life so insistent that we're all here for a purpose.

Maybe you could clue me in. If you're so sure, what are we here for? To blog about the same damn things over and over and over, die, and be replaced by someone else who blogs about the same damn things over and over and over? To stock food at Tesco so people don't have to grow their own?

Ian Wardell said...

I think you've basically ignored what I said in my blog post. If someone asserts that life is without any meaning, then the onus is *not* upon me to prove there is some ultimate meaning or purpose. They need to justify their assertions.

I don't know why we're here, but the fact I don't know (and maybe no-one else knows either), doesn't entail there is no reason.

Ian Wardell said...

Incidentally Chris, why do posts on whether life has any inherent purpose entail that person's life is aimless? Would that mean the purpose of life somehow resides in not talking about the purpose of life? :O

Ian Wardell said...

Chris Borrelli, I've received another comment from you that I'm not publishing. I'm not allowing it to be published as it has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with my blog post.

I'll just say that whether I "drift from day to day", or not, has:

a) No relevance whatsoever, either to this blog post, to any other blog post, and indeed to anything I write.

b) It's not something you could possibly know in any case since we're total strangers.

Whoever you are, you don't like my blog, so I'd appreciate that you go and read something more commensurate with your mindset -- celebrities lives or whatever it might be.

Oh yes, I have no idea what "FOMO" means, nor do I have any interest in finding out. And what is that video? Some asininee American situation comedy! If I wanted to see such programmes I can search on youtube for myself.

Don't comment on any more of my blog posts.

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