Choosing Meaning Without Certainty

Why it attracts me

Many ideas on this map, about souls, shared awareness and other worlds, may never be settled. That could easily become an excuse to wait. Existential philosophy is the counterweight I reach for.

The idea

Existentialism is a movement in philosophy linked above all with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, with Søren Kierkegaard as an earlier forerunner. Its common thread is that people must decide how to live without guaranteed answers about why we exist. Meaning, in this view, comes largely through the commitments we make and the responsibility we accept for them. Blaming circumstances, or waiting for certainty, can become ways of avoiding a choice.

What I think (and don't know)

I do not take on every existentialist conclusion; the larger pictures elsewhere on this map, like A Universe Learning About Itself, show that I still wonder about a meaning beyond the one I choose. What I take from the tradition is narrower and very usable: I can take responsibility for my choices, relationships and work now, while the biggest questions stay open. That pairs naturally with Acting With Purpose Without Full Control, where acting with purpose does not require controlling the outcome.

Where it connects

Purpose: Given by the Universe or Chosen? asks whether purpose is given or chosen; this idea suggests that a chosen purpose can be enough to live by. Knowing the Limits of What I Know and A Philosophy Under Construction keep the stance honest, because taking responsibility includes being willing to be wrong.

Questions I'm still exploring

• How much certainty do I actually need before making a big commitment?
• When does waiting for more information become a way of avoiding a choice?
• Can a chosen meaning run as deep as a meaning I believe is given?

Sources and further reading

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Existentialism” — Overview of the movement, its forerunners and its main themes of freedom, responsibility and choice.