<P> The French philosopher Albert Camus asserts that the absurdity of the human condition is that people search for external values and meaning in a world which has none, and is indifferent to them . Camus writes of value - nihilists such as Meursault, but also of values in a nihilistic world, that people can instead strive to be "heroic nihilists", living with dignity in the face of absurdity, living with "secular saintliness", fraternal solidarity, and rebelling against and transcending the world's indifference . </P> <P> The current era has seen radical changes in both formal and popular conceptions of human nature . The knowledge disclosed by modern science has effectively rewritten the relationship of humankind to the natural world . Advances in medicine and technology have freed humans from significant limitations and ailments of previous eras; and philosophy--particularly following the linguistic turn--has altered how the relationships people have with themselves and each other are conceived . Questions about the meaning of life have also seen radical changes, from attempts to reevaluate human existence in biological and scientific terms (as in pragmatism and logical positivism) to efforts to meta - theorize about meaning - making as a personal, individual - driven activity (existentialism, secular humanism). </P> <P> Pragmatism, originated in the late - 19th - century U.S., to concern itself (mostly) with truth, positing that "only in struggling with the environment" do data, and derived theories, have meaning, and that consequences, like utility and practicality, are also components of truth . Moreover, pragmatism posits that anything useful and practical is not always true, arguing that what most contributes to the most human good in the long course is true . In practice, theoretical claims must be practically verifiable, i.e. one should be able to predict and test claims, and, that, ultimately, the needs of humankind should guide human intellectual inquiry . </P> <P> Pragmatic philosophers suggest that the practical, useful understanding of life is more important than searching for an impractical abstract truth about life . William James argued that truth could be made, but not sought . To a pragmatist, the meaning of life is discoverable only via experience . </P>

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