Meaning <-> Ethics
As mentioned before, in my philosophy journey I started out as a hedonist/nihilist. After reading Existentialist philosophers, I moved onto subjectivism - you create your own meaning in life. And now I’m creeping towards objective ethics. The late modern philosopher Derek Parfit surmised if you don’t believe in objective ethics, life loses meaning.
Meaning and ethics are not the same thing, but they do imply each other. Sartre never finished a book on ethics, but his ethics can be inferred from his actions (and through his partner, Beauvoir’s book of ethics.) He thought that life’s meaning revolved around freedom, and he spent the later part of his life fighting oppression. I tried to write a paper that this should apply to animals but my professor said that Existentialism is by definition on related to human existence.
From Existentialists’ readings, I couldn’t see how meaning/ethics can be disentangled from our subjective viewpoint. That everything must be subjective. Parfit makes the claim there can still be objective ethics. Parfit’s most acclaimed work, “Persons and Reasons” has been described as a death by 1000 cuts. He systematically disproves common ethical theories. It’s described in a clear matter, but I couldn’t get past 20 pages.
I believe now that despite our subjective lens, that we can all converge to an objective ethics. I think this is perspectivism, but I haven’t really studied it.* As mentioned before, I have a gut emotional reaction to animal death, but I also have a philosophical belief.
Arthur Brooks, author of “From Strength to Strength” (which I highly recommend) thinks it’s important to go through a transcendental walk to find meaning, and that it is critical to a happy life. One of my professors described philosophy as a verb, that it is an ongoing discussion. So I’m sure my views will constantly change, but I’m enjoying the walk at the moment.
*Disclaimer - I’m a philosophy noob. I’m subject to really understanding the nuance of some of these terms, and maybe flat out wrong.