Is The Purpose of Life To Make It New?

On Existentialism and Teleology

Why do we exist?

Aristotle thinks it’s to be good, to flourish, whatever that might mean.

Moralists think it’s to pursue justice and make the world better.

Kabbalists think it’s to repair God.

Hegelians and rationalists think it’s to have absolute knowledge.

People who believe in karma and past lives think it’s to learn lessons and correct past mistakes.

Materialists think there’s no purpose to life; it’s random.

I’m of the view that the purpose of life is to have insights that nobody else has every had; to make one’s life as a whole an innovation. I think this view is shared by Rabbi Soloveitchik. We are most Godly when we are creators and we are creators when we are most distinctly ourselves, copying nobody.

Does this mean we should celebrate innovation at all costs? No. Many creatives make the mistake of throwing morality and law to the winds. (Though I possibly agree with Hannah Arendt, who, writing about Brecht in Men in Dark Times, says that we should cut creatives a certain amount of slack).

There’s a rabbinic dictum: “Human decency comes before Torah” (derech Eretz kadma l’Torah). As I understand it, this means that human decency, basic moral adherence, is a necessary precondition for the pursuit of the higher things in life.

The important thing to note is that morality is not the ceiling, but the floor. Or to take a different metaphor, it’s a guardrail. But too often those who conflate religion with being a good person degrade religion in the process. Religion, and tradition, generally, is a framework on the basis of which one can pursue singularity.

Justice matters, but is the floor, not the ceiling. If one pursues justice from a place of singularity, great. But the thing to be celebrated is the singularity, not the justice.

Just because something is at the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy, doesn’t mean we should consider it the pinnacle of our existence.

Are there times when we should color outside the lines? Yes. But don’t assume that doing so is inherently innovative. Deviation can be its own form of complacency, its own form of dogmatism.

Assuming you think we have a purpose, what is it for you? What objections do you have to the notion that creativity is the telos of human life, the site of human dignity?

Zohar

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