Ultimate Meaning: We Don’t Have It, We Can’t Get It, and We Should Be Very, Very Sad

Jul 6, 2026

Life is presented as pointless, and the work argues that the right kind of “point” is a valued end. Valued ends supply justifying reasons for acts, efforts, and projects, and they are distinct from the activities that realize them. Because a life contains all of one’s ends, there can be no external end that would give life an overall point. Given how people shape a human life both in parts and as a whole, recognizing life’s pointlessness fits a posture of sadness, clarifying related literature often treated indirectly.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryReligion & Spirituality

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

Ultimate Meaning

Meaning of “meaning” and focus on “point”

Points as valued ends

Telic vs. atelic pursuits and enduring purpose

Article Ultimate Meaning: We Don’t Have It, We Can’t Get It, and We Should Be Very, Very Sad Rivka Weinberg Scripps College; [rivka_weinberg@scrippscollege.edu](rivka_weinberg@scrippscollege.edu) Submitted: 28 May 2020, accepted: 21 October 2020, published: 25 April 2021 Abstract: Life is pointless. That’s not okay. I show that. I argue that a point is a valued end and that, as agents, it makes sense for us to want our efforts and enterprises to have a point. Valued ends provide justifying reasons for our acts, efforts, and projects. I further argue that ends lie separate from the acts and enterprises for which they provide a point. Since there can be no end external to one’s entire life since one’s life includes all of one’s ends, leading and living one’s life as a whole cannot have a point. Finally, I argue that since we live our lives and structure our living a human life efforts both in parts and as a whole, it is fitting to be sad to recognize that leading and living a life is pointless. My discussion helps make sense of the literature that frequently talks around this topic but often does so vaguely and indirectly. Keywords: meaning of life; ultimate meaning; pointlessness; everyday meaning How to cite: Weinberg, R. Ultimate Meaning: We Don’t Have It, We Can’t Get It, and We Should Be Very, Very Sad. Journal of Controversial Ideas 2021 , 1(1), 4; doi:10 .35995/jci01010004 . © 2021 Copyright by the author. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. I. Ultimate Meaning Some people worry that life is pointless. That’s because it is. I don’t say that flippantly or glibly. I mean it and I will show it. The “meaning” of life can refer to several different things, including value, explanation, upshot, impact, significance, purpose, or point.1 One cause of some confusion in the literature on the meaning of life is that which meaning of “meaning” is being used is not always sufficiently specified, even when the various meanings of the term are acknowledged. I will focus on “point” or “pointlessness,” as I take that to capture the essence of the problem of the meaning of life: it’s pointless. Not necessarily the things we do or projects we pursue within a life, but the effort or enterprise 1 For a discussion of the many meanings and uses of the term “meaning,” especially regarding the meaning of life, see Terry Eagleton, The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2008) . of leading and having lived your entire life—what I call its “Ultimate Meaning;” the point of leading and living a life at all. Just as the meaning of life is sometimes discussed without sufficiently specifying which meaning of “meaning” is in play, having a “point,” is sometimes invoked without sufficient specification.2 What exactly does it mean for something to have a point? I suggest that a point is a valued end (be the value objective or subjective) 3; an enterprise or effort has a point, or is purposeful, if we have justified reason to do it because of its valued end.4 Thus, the builder drives the nail into the wood to build a hut for a purpose, an end of value. What ties point to value is the end regarding reason you build the hut: you build the hut because you value the shelter provided the hut. (And you value the shelter because you value yourself. We can continue to ask about value until we arrive at something that has intrinsic value) . In your hut building enterprise, the shelter (or the person enjoying it) is your valued end, or the point of all that building.5 Purpose has “value commitments”6 and involves valued ends. If an enterprise is directed toward or grounded7 by an end then the end is being valued; it’s the point of the enterprise. This does not entail that seemingly process oriented or atelic pursuits are pointless and not directed toward orgrounded by any valued ends. E.g. , if

FAQs

What is “ultimate meaning” in the article?

Ultimate meaning is the point of leading and living an entire life as a whole, not the point of individual activities within a life.

How does the author define something having a point?

A point is defined as a valued end: an enterprise has a point when there are justified reasons to pursue it because it realizes something valued.

Why does the author argue that living a life cannot have a point?

Because any end relevant to one’s life must lie within one’s entire life, there can be no end external to one’s life that could provide an overall point.

Jul 6, 2026

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