Meaningness

Why it matters

It names the trap on both sides of meaning — fixating on it, or denying it — and shows a stance that avoids both.

A book written online, and the most practically useful thing I’ve read on meaning. Chapman invents a word — meaningness — for the quality of being meaningful and/or meaningless, and then refuses both of the obvious answers. Eternalism fixates on meaning. Nihilism denies it. Both are wrong, and both make you miserable.

The alternative he calls the complete stance: meaningness is always both nebular and patterned, and you can work with that rather than against it. Four steps, applied to ethics, purpose, identity, and society. Buddhist in its roots — nebulosity is close to emptiness, pattern close to form — but written for people who have already rejected religious answers.

meaningness.com

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