Why does \"Does anything matter?\" matter?

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The question Does anything matter? can seem unnecessary, like meaningless philosophical musing. To some degree it is. It can be easy to get lost looking for answers to human questions in the cosmos.

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But my thought is that this question has a couple things going for it that make it worth at least a momentary look.

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Implied choice

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Most people’s answer to this question is an Implied choice. They hold some answer to be true even though it isn’t ever stated out loud, possibly not stated to themselves either. Very rarely does this Implied choice require defending.

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Not all implied choices require time to justify and defend, but this one seems fundamental. It doesn’t even feel obvious to me that the implied choice is shared by a vast super-majority

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I suspect most people believe Something Matters, but not sure about the order of magnitude

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Certainly most people act as though Something Matters, but do those actions align with their answer to this question?

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For the sake of discussion, everyone seems to take it as an axiom that Something Matters. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anyone attempt to push a perspective that is truly agnostic to any outcomes (what I call True Perspective). Yet, I haven’t seen this axiom made explicit anywhere (though I probably haven’t looked hard enough).

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The idea that Something Matters is such a fundamental building block of every action we take as humans, it is unfortunate that we have not attempted to be explicit about.

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Gained perspective

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The other benefit that comes from examining this issue is that we are provided with a reminder of what actually does matter.

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If you have to actually defend the idea that Something Matters, you are reminded that not everything will meet your criteria of “mattering”. This gives you an opportunity to raise (or lower) the bar for yourself to align more with your actual beliefs.

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When your beliefs on what matters are better aligned with your actions, I suspect you live a life that you find more fulfilling, and prioritize your effort on those things that you believe really matter.

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Does anything matter? is not only a fundamental question, but it is one that can help remind us why we should be excited to wake up every day.

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What if nothing matters?

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If you believe that nothing matters–full stop, I would be curious to hear about your perspective and discuss it.

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Even if nothing matters, life is still worth living. If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please talk to someone.

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