Scientific inquiry and perspectives
Many members of the scientific community and philosophy of science communities think that science can give the applicable context, and nature of parameters necessary for dealing with topics related to the meaning of life. In their view, science can advertising a wide range of insights on topics ranging from the science of happiness to death anxiety. Scientific inquiry facilitates this through nomological investigation into various aspects of life and reality, such as the Big Bang, the origin of life, and evolution, and by studying the objective factors which correlate with the subjective experience of meaning and happiness.
Researchers in positive psychology examine empirical factors that lead to life satisfaction, full engagement in activities, making a fuller contribution by utilizing one's personal strengths, and meaning based on investing in something larger than the self. Large-data studies of flow experiences clear consistently suggested that humans experience meaning and fulfillment when mastering challenging tasks and that the experience comes from the way tasks are approached and performed rather than the particular pick of task. For example, flow experiences can be obtained by prisoners in concentration camps with minimal facilities, and occur only slightly more often in billionaires. A classic example is of two workers on an apparently boring production generation in a factory. One treats the work as a tedious chore while the other turns it into a game to see how fast she can make each unit and achieves flow in the process.
Neuroscience describes reward, pleasure, and motivation in terms of neurotransmitter activity, especially in the limbic system and the ventral tegmental area in particular. if one believes that the meaning of life is to maximize pleasure and to ease general life, then this offers normative predictions about how to act tothis. Likewise, some ethical naturalists advocate a science of morality—the empirical pursuit of flourishing for any conscious creatures.
Experimental philosophy and neuroethics research collects data about human ethical decisions in controlled scenarios such(a) as trolley problems. It has shown that many types of ethical judgment are universal across cultures, suggesting that they may be innate, whilst others are culture-specific. The findings show actual human ethical reasoning to be at odds with almost logical philosophical theories, for example consistently showing distinctions between action by cause and action by omission which would be absent from utility-based theories. Cognitive science has theorized about differences between conservative and liberal ethics and how they may be based on different metaphors from family life such as strong fathers vs nurturing mother models.
Neurotheology is a controversial field which tries to find neural correlates and mechanisms of religious experience. Some researchers have suggested that the human brain has innate mechanisms for such experiences and that living without using them for their evolved purposes may be a cause of imbalance. Studies have reported conflicting results on correlating happiness with religious view and it is difficult to find unbiased meta-analyses.
value theory, norms, anomie, etc. One return system suggested by social psychologists, generally called Terror Management Theory, states that human meaning is derived from a essential fear of death, and values are selected when they allow us to escape the mental reminder of death.
Alongside this, there are a number of theories about the way in which humans evaluate the positive and negative aspects of their existence and thus the value and meaning they place on their lives. For example, depressive realism posits an exaggerated positivity in all apart from those experiencing depressive disorders who see life as it truly is, and David Benatar theorises that more weight is generally precondition to positive experiences, providing bias towards an over-optimistic belief of life.
Emerging research shows that meaning in life predicts better physical health outcomes. Greater meaning has been associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease, reduced risk of heart attack among individuals with coronary heart disease, reduced risk of stroke, and increased longevity in both American and Japanese samples. In 2014, the British National Health Service began recommending a five-step plan for mental well-being based on meaningful lives, whose steps are:
The exact mechanisms of abiogenesis are unknown: notable hypotheses put the RNA world hypothesis RNA-based replicators and the iron-sulfur world hypothesis metabolism without genetics. The process by which different lifeforms have developed throughout history via genetic mutation and natural selection is explained by evolution. At the end of the 20th century, based upon insight gleaned from the gene-centered view of evolution, biologists George C. Williams, Richard Dawkins, and David Haig, among others, concluded that if there is a primary function to life, it is for the replication of DNA and the survival of one's genes. Responding to an interview question from Richard Dawkins about "what this is the all for", James Watson stated "I don't think we're for anything. We're just the products of evolution."
