- Finding happiness and fulfillment through relationships, hobbies, giving back to others, expressing creativity, personal growth.
- Discovering purpose and using one’s talents to make a positive difference in the world.
- Seeking spiritual transcendence or unity with a higher power or absolute truth.
- Appreciating beauty, truth, and goodness, especially through nature, art, logic, ethics.
- Advancing knowledge and understanding about ourselves and the world.
- Experiencing joy in the present moment.
- Developing virtue and character strengths.
- Contributing value to one’s family, community, society.
- Overcoming challenges and suffering to find growth.
- Leaving a meaningful legacy for future generations.
Tier 2
- Human life is inherently meaningless, as we are just tiny specks in a vast, indifferent universe (nihilistic view). Meaning is something we artificially construct.
- There is no overarching “meaning of life.” Instead, meaning comes from making the most of our relationships, pursuing goals and passions, appreciating beauty and joy, and leaving a positive legacy.
- Life has meaning beyond human understanding. There may be divine or mystical sources of meaning we can’t comprehend. Surrendering the search helps us appreciate life’s mysteries.
- Existence itself is meaningful. The universe sprang into being for a purpose, though we may not understand it with our limited human consciousness.
- Life’s meaning cannot be separated from the rest of the universe. We find meaning by living in harmony with nature/the cosmos and recognizing our interconnectedness.
- The meaning of life is to reduce suffering for all conscious beings. This gives moral purpose on both a human and universal scale.
- There is no “meaning of life” to find except the meaning we create through our choices and actions. Meaning comes from using our freedom responsibly.
Tier 3
- Process philosophy – The essence of the universe is not things, but dynamic processes and relationships. Meaning comes from harmonizing with and contributing to these cosmic creative processes.
- Systems theory – All entities in the universe are interconnected in a web of relationships forming one grand system. Meaning comes from understanding our role and impact on the whole.
- Self-organization – The emergence of order, complexity and consciousness in the universe is guided by inherent principles of self-organization and teleology. Meaning comes from aligning with this pull towards unity.
- Cosmic evolution – Like biological evolution, the universe evolves toward increasing complexity, consciousness and sentience. Our meaning is to advance this evolution.
- Experience machine – Reality may be a simulated experience created by unknown entities or forces. Meaning comes from playing our assigned role in this drama, though the grand purpose remains veiled.
- Mathematical beauty – The universe manifests elegant mathematical patterns and universals. Meaning comes from discerning and appreciating these abstract ideals and truths.
- Unfathomable scale – With billions of galaxies each containing billions of stars, in the span of billions of years, our human existence and concerns are of little consequence. Meaning is only what we ascribe to it.