The idea that life could ever have a single definable “meaning” disappears with ample consideration of the infinite possibilities of what a person could find meaningful, the myriad crystallizations of meaningfulness that form where consciousness and circumstance meet. But while a definitive “meaning” is out of reach, the phenomenon of experiencing “meaningfulness” is undeniable. We perceive some activities, like writing a blog post on a worthy subject, to be meaningful, while others, like mindlessly scrolling through social media, seem an obvious waste of time. Where does that distinction come from? It must arise from evolution.
A longing for meaning is nearly universal among homo sapiens, and so it must bring some evolutionary advantage. Natural selection makes us both selfish and communal beings. Our desire to survive and thrive brings a concurrent desire for our communities to survive and thrive. We’re also hierarchical creatures, with certain members of a community surviving, reproducing, and thriving more than others. We’re wired, then, to (a) make our communities as strong as possible while (b) pursuing the highest possible rank within a social hierarchy. The activities that satisfy both of these innate desires are the activities we experience as meaningful.
Writing a blog post on a worthy subject could add insight to society’s understanding of itself while bringing esteem to the author. In effect, it strengthens both the community and the author’s standing within it. Therefore, we experience it as meaningful. Mindlessly scrolling through social media helps neither society nor the scroller, and can even be alienating. Therefore, we experience it as meaningless. This same thought experiment can be applied to practically every activity we engage in.
So life might not have “a meaning,” but we certainly experience meaningfulness. Looking at the question from an evolutionary perspective, it makes perfect sense that we would.
