Comments on “No ultimate meaning”

I just want to say it makes me happy to see you posting again. This is great work!

PS have you read The Autonomy of Mathematical Knowledge yet?

Does meaning not naturally arise from a self regulating system doing its thing ie the Universe’s overall pattern of translating energy from one form to another. Since we are an integral part of that system and cannot step outside it we share that same meaning at all levels, from the very intimate and particular to the eternal?

How about the idea of ultimate as the last meaning ina chain of meaning, that gives the prior links in the chain their meaning? E.g. I work so that I can get money so that I can buy a meal at a fancy restaurant so that I can experience the pleasure of eating the fancy food. All of the prior steps are instrumental-I do this so I can get that. Only the last step requires no further justification-pleasure is it’s own reward, it doesn’t need a why.

With this sense of ‘ultimate’, ultimate matter not because it is the highest meaning on a scale but because it is the last link in a chain and if it fails, the whole chain is worthless. If I become disenchanted with pure material pleasure like a fancy meal, because pleasure is fleeting, etc., then why am I working hard to get money.

Or let’s say I do everything for my family, so they are my ultimate meaning. But in what way exactly? If my pleasure doesn’t matter, why does my children’s pleasure? Maybe it isn’t my children’s pleasure but that they will have children of their own. So is it my grandchildren’s pleasure that finally matters? Ultimate meaning is ultimate because it provides meaning to all the prior links in the chain; nihilism creeps in when we start to doubt that last link.