And once again, my morning newspaper nailed it again. Let me quote what I read. By the way, for your information, Nick Cave is a man of many talents. Musician. Songwriter. Screenwriter. Novelist. Actor. The Australian was born in 1957.
-QUOTE- In The Guardian, columnist John Harris explains why he, as a staunch agnostic, is fascinated by Nick Cave’s new album, Wild God.
While the digital world offers us endless interactions, these often revolve around superficiality and anger.
‘Where can we meaningfully share our thoughts about the fundamentals of life, like love, loss, and death?’
Cave turned the loss of his sons into art. This brings Harris to Nick Cave, who has turned his grief into art after losing his sons in 2015 and 2022. Cave also shares profound thoughts via his platform, The Red Hand Files.
‘At 67, he is at the height of his career.’ According to the author, this has everything to do with the void in the Western world, which many try to fill with nature, festivals, or mindfulness.
Cave offers insights that point to a universal search for meaning. His growing popularity therefore offers the author hope: that more and more people are drawn to something much more human and nourishing than their screens. - END QUOTE -
And this is exactly the quintessence of our new project Why am I here? Or, to say it in another way, the question that has kept mankind busy since the very beginning: how do we give meaning to life? And it still keeps us busy.
Everyone asks themselves at some point: why am I here? What makes life worth living? What am I doing it for? What is the purpose of all this?
These questions are about meaning, the way people choose what to do with their lives to give it purpose and meaning. Fewer and fewer people are religious, but more and more people are looking for meaning and purpose.
What do you do then as a non-religious person? Do you still look for religion? Or do you look for other ways to give meaning and purpose to life? And which ones?
It is true that religions, grand narratives and political ideologies have become obsolete for many people. But if we look at how people in other times and cultures have given meaning to their lives, there is just an abundance of forms of meaning.
A recent study by The Central Bureau of Statistics Netherlands (CBS) mentions only four forms of meaning in the Netherlands: social relationships, personal development, religion or spirituality, and experiencing transcendence.
An American study in seventeen Western countries mentions a somewhat larger number of sixteen forms of meaning: family, work, well-being, social relationships, health, society,
freedom, hobbies, personal development, nature, love, involvement, travel, pension, religion or spirituality, and pets.'
There are already a lot of questions in my mind. Who has problems with the meaning of life? Is it only the Western individualistic person? Is it something universal or culture-determined and does the latter not lead to relativism?
So, we have plenty of work to do. Get ready...
Thank you for your attention again....
Main Sources:
MacMillan The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd edition
TABLE OF CONTENT -----------------------------------------------------------------
1 - 100 Philosophers 9 May 2009 Start of
2 - 25+ Women Philosophers 10 May 2009 this blog
3 - 25 Adventures in Thinking 10 May 2009
4 - Modern Theories of Ethics 29 Oct 2009
5 - The Ideal State 24 Febr 2010 / 234
6 - The Mystery of the Brain 3 Sept 2010 / 266
7 - The Utopia of the Free Market 16 Febr 2012 / 383
8. - The Aftermath of Neo-liberalism 5 Sept 2012 / 413
9. - The Art Not to Be an Egoist 6 Nov 2012 / 426
10 - Non-Western Philosophy 29 May 2013 / 477
11 - Why Science is Right 2 Sept 2014 / 534
12 - A Philosopher looks at Atheism 1 Jan 2015 / 557
13 - EVIL, a philosophical investigation 17 Apr 2015 / 580
14 - Existentialism and Free Will 2 Sept 2015 / 586
15 - Spinoza 2 Sept 2016 / 615
16 - The Meaning of Life 13 Febr 2017 / 637
17 - In Search of my Self 6 Sept 2017 / 670
18 - The 20th Century Revisited 3 Apr 2018 / 706
19 - The Pessimist 11 Jan 2020 / 819
20 - The Optimist 9 Febr 2020 / 824
21 - Awakening from a Neoliberal Dream 8 Oct 2020 / 872
22 - A World Full of Patterns 1 Apr 2021 / 912
23 - The Concept of Freedom 8 Jan 2022 / 965
24 - Materialism 7 Sept 2022 / 1011
25 - Historical Materialism 5 Oct 2023 / 1088
26 - The Bonobo and the Atheist 9 Jan 2024 / 1102
27 - Artificial Intelligence 9 Feb 2024 / 1108
28 - Why Am I Here 6 Sept 2024 / 1139
