Abstract: Human life is spent in a densely woven web of meanings — meanings big and small. It is virtually impossible for us to imagine life without meaning, and when we do, it tends to resemble either utter chaos or vast emptiness. We need and want meaning. Although meaning does a variety of things for people, this chapter will focus on the function of meaning as an existential anxiety buffer. We will argue that the relentless human search for meaning is motivated, to a significant extent, by awareness of mortality, and that meaning can assuage the potential terror born from this awareness. We start with a discussion of what meaning is, after which we examine how meaning at different levels of abstraction helps people deal with the unsettling knowledge of their own mortality.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Aug 2013 18:34:18 +0000
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