Michael asked:

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?...just kidding.

I see a lot of questions that ask mainly about the meaning of life. Experiences, feelings, thinking,
loving, right or wrong, etc. I've always wondered what life meant as well. I also wonder why things
even exist at all. At what point was the mere concept of "being" established? why is there anything?
why is anything else besides the black of the universe? what is that black? why is it black? do we
really live in a huge nothing? or is the whole universe one giant living organism? why is the universe
so complex that we can't fathom it's endless reach?

So my question is really....WHY DO WE EVEN ASK WHY? and if you can answer that...why can you
answer it? there is no end to why. Could it be that "why?" is the only thing more complex than the
universe? why?

and Annie asked:

I'm a year 8 philosophy student and I would like to know why we keep asking why?

============

"Which came first, the chicken or the egg?...just kidding."

Why just kidding? It is a serious question that has an answer. The answer is, the chicken came first.
The chicken evolved from a lower species, reptiles, I believe, and when it evolved and was a chicken,
it laid an egg.

"I see a lot of questions that ask mainly about the meaning of life..."

As for the question, what is the meaning of life, I don't think there is an answer to that general
question. But I think that there is an answer to the question, what is the meaning of a particular life,
for instance, yours. The answer to that is the meaning, or significance that you yourself give to your
life. The lives of people are meaningful or not depending on what individual persons do with their lives
and how they conduct themselves throughout their lives. Clearly, the life of Mother Theresa or of
Albert Einstein were meaningful and important. But what of the life of Princess Diane? That is
questionable, for she did very little to make her life meaningful. My point is that you should not expect,
as apparently some people do expect, for the significance of their live to come somehow from
external sources, God or whatever. The meaning of one's life in internal. And the question, what is the
meaning of life (in general) has no answer, for it is a little like asking the question, what is the
meaning of eating mashed potatoes? It is too general to admit of a sensible answer.

"And if you can answer that...why can you answer it? there is no end to why..."

"I would like to know why we keep asking why?"

As in the above case, the reason your general question seems to have no answer is that it is too
general and lacks a context. The answer to "why do we ask why?" is that in the context in which we
ask, we are asking for an answer to a particular question. The question, "Why does water freeze at a
temperature of 0 degrees centigrade?" certainly does have an answer, and there are obvious reasons
for asking that question. But all questions need a context. The English philosopher used to talk about
the fallacy of asking about nothing in particular. You just might be committing that fallacy.

Ken Stern

I have never wondered about the meaning of life because the question "why" doesn't seem applicable
to life. Things just are. When we ask "why?" we are looking for a reason or explanation and we have
to be justified in doing this. We are not justified in asking why if the question doesn't fall within the
realm of the explanatory.

Meaning is the significance something has. The relevant question concerning meaning or significance
is "what?". We can ask about the significance of love and feelings and the answer is probably
functional, or evolutionary because our explanation and reasons have a causal nature. We can also
ask "why" do we love and have feelings and the answer will be in the same terms because
explanations in terms of functionality and evolution are of a causal nature. Our notions of function and
evolution are based on the way the world actually seems to us, and we are justified in thinking in this
way because we cannot think otherwise. We can come up with weird mystical explanatory theories,
but these are speculative and we'll have problems getting others to accept them as true.

There is no point in asking "what is the meaning of life?". Firstly this is because it is not an analysable
concept, or something that picks out a state of affairs, but another way of putting the question "why
are we here?" Secondly, if there is a reason we are here it is not causal or functional in the sense of
physical explanation, and the only form of explanation is metaphysical. And, whereas physical
explanation has a point in that it helps us to understand the workings of the world and we cannot help
but think in causal explanatory terms, metaphysical explanation is of no use and only functions to
satisfy religious feelings in mankind. Metaphysical commitments are relative. Some people don't
believe that there is anything beyond that which can be understood in physical causal terms.

I agree that metaphysical questions are interesting, but only when we asking the "what?" question.
What is the nature of consciousness and what is the nature of our ethical relations are interesting
questions. Here we are looking at the nature of mankind rather than why he is, and the latter question
seems ridiculous. The person with a yen for the religious or the mystical thinks that "why are we
here?" falls within the realm of explanation but he is wrong.

Of course, sometimes we don't have an explanation because we haven't yet the ability to understand
and explain. So we do often ask "why?", seeking an explanation, but as I say this is only justified if it
is the sort of question which is answerable in terms of our natural capacity for explanation. Otherwise,
you can go on asking "why, why, why" as a child does but sometimes the parent has to answer "well,
that's just the way it is". Basically, asking "why" when there isn't an answer is really an age and
personality related thing.

Rachel Browne