Beauty may be found in the eye of the beholder, but is meaning and purpose as well? As one enters an art exhibit to admire an abstract work of art, one may leave with a different experience than the one who enters after him. Is life, with all its experiences, like this? Is this universe just one large art exhibit with all of us displayed as abstract pieces of art, void of purpose and meaning? I propose that, although there are things left up to the individual, there are many parts of life that carry a universal meaning.
Dictionary.com defines meaning as “what is intended to be, or actually is, expressed or indicated.” This definition lends a valuable tool to deciphering the meaning of various things based not off of what a person feels, but rather what it actually is.
If I were to explain to you that many things have a universal meaning, would you say the meaning is only the product of society? There are certainly concepts that are a product of societal beliefs, but there are also functions within us that have a set purpose that, if we were to misuse them, would bring consequences.
Before diving into that, let us focus further on the question of meaning. J. Budziszewski, a Ph.D graduate from Yale, wrote “On the Meaning of Sex,” which speculates into the purposes of different body functions. For instance, he asks if the purpose of the lungs is to oxygenate the blood or if it is in the eye of the beholder. We all know that answer by studying anatomy and leaving our feelings behind. “Suppose a young man is more interested in using his lungs to get high by sniffing glue. What would you think of me if I said, ‘That’s interesting — I guess the purpose of my lungs is to oxygenate my blood, but the purpose of his lungs is to get high?'”
Budziszewski continues his thought process by voicing the purpose of the eyes to see, the heart to pump blood, the purpose of the thumb, the purpose of the capacity of anger and ends asking why we would not also have a purpose for sex when “natural function and personal purpose are not alien to each other.” We will ponder in a different article the purpose of sex as well as what may occur as a result of violating that purpose. For now, I leave you with a question between motive and purpose.
It is true that eating provides a pleasure to the person, that breathing provides a pleasure of comfort, and that sex provides a pleasure as well. But is pleasure the purpose of eating? Or is it to nourish and sustain the body? Is pleasure the purpose of breathing? Or is it to oxygenate the blood? Is pleasure the purpose of sex? Or is it something else?
A motive of eating, of breathing and of sex may be pleasure, but pleasure in itself is definitely not the purpose of these. In order for us to understand the meaning and purpose of something, we must look beyond our feelings and rather at what it actually is.
Casey Dail can be reached at [email protected]