Purpose, Or Lack Thereof
I think it's important to ask if "purpose" is a discovery or merely another invention by the human mind? The purpose of survival, which is one of the strongest known to our existence, is a primal instinct that is no longer a necessity in day-to-day life for many. Have we locked ourselves in our ivory towers to ponder something that we've systematically removed from our existence?
Comments (6)
We talk about ‘purpose’ as if it’s an all-encompassing motivation that governs every thought, word and action. In that sense, one would likely disagree that ‘survival’ is our main purpose these days, yet it continues to be built into our structures - our survival instinct ‘kicks in’ when required, but we are also motivated sometimes to fight for the ‘survival’ of a culture, an ideology, a way of life, etc - and even to sacrifice our own survival to that ‘purpose’.
I don’t know that we have ‘removed’ survival as a purpose or instinct. Perhaps we have embedded it into the structures that protect us from feeling threatened, that make us believe we are no longer vulnerable? If one threatens those structures, we may be motivated to fight for their survival.
But ‘purpose’ attempts to connect everything that motivates and influences ‘me’, at different levels of awareness, together into a cohesive whole that I can then defer to whenever I’m overwhelmed by options.
Personally, I think it’s a way of making sense of life, of simplifying it.
Purpose is an interpretation, it is an invention. What shall we do with a useful invention? Throw it away?
We humans intend i.e. have objectives and we create/look for means to help us achieve these objectives. Is it this that gives us the concept of purpose? If it is then purpose is pure invention, exclusvie to humans and meaningless outside human culture.
Yet, science, especially biology, is replete with things that have purpose. Eyes for seeing, fangs for killing, tails for balancing, etc. It seems, therefore, that purpose isn't totally an invention. It is out there outside the human mind and so discovered.
Everything you write here makes sense to me. The overall sense of purpose at different levels of awareness of one's self acting within a community.
I never thought of it in terms of deferment in times of trouble. However, when you think about it, if there is no higher power to which you can pray for assistance, or some other Oracle, then all you got is yourself, your critical faculties and your values.
To reach that point of discernment - to make sense of life and to simplify it - how many paths are travelled, with or without clear purpose ?
How many teachers do you follow, have you followed...to get where you are ?
What if you don't know where to start... or end ?
'Purpose' as a word or concept is a made-up human word.
Created by the mind for what purpose ? Purpose here meaning function.
To communicate.
Purpose in our lives. We can think about at different levels. Why is it important for you to ask the question, and in the way that you did. Your purpose: intention, motivation...
And what do you think of the responses so far?
Welcome, by the way :smile: