What do people live for? What is the meaning of life? Ever since the birth of mankind, the search has been on the lookout for answers to these questions. Some people find the answer, and many people may be on the way to find it for the rest of their lives.
The answers to the questions are not the same, you consult 1,000 people, there may be 1,000 different answers. So is there an ideal and most scientific answer that can be recognized by the vast majority of people? Today we will try to explore the answer to this question.
Man is human because we have social attributes that distinguish the natural attributes of animals. Man is the sum of social relations and the organic unity of natural and social attributes. Therefore, when we consider the meaning of life, we must combine the current situation of social development and not think in isolation from society. This requires exploring the nature of social development:
The essence or fundamental dynamic of social development lies in the contradiction between the infinity of human needs and the finiteness of resources.
Since the birth of mankind, it has been trying to solve this contradiction, and the process of resolving this contradiction has promoted the development and progress of society. The human solution to this contradiction is mainly from two aspects: one is to solve the problem of limited resources, and the other is to solve the problem of the infinity of needs.
There are roughly two ways to address the limited resources.
First, to improve the productive forces, so that our resources, both in type and quantity, become rich, for example, the continuous updating and iteration of new products and services, the continuous improvement of production efficiency, so Marxism put forward the theory of the dialectical relationship between productive forces and production relations.
Second, reform the way resources are allocated. Take the current sharing economy. Slave society, feudal society and capitalist society use the system to achieve class differentiation, so that the upper class first obtains sufficient resources, and then lets other classes obtain resources accordingly.
There are two main ways to solve the infinite needs.
One is to reduce our needs. For example, the creation and dissemination of religious beliefs. Several major religions in the current world actually advocate "destroying people's desires" and reducing people's needs through the power of faith.
The second is to guide and transfer demand. For example, through education to disseminate the core values of society and universal morality to guide demand, the use of law to regulate people's needs, the use of folk etiquette and customs to transfer needs. In a typical case, when there is a lack of materials, it guides everyone to pay attention to the pursuit and happiness of the spirit.
Know the nature of social development. We can try to make a scientific definition of the meaning of life: the meaning of life lies in the use of scientific and sustainable methods to promote social progress, that is, to use scientific and sustainable methods to solve the contradiction between the infinity of human needs and the finiteness of resources.
Not only the development of society, but also the development of the individual's body and mind can be compared, and there is also this contradiction between the needs of the individual mind and the resources corresponding to satisfy the mind and senses.
If we use our knowledge and abilities to solve the specific problems corresponding to these contradictions, then life has meaning.
Some people pursue the dream of the richest man, so they use science and technology and management to seize the world's wealth; some people pursue the harmony and happiness of the family, so they use psychology and pedagogy and other methods to deal with family relations and obtain family happiness; some people pursue career success, so they apply industry knowledge and ability to the extreme, and gain social recognition; some people pursue inner peace, so they read thousands of books and travel thousands of miles, so that they do not like things and do not grieve with themselves; some people pursue happiness and freedom, so as to discover and solve human suffering and shackles. Ultimately self-actualization.
Under the limited time and energy resources, find your own meaning in life according to your own value ranking.