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Author: F. Heylighen,
Date : Jan 31, 1995 (modified); Apr 22, 1994 (created)
Parent Node(s):
What is the meaning of life?
The quick answer to this fundamental question is the following:
The meaning of life is to increase fitness.
In order to start giving the long answer, we should first examine each of the key terms in this sentence:
- meaning:
- a very complex concept which can have many interpretations. In this context we will assume it signifies the "why" (origin, past) or "wherefor" (purpose, future) of life, but in a way our answer also may explain us the "what" (definition, present).
- life:
- in this context it normally means our present being here on earth, but this may be generalized to include life as a particular type of organization and development characterizing biological organisms, and even more universally as organization and development in general.
- fitness:
- intuitively, a system, configuration or "state-of-affairs" is fit if it is likely that that configuration will still be around in the future. The more likely we are to encounter that system, the more fit it is. Though there are many ways to be fit, depending on the exact situation, we may say that fit systems tend to be intrinsically stable, adapted and adapting to their surroundings, capable of further growth and development, and/or capable of being (re)produced in great quantities.
Fitness is the most important and tricky term of the answer to define (see e.g. a definition in terms of transition probabilities). It can only be defined in terms which are not obvious themselves, and so need further definitions, and so on. One can hope that after a few rounds of definitions, the meaning will become sufficiently intuitive to be satisfactory for most readers. The whole of Principia Cybernetica Web can be viewed as an attempt to provide a sufficiently extensive semantic networks of concepts clarifying concepts (such as "fitness").
- increase:
- this should be obvious enough. The use of the term "increase" implies that the concept to which it is attributed, "fitness", is to some degree quantifiable. Note, however, that it is everything but obvious how to do this: fitness is difficult to measure, and is relative, depending on situation, environment and moment in time. At the very least, we assume that there eists a partial ordering, i.e. some configurations are more fit than others. A more general form of the answer is "not to decrease fitness": in some circumstances it may be good enough to keep fitness the way it is.
We may conclude by paraphrasing the answer in the following way: the purpose of (living) organization is to continuously increase future probabilities of encountering this same type of organization. The argumentation for this can be found in the variation and selection principles of evolution. This answer provides a foundation for answering the other fundamental questions of philosophy:
- What exists? (ontology)
- configurations that have a minimal fitness. Below a certain fitness treshold, phenomena are so variable, or fleeting that they cannot be observed in any objective manner, and have no causal influence on anything else, so we might as well say that they don't exist. Examples are "virtual particles" in quantum field theories.
- What is (true) knowledge? (epistemology)
- fit models or representations of fit configurations. Phenomena with low fitness are too unstable to allow reliable models (see previous paragraph). Good models should satisfy some additional criteria in order to be fit themselves.
- How should we act? (ethics)
- by doing things that increase our own long-term fitness, taking into account the fitness of the systems (society, ecosystems) to which we belong. Enhancing long-term fitness is the fundamental good, or basic value of our philosophical system.
Annotations:
URL= http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MEANLIFE.html