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Articles

The Meaning of ‘Meaning’

Stephen Anderson asks what we mean when we ask if existence has a meaning.

In their 1983 film The Meaning of Life, Monty Python took their departing shot at the movie-going public, and simultaneously at philosophical aspirations. With their customary combination of profundity and profanity they systematically skewered the idea that any meaning at all can be derived from the pell-mell absurdity of human life. Tracking Shakespeare’s ‘Seven Ages of Man’, the film derided every scheme by which humankind tries to assign purpose to the universe. It culminated in the following pronouncement:

Lady Presenter: Well, that’s the end of the film. Now, here’s the meaning of life.

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