Richard J. Severson

Meaning is often traced to the use of language. Words have meaning in their essential work of referring to the things they stand for in the world. We construct metaphors, symbols, sentences, narratives, etc., as a means for denoting what various things stand for (mean) to us.

I’m not convinced that meaning is solely a function of language, however. I think it has biological roots that extend far beyond the life of Homo sapiens. All living things are caught up in the primordial effort to find sustenance that requires a basic ability to distinguish between an inner “self” and an external world. What organism eats its own flesh? None, that I know of. The ability to know the difference between what is “me” and what isn’t is the first glimmer of conscious intelligence endemic to every lifeform. Even the simplest organisms participate in a rudimentary quest for meaning in their efforts to keep on living for as long as they can.

Interestingly, the vaunted life of the human mind is but a recapitulation of the mental architecture of life itself. Our abilities to write poetry, for instance, or theorize about the origins of the universe are but the evolved fruits of an inner life that every living creature shares at a rudimentary level.

I think most people would agree that a meaningful life is one of the cornerstones of happiness. We all want to be happy, and feel that our lives matter; or, to put it slightly differently, the measure of a life worth living is its meaningfulness.

To grasp the meaning of meaning is perhaps the same thing as finding a purpose for life. For human beings, mere existence is never enough. Our existence must have a higher purpose that entails the carrying out of projects that call forth every virtue capable of giving life its special meaning, such as shared love, courage, perseverance, friendship, hard work, generosity, humility, loyalty, honesty, wisdom, heroism, and so on. Virtues, like metaphors and symbols, create meaning simply by being enacted. Life is the adventure that requires no further justification than its own virtuous being. That is the meaning of meaning.