what is the meaning of life?

truth
Thanks, Wolf, for an interesting insight: The universe is small qualitatively (because of its homogeneity--if that is so) as it is unthinkably large quantitatively. I know I'm paraphrasing beyond you exact meaning. I, for one, think that questions of the size of the universe are generally meaningless. I can't imagine its boundaries, as I've said before, and therefore it is not a finite "thing" having a size.
BYW, it is corrrect to phrase the question in the singular, "What is THE meaning of life"?

I prefer 'What does life mean?'

Any reflections on the Jung quote?

truth
Wolf, better, but still a bit too singular for me. Regarding Jung's edict, the more information we have for comparative analysis the better. But I do not think the comparative approach is the only one. Do you? Did Jung?

Come to think of it: if life is merely the spontaneous result of the universe's physical constraints, it's trivial to ask for the meaning of life as if it were an isolated event. One should rather ask the question: what is the meaning of the universe? Hence: what is the meaning of everything that exists? Hence also: what is the meaning of meaning?

Forget it.

Life means what we perceive of it. Some lean on religion for comfort, while others turn to all manners of beliefs and activities. Who knows what's right and what's wrong? We all try to make the best of what we perceive to be "my life." c.i.

So how would autists perceive the world cicerone imposter???

My opinion that they actually live in a whole different world. they are Gods in their world. Probably a bizarre world. Just a simple opinion

Dux, It's not only autistics that are a mystery. How about idiot savants? Many have the mental capacity of what we would classify as genius. c.i.

"Witness the man who raved at the wall as he wrote his questions to Heaven."

--Li He

truth
I think you've got it, C.I.--"Life means what we perceive of it"--I don't think of meaning as something objective, "out there" in the world. Meaning is what we (the meaning makers) creatively construct and ascribe to the world.

It just is.

Yes, as some famous old philosophers once said:

Let It Be

Indeed, but that doesn't exclude the existence of universal truths, of connections to be discovered... and shared. If there weren't any connections, we wouldn't be here to live in the first place.

Science, for all its weaknesses, is exactly the attempt to find common ground in the bottomless pit of personal opinions. And philosophy translates science into everyday language.

Reality is universal before it is about to be reflected. Our whole striving is to reflect as much universality as possible without distortion.

wolf, Some cultures have lived in isolation for millenia. Their truths are not universal. They live and die not knowing what exists outside their small village. c.i.

truth
Well put, Wolf, although I am still wary of "universal truths" unless by the terms one means simply cognitively coined empirical generalizations. C.I., you talk of the non-universality of "truths" of small scale isolated societies. Philosophers tend to mean by "universal truths" not ideas that are shared by the entire world but truths that (in some way I don't understand) apply everywhere. What you are referring to seems to be the anthropologist's reference to transcultural--or culturally transcendent--constructs/notions.

My view of the so called "universal truths" is that they are simply common axioms, and laws of science (which I hasten to add are not laws at all, but actual descriptions of the way things are, crafted from eons of struggle and discovery).

Cicerone, I'm sure you'll find paraphrased views in common between isolated indigenous tribes and their modern scientific counterparts. Those common views would again indicate that something eternal and cross-cultural can be reflected by conscience, whomever it belongs to. We are the sensitive shores of the universe, and how much we are able to absorb only depends on our level of consciousness.

Other examples of 'universal truths' would be the mathematical communicability between us and other planetary civilizations, and the parallels between Eastern spiritualism and quantum physics.

Universal truth are laws, like the one that says:
The matter doesn't destroys or it isn't created, it just changes

That's an universal truth, the perception of it can be different, nevertheless the essence of the law stays the same.

And i inhabit existential jail . . .

Breakin' rocks in the
Hot sun.
I fought the law and the law won.
I fought the law and the law won.

Setanta;

(I have a key!)

Try this link on Universal Truths, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4588768,00.html