Someone recently asked me what I was aiming for in life, or if there was a question I wanted to answer. I said something like ‘I would quite like to know why I can’t find any sort of meaning of life that I can be sure of and yet I’m still here’. It seems to me that we must, even if only subconsciously, have some sort of meaning in our lives if we are going to get out of bed in the morning. Even if it is as simple as ‘maybe tomorrow I’ll have something to aim for so I better stick around until then to find out’. For a good while I’ve kept up the claim (and I maintain it now) that all I’m trying to do is work out if there is an answer to the eternal question or not that I can be sure of, a infinite philosophical quest. But the whole problem here is that it is exactly that: infinite, because as a sceptic I can never take anything like this as being certain. So assuming my arguments for no certain knowledge are correct, I’m never going to succeed in this self-assigned quest. Which leaves me back in a position I can’t get out of, and that’s why I’m wondering why I’m still bothering.

This is akin to nihilism, defined by Wikipedia as:

Nihilism (from the Latin nihil, nothing) is a philosophical position which argues that existence is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. Nihilists generally assert some or all of the following:

• Objective morality does not exist.
• No action is logically preferable to any other in regard to the moral value of one action over another.
• In the absence of morality, existence has no intrinsic higher meaning or goal.
• There is no reasonable proof or argument for the existence of a higher ruler or creator.
• Even if a higher ruler or creator exists, mankind has no moral obligation to worship them.

But then does it matter that my arguments don’t get me anywhere? I am managing so far to contentedly move along by simply keeping up this hope, which I know is in vain, that I will out this problems one day (or someone else will do so and tell me). Or as a friend puts it, keeping my eye on where I am on the staircase and worrying only about the next step (a levels, university etc.). I’ve always been someone to live in the future, and occasionally the past, but rarely in the present. But the problem here is that actually, all I’m doing here is accepting the conclusion that the meaning of life is merely the creation of happiness or contentedness which I don’t have any arguments for. I’m just going along with biological conclusions of getting me in the best possible state (happy) for passing on genetic information. Now, there are of course many who take this conclusion of happiness as being the only possible conclusion. But I’m not willing to accept it blindly quite yet. Just because it is what humans often do doesn’t mean it is the actual answer – or that such a thing exists.

As you can see I’ve just gone in a nice big circle with this post. This is because I have no answer to the original question. Any suggestions as comments to this post appreciated.