this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2024
71 points (94.9% liked)

Philosophy

1765 readers
1 users here now

All about Philosophy.

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Many of us spend our lives thinking of science and philosophy. Looking for answers to the meaning of life the universe and our place in it. And then eventually we die. Have we not accomplished anything? Does our knowledge somehow live on beyond death? What is the point of seeking knowledge?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 24 points 2 months ago

The way I see it:

Our brains like to recognise patterns, this is an evolutionary trait of ours.

Acquiring knowledge gives us the understanding to identify more patterns

This manifests as that good feeling when something new clicks and it makes sense where it didn't before. Dopamine is the source of that good feeling and it's part of our brains' reward system to motivate us to do things that'll help us survive.

Chemically, the point of life is to do stuff that triggers our reward systems, and so we seek out the good feeling that comes with figuring stuff out like we seek out other sources of it.

So basically, the meaning of life is to enjoy life, and humans just enjoy learning