I will still pose and answer questions even if noone else engages lol, but I hope people do start talking amongst themselves in the comments if i keep doing these…

The way my answers fall to most philosophical questions is I see one perspective as my most ultimate answer, then I see how other perspectives attempt to capture the nuances within how we conceptualize things in relation to the human condition, or what we should do, how it usually goes naturally, etc.

The most ultimate perspective i hold on meaning in life is that even if there is no inherent meaning, or thing we “should be doing” to ascribe meaning to life - ascribing meaning in this way itself being a subjective construct at its most reductive level - that is no different than if life had infinite meaning. If there is no inherent meaning, we create our meanings and live in proximity to them. We act as the nurturers, the builders, creatives, thinkers, the ‘one who goes against the grain’. Meaning is for the making, but also living in accord with reality.

Under that there are various frameworks in which we ascribe meaning, which could be ranked on heirarchy of how close they are to approximating a sort of objective meaning.

First is the framework which removes the need to ‘ascribe’ meaning, one which attempts to see how meaning may naturally arise, in the cases of our impulses, instincts, etc. which we have been enacting to progress our lives and lineage since before we may have gained the capacity to think, or even perhaps to experience. That of nurturing, attraction, hunger, aversion (fear/hurt/unhealthy), etc. Under but related to that we have less primal instinsts that still sway us, which lend to our appraisals more subjectively of beauty, yucks/yums, overarching world view or opinion-scapes which sway us.

Under that we have frameworks which may see how we ascribe meaning to things we interact with, but perhaps don’t have to. Even if we can imagine thinking our way out of certain biological impulses, an agent which has not developed that far will still naturally experience bodily impulses that largely align with the fulfillment of these needs as a form of meaning. Other types of things we feel are important to do are even less fundamental, in varying proximities to having to deal with reality. It gives our life meaning to understand, create something uniquely our own, give it back to others, be a part of a community, live a fulfilled life, experience this or that, build better inventions, stop things from breaking… we give meaning to certain things because they work a certain way in the world, and by interacting with them a certain way we can create a desired resultant state. Even if we could just let someone else be hurt, let a building crumble, we can recognize what it would take to help them get better, and place worth on doing so. We give meaning to things because of what it would be like if we didn’t, if we didn’t do them, if we didn’t heed to the growth of our intellects and continued to live in barbaric societies just because its easier than building towards something…

And again, I know if I wanted to create a more nuanced discussion, I could go back and try to point out which philosophers, psychologists, etc., back through antiquity fall into which categories. Who agrees mostly that existence is fundamentally meaningless or self-ascribed (Nietzche, Satre, etc.), about John Rawls’ Moral Contractualism, about who discusses the needs of biological impulses and the way meaning lives in aesthetics, or derives from living in proximity to objective truths. But I’m just giving you my perspective, based on everything I’ve learned, from physics, psychology, and philosophy, which makes me see the nuance as falling out the way I do, and I hope people can appreciate that. If i want to do better chewable philosophy, i will give quotes, makes sure I dont say anything that sounds fallacious, etc. but I’d do so after writing my thoughts, so that i am not drowning out my active thinking with others and acting like their perspective is mine. We wouldnt get my thoughts the same. I enjoy the process of unaided thinking as much as research, but miss academia and know I’m rusty