I think it is important to understand that things do not, themselves, have meaning. Meaning is assigned by a subject. Meaning is imposed, it is not inherent.
Meaning has nothing to do with a thing itself, and everything to do with the subject who assigns the thing labels and meanings in order to distinguish and understand it within a context that makes sense for the subject. Without a subject, there is no such thing as meaning, there is no such thing as morality. For there needs to be someone there to choose what that meaning or morality will be. These concepts are utterly and wholly contingent, in that they are contingent on a subject (a dualistic ego-self) for their very existence. Thus, we never really define things, as much as we define ourselves through the meanings we assign to things.
Therefore, to try to find the meaning of anything, such as “life,” is fruitless, for it is impossible. It is we who (think we) find meaning by assigning meaning (or believing the professed meanings of other people), thereby, perhaps, unsuccessfully trying to define and understand ourselves, for we also cannot “exist” outside of context, and as with anything and everything, it is something’s context which, in the end, defines it (for us).
We are in control of our existences, for while it is true that we are defined by the context in which we exist, most people live by means of their conditioned existences, and we have the power to deconstruct that conditioned existence and live free of the illusions that built, and build, it.
We have no way of understanding existence—things—without context. Context is the very way that we think and understand the world. This is what Kant is talking about in his metaphysics. This is something that we cannot seem to escape from. But, that is not necessarily true. We are limited by our language, and the nature of language. Language is a prison if it is mindlessly mistaken for truth. We need to free ourselves from the prisons of our conditioned existences if we are to be able to go beyond our current limited ways of thinking, comprehending, and understanding. What we need to do is reformulate, reexamine our very understanding of reality and existence; we need to free ourselves from the limits of needing context.
Meaning is inherently subject to context. Change the context and you change the meaning—not necessarily of the thing itself, but what you mean by it. That is why, ultimately (for those who need meaning), something means what you want it to mean, just like something is “worth” only what someone is willing to pay for it. Worth and value, like meaning, is assigned and chosen. None of these necessarily say anything about the thing itself, only about the person (subject) needing to define himself through his chosen and imposed concepts of “meaning” and “worth.”
Thus, what is the “meaning of life?” Life “means” whatever you want it to mean; the search for “meaning” is pointless, for in the end, you are just chasing after an illusion of your own—or someone else’s—making. Meaning defines the subject, not the object.
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From my personal notes, 8/25/99.
