In 1925, Albert Weiss, in his "rain-drop analogy" shows the silliness in thinking, via anthropomorphic reasoning, that the "purpose" of every drop of water in the atmosphere is to get to the ground or ocean; and that human behavior is but a more complicated form of the same forces that act on rain drops. |
See main: Purpose terminology reformThe first to explain purpose in a non-theological, non-teleological, and non-anthropomorphic way, were Harold Blum (1934) and Bruce Lindsay (1983), independently, in terms of thermodynamic potential wells (i.e. Gibbs energy minimums); some of this has been expanded on by Libb Thims, via the "Gates model", in the "Smartest Person Existive (2014)" video series and "Zerotheism for Kids" (2015) video lecture.
“Is it just a crazy, cosmic stroke of luck that we’re here at all? Or do human beings have some larger, mysterious purpose?”
See main: Random chanceInto the early 20th century, following the publication of English naturalist Charles Darwin’s 1859 Origin of Species, which introduced the theory of the origin of life by evolution to the world, in replacement to the Christian-Ra theology based theory of creation of life by god, followed by Dutch botanist Hugo de Vries’ 1901 gene-centric mutation theory of evolution, the non-religious view began to emerge that humans are accidental collections of atoms, formed though evolution, as a result of blind random chance mutations of genes. [2] The following is a representative 1923 quote of this view by American mathematician-philosopher Bertrand Russell: [3]
“That man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collections of atoms.”
See main: Purposeless universe hypothesisInto the latter half of the 20th century, following the discovery of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953, a DNA-centric, blind watchmaker model of purpose began to emerge. This is exemplified in the works of English zoologist Richard Dawkins, namely The Selfish Gene (1976) and The Blind Watchmaker (1986), as is summarized in his famous 1991 quote: [4]
“We are machines built by DNA whose purpose is to make more copies of the same DNA. That is exactly what we are here for. We are machines for propagating DNA, and the propagation of DNA is a self-sustaining process. It is every living object’s sole reason for living.”
The toothpaste maker Colgate indicates that the sodium fluoride NaF has a "purpose", which in some way, supposedly, contradicts the "purposeless universe hypothesis" advocated by many leading modern scientists, which holds that purpose does not exist in the universe, and that by repercussion chemicals and molecules, and presumably human molecules (people), do not likewise have purpose. |
See main: Chemical teleologyThe following labeling notation on a tube of toothpaste indicates that the chemical compound sodium fluoride NaF has an "anticavity" PURPOSE, in the structure of the universe, or at least according to Colgate, namely to prevent cavities in the teeth human molecules (people), a labeling which would seem to contradict the "purposeless universe hypothesis" advocated by many leading scientists:
See main: Human chemical thermodynamicsThe quick and short chemical thermodynamics answer to the big question of purpose and meaning of human existence and movement is still a nascent subject, albeit one with a general outline and protocol, and certainly several grades above the so-called meaningless-purposeless model trumpeted about by individuals like Russell, Dawkins, and Weinberg.
The materialist explanation of purpose and meaning, according to American materialist philosopher Owen Flanagan, is called "the really hard problem" in modern philosophy. [1] |
“Destiny urges me to a goal of which I am ignorant. Until that goal is attained I am invulnerable, unassailable. When destiny has accomplished her purpose in me, a fly may suffice to destroy me.”— Napoleon Bonaparte (1816), In His Own Words
“Life is meaningless so find a purpose.”— Dilvinder Singh (2016), “Thread post #53” (Ѻ), Apr 9; brother of Inderjit Singh; see: Thims’ response; thread post #54; and follow-up thread: “Is There Truly a Greater Purpose or Meaning to Life?” (Ѻ), Apr 10
The above “tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” question, a popular 1992 quote (Ѻ) by American poet Mary Oliver, from her The Summer Day, seems to well-capture the gist of what most conceptualize by the term "purpose", which often has association with the connective terms: destiny and meaning, and tends to lead into ideas, religious models aside, about following, doing, or going after, what one is passionate about (Ѻ) or into plans about doing makes one “come alive”, as Howard Thurman suggests. |