Two words, often misunderstood and used, by mid-wits, as synonyms.
When a mediocre-mind, i.e., midwit, average intellect, asks:
"
What is the meaning of life?" what he is asking is "
Why do I exist?" meaning nor
"how do I and everything came into being?" but
"what should I do with my existence?"
I've associated this with nihilism and how 'nihilism' itself is now part of the nihilistic paradigm, viz., if the world has no god, no purpose, no absolute, no universal morality, then it is 'negative' when, in fact this absence is what makes it 'positive'.
First some definitions:Meaning = how knowledge inter-relates.
Meaning has to do with understanding and understanding is about finding patterns in the data patterns we call knowledge and perception.
So, meaning is about connecting the dots of awareness to reveal an image, a pattern, usually indicating an objective.
Mid-wits need someone to make the connections for them, and to be given an objective.
The connections will be bolded to indicate strength of connectivity, emphasizing certain connections, shading them as one would an image to give it depth.
Religion was the original authority that made these connections for mid-wits, but with its gradual deterioration as an institution mid-wits came to rely on alternate guides, like ideologues.
Purpose = an objective.
Usually indicated by the previous. Meaning i usually accompanied by a direction, a conspicuous or inconspicuous path, i.e., way, direction.
Mid-wits want to be given an objective....they cannot give themselves one but are entirely dependent no an authority to provide them this objective.
They need a leader, a father...a god....a guru....some kind of icon to reveal for them an idol.
Priests were these mediators, exploiting the mediocre masses, i.e., masses, since the beginning of human culture.
But they lost favour and now are replaced by ideologues, politicians, celebrities, popular icons of fame and fortune - philosopher kings, e.g., Nietzsche, Jesus, Socrates, Hitler, Marx, Buddha etc.
When a mid-wit asks:
"What is the meaning or purpose of life/existence?" he/she is asking to be guided, asking for a leader, a mentor...someone to show him how it all connects, and to take him down the path towards an objective, or be shown, pointing out an objective, to dedicate his life towards its pursuit.
Herd-Psyhcology.
They follow wherever the herd goes, and the herd goes where the dominant member leads - or the Judas goat takes them.
The absence of a clear and obvious meaning is, for mid-wits, distressing, forcing them to depend on others to connect the dots, with the appropriate emphasis to represent strength of connectivity; the appropriate sequence, represented mathematically: from
point 1, draw a light line, or dotted line, or curved line to
point 2, and from point 2 draw a bold straight line to point 3...gradually a pattern is revealed in what was a confusion of disconnected dots....
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]The intent of the guide can make any connection's, emphasizing any line, creating whatever image they desire....and the mid-wit will think it magical - as if what was in front of him was always conjured out of nothing and nowhere.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]How do we recognize good from bad connections?
Take the resulting image....does it correspond to something in the real world, independent from the mind?
Is the ensuring image a unicorn, a man, or a map of Europe, or is it a map of Avalon in a fantasy realm?
Is the map a precise representation of a geography?
This last point is what objectivity does - it evaluates the subjective image - connecting the data dots of knowledge to produce some kind of understanding - with an objective referent, viz., a map of the environment can be independently verified and evaluated because it refers to a geographical space/time.
The bolding of lines on such a map wold represent value - elevation, distance, terrain, point of interest etc.
The points on the map would be potential objectives - purposes - to be selected by the traveler on his own.