The Pursuit of Meaningfulness in Life

Abstract Human beings begin life as animals and remain tied throughout life to natural cyles of birth and death, eating and sleeping, reproduction, danger and safety, and more. Yet to this natural dimension of human life must be added a cultural one. Humans use their thinking capacity to transcend their immediate environment and their natural urges and responses. Thinking usually involves meaning, as in the use of language, symbols, and connections between concepts. Whereas natural law depends on the principles of physics, chemistry, and biology, culture rests on language and meaning.