Writing about the notion of meaning is a challenging task, especially when going through a midlife crisis and being confronted with philosophical questions. This essay mentions the history of Germany, a country rich in scientists, composers, and philosophers, but also marked by dark periods. Humor emerges as the ultimate remedy in the face of the apparent lack of meaning in the realms of physics and metaphysics. The main theme of the article is the sense of progress and the necessity to argue in favor of innovation and knowledge-sharing to counter current issues.
E. Krieger
Being invited to write an article on the notion of meaning plunges you into an abyss of perplexity. It inevitably leads to a certain tendency to procrastinate, whether or not you have crossed the threshold of the famous « midlife crisis. » This crisis of the forties is, in fact, the moment when such questioning resonates with your high school philosophy classes and numerous personal and professional experiences.
But after some friendly reminders, it is no longer possible to procrastinate. Fortunately, the requested contribution is limited to the notion of the meaning of progress and not the metaphysical question of meaning. That’s a relief because this question, which has preoccupied generations of philosophers since Anaxagoras, is much more arduous.
Germany has provided battalions of world-renowned scientists, composers, and writers, not to mention philosophers who, from Kant to Heidegger, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer, have all methodically explored the question of meaning.
Culture: fragile, oh so fragile…
However, how is it then that a country so civilized could have tipped into one of the worst barbarities in human history by endorsing an imported Austrian psychopath? Seventy years later, we still do not emerge unscathed from the reading of Primo Levi’s book « If This Is a Man. » Those who were then questioning the meaning lost all their reference points, their comfortable certainties about man as the « measure of all things » according to Plato.
During this tragic episode in history, brilliant scientists like Werner Heisenberg compromised with the Nazi regime. This theoretical physicist, discoverer of the uncertainty principle and the foundations of quantum mechanics, notably lacked discernment during this dark period of German history.
Beyond quantum physics, the entire edifice of metaphysics was also shaken, leading Emmanuel Levinas to say that God « committed suicide at Auschwitz. »
Experience: a comb for the bald?
Do we learn all the lessons from history? Obviously not, as after Hitler, there were the atrocities of Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot… to name a few.
So, try writing an article about meaning after that… Fortunately, the theme of this essay is the meaning of progress. It is certainly complex, but we can still attempt to argue! That’s what we have done in previous publications, highlighting the virtues of innovation and collective action as remedies to anthropization. Another article emphasized the virtues of knowledge-sharing in the digital age. It is still and always about proving the aphorism wrong, which claims that experience is a comb for the bald…
Humor: the ultimate remedy?
Alongside the irresistible rise of German philosophy, German popular wisdom was not left behind in the 19th century, with a proverb that summarizes the postulates of many philosophers and even anticipated Albert Einstein’s groundbreaking work on general relativity: « Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei » (Everything has an end, only the sausage has two). This saying, attributed by some to 1867, was set to music more than a century later by Stephan Remmler, who was also the author, along with the group Trio, of the song « Da Da Da, » which achieved even greater global success in 1982 than his ode to the bidirectional sausage, whose curvature evokes the geodesics of spacetime.
Humor is probably the best remedy for the apparent lack of meaning. While scientists, philosophers, and political and religious leaders have struggled for decades to outline credible perspectives, humorists have always relished in paradoxes and oxymorons of all kinds.
From this perspective, humor would be the solution to the aporias of physics and metaphysics.
Adapted from Krieger E. (2016) « Au-delà des apories de la physique et de la métaphysique », La Revue du Cube #11, « Faire société. Quel sens ? ». Also published on: http://www.ikigai-colors.com/index.php/2023/07/30/au-dela-des-apories-de-la-physique-et-de-la-metaphysique-2/
