Why do humans crave meaning?

[wildflowers1996]

Most people here I've spoken to think meaning is subjective to each person.

I'm not disputing that, but I'm curious how evolution explains this? Is our desire for meaning meaningless?

 

[Mebius]

Because its scary as fuck if life has no meaning, imagine for example, someone born in 19th century Russia as a serf, all he does is work in the field like a dog his whole life, thats why religion is invented so people wont go crazy and kill themselves over their insufferable existence.

 

[sserafim]

Because life is absurd

 

[astr4]

i think camus had a lot of interesting things to say on this. basically that existence is fundamentally meaningless or absurd so "meaning" is anything for us personally that can keep us alive. (he also suggested that we should lean into this absurdity instead of killing ourselves which i found a load of crock but i digress).

for most people, i would posit they're too uncomfortable with exactly how close they are to suicide. that one day they could just decide that they don't value their life and can see through all their delusions about happiness and purpose. suicide is scary for the average human who can't look death in the eyes.

 

[Mirrory Me]

"So I heard that Minecraft now has a story mode..."

 

[Mebius]

i think camus had a lot of interesting things to say on this. basically that existence is fundamentally meaningless or absurd so "meaning" is anything for us personally that can keep us alive. (he also suggested that we should lean into this absurdity instead of killing ourselves which i found a load of crock but i digress).

for most people, i would posit they're too uncomfortable with exactly how close they are to suicide. that one day they could just decide that they don't value their life and can see through all their delusions about happiness and purpose. suicide is scary for the average human who can't look death in the eyes.

The problem with Absurdism is that a lot of times someone's life is too insufferable that continuing to live is just stupid. Yeah sure, if the guy's life is stable and relatively low stress they can live, but 99% of people's life are garbage. Just look at the current percentage of people with depression in this day and age.

 

[EvisceratedJester]

I'd assume it's because meaning in life allows for us to better cope with life's adversities and aids in us connecting with others. When you have meaning in life it may motivate you to work harder to keep yourself and those around you alive and it can also allow you to connect more deeply with those around you.

 

[splendiferous]

From an evolutionary perspective, the human need for meaning may come from the need for connection. And it seems like the best way for us to survive was to be connected to each other. Connection with anything but especially other people. This is based on my crude conception of John Vervaeke's philosophy that meaning=connection.

And it seems like many people on here and everywhere including me feel a lack of meaning because they are lonely from having little to no connection with people especially IRL.

I wish I had more time to provide a better answer

 

[Forever Sleep]

I wonder if it's just a further branch of our inquisitive nature. Clearly, it's of benefit for a creature to try to puzzle solve. It leads us to use and make tools to do things we couldn't do on our own. So- looking for solutions or meanings is maybe just an extension of that.

So- probably back in the day, people would use herbs to cure certain ailments. It was, I imagine a long process of trial and error. Observing what other animals eat, trying different things and passing the knowledge on. Yet- if we didn't ask: 'Why does this particular thing seem to help indigestion or headaches' or whatever- we wouldn't have developed any further. I imagine it's scientists isolating the active ingredients in things that leads them to synthesize them into modern drugs.

It's just because we don't have the answers that certain things seem to take on a spiritual bent. (Sometimes at least.) Imagine if a cave man saw an aeroplane- it would look like magic.

But, I feel like the want to know things is probably an evolutionary advantage- it means we are sly and cunning enough to enslave all the other creatures on this world and become the dominant species. We're clearly not clever enough to realise that destroying the planet we live on isn't a great idea though.

 

[ijustwishtodie]

I think that humans crave meaning because meaning is something that can motivate humans to do things that discomfort them even if subconsciously (i.e. wage slaving). Also, meaning can make humans want to live overall and continue the procreational ponzi scheme. Think about it like this, if you spent a lot of effort, suffering and anguish to achieve something and it means absolutely nothing, you'd be devastated and question why you even bothered to go through all that effort and suffering to begin with. However, if what you done has had a purpose to it, you can justify the irrational and discomforting parts of life that you're forced to do.

It must feel absolutely awful knowing that everything that you do is pointless and absurd (which is sadly our reality)