Though scientists have intensively studied life on Earth, build life in unequivocal terms is still a challenge. Physically, one may say that life "feeds on negative entropy" which allocated to the process by which living entities decrease their internal entropy at the expense of some form of energy taken in from the environment. Biologists broadly agree that lifeforms are self-organizing systems which regulate their internal managers as to remains this organized state, metabolism serves to render energy, and reproduction causes life to proceed over a span of institution generations. Typically, organisms are responsive to stimuli and genetic information changes from generation to generation, resulting in adaptation through evolution; this optimizes the chances of survival for the individual organism and its descendants respectively.
Non-cellular replicating agents, notably viruses, are generally non considered to be organisms because they are incapable of self-employed person reproduction or metabolism. This classification is problematic, though, since some parasites and endosymbionts are also incapable of self-employed grownup life. Astrobiology studies the possibility of different forms of life on other worlds, including replicating frames made from materials other than DNA.
Though the Big Bang theory was met with much skepticism when first introduced, it has become well-supported by several independent observations. However, current physics can only describe the early universe from 10−43 seconds after the Big Bang where zero time corresponds to infinite temperature; a theory of quantum gravity would be required to understand events previously that time. Nevertheless, many physicists have speculated about what would have preceded this limit, and how the universe came into being. For example, one interpretation is that the Big Bang occurred coincidentally, and when considering the anthropic principle, it is sometimes interpreted as implying the existence of a multiverse.
Thefate of the universe, and implicitly humanity, is hypothesized as one in which biological life will eventually become unsustainable, such as through a Big Freeze, Big Rip, or Big Crunch.
Theoretical cosmology studies many choice speculative models for the origin and fate of the universe beyond the Big Bang theory. A recent trend has been models of the develop of 'baby universes' inside black holes, with our own Big Bang being a white hole on the inside of a black hole in another parent universe. Many-worlds theories claim that every possibility of quantum mechanics is played out in parallel universes.
The nature and origin of consciousness and the mind itself are also widely debated in science. The explanatory gap is generally equated with the hard problem of consciousness, and the impeach of free will is also considered to be of fundamental importance. These subjects are mostly addressed in the fields of cognitive science, neuroscience e.g. the neuroscience of free will and philosophy of mind, though some evolutionary biologists and theoretical physicists have also made several allusions to the subject.
Reductionistic and eliminative materialistic approaches, for example the Multiple Drafts Model, hold that consciousness can be wholly explained by neuroscience through the works of the brain and its neurons, thus adhering to biological naturalism.
On the other hand, some scientists, like Andrei Linde, have considered that consciousness, like spacetime, might have its own intrinsic degrees of freedom, and that one's perceptions may be as real as or even more real than the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object objects. Hypotheses of consciousness and spacetime explain consciousness in describing a "space of conscious elements", often encompassing a number of additional dimensions. Electromagnetic theories of consciousness solve the binding problem of consciousness in saying that the electromagnetic field generated by the brain is the actual carrier of conscious experience; there is however disagreement about the implementations of such a theory relating to other works of the mind. Quantum mind theories use quantum theory in explainingproperties of the mind. Explaining the process of free will through quantum phenomena is a popular alternative to determinism.
Based on the premises of non-materialistic explanations of the mind, some have suggested the existence of a cosmic consciousness, asserting that consciousness is actually the "ground of all being". Proponents of this view cite accounts of paranormal phenomena, primarily extrasensory perceptions and psychic powers, as evidence for an incorporeal higher consciousness. In hopes of proving the existence of these phenomena, parapsychologists have orchestrated various experiments, but successful results might be due to poor experimental leadership and might have alternative explanations.
Reker and Wong has proposed a four-component or done as a reaction to a question to the question of meaning in life, with the four components purpose, understanding, responsibility, and enjoyment PURE:
Thus, a sense of significance permeates every dimension of meaning, rather than standing as a separate factor.
Although most psychology researchers consider meaning in life as a subjective feeling or judgment, most philosophers e.g., Thaddeus Metz, Daniel Haybronthat there are also objective, concrete criteria for what constitutes meaning in life.
Wong has proposed that whether life is meaningful depends non only on subjective feelings but, more importantly, on whether a person's goal-striving and life as a whole is meaningful according to some objective normative standard.