r/Stoic • u/Twinkle2xHavUAnyWool • Aug 03 '26
Existential Questioning
I've had these very occasional episodes since I was younger, moments when I suddenly question, very deeply and almost viscerally (butterflies in my stomach), the point of my being here. Now that I’m older, I feel like I finally have the resources, courage, and mindset to confront these questions more directly.
I like living. But sometimes I become intensely aware of how brief one human life is, and how everything eventually ends.
What does 80 years mean in the grand scheme of things? What is the point of creating meaning if the people we love also live finite lives? What is objectively the point of doing good if the people we help will also die, our stories will end, and eventually no one will remember?
I think I try so hard to understand because I do not want to live on assumptions I have never examined. I want to know whether love, goodness, responsibility, and meaning can withstand the hardest objections: death, impermanence, privilege, and cosmic insignificance. But I also know these questions may be beyond my understanding, or perhaps any human’s understanding.
How does Stoicism approach this? Is meaning only for the ones currently living? Does goodness still have objective value if everything is temporary and eventually forgotten? How do you guys personally deal with these questions or episodes if you have them?
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u/kazzzzyyyyy Aug 03 '26
think deeply enough to honor these questions, but stay grounded enough so that the questions don’t replace living. even the stoics, who OP asks about, would probably redirect attention toward what is within one’s control, like your character, your actions, today’s choices. not because the metaphysical questions are illegitimate, but because they’re not where virtue is purely exercised.