The Meaning of Meaning; and Pleasure as Necessarily the Only Purpose for Life

Hitherto, other approaches to ethics have either been circular or have failed to
provide a satisfactory grounding for what’s intrinsically desirable. This paper
endeavours to ground ethics anew, not merely in facts, but in necessity.

This paper introduces a novel framework of ethics, demonstrating that plea-
sure is necessarily the sole summum bonum and ultimate referent for life’s pur-
pose. Through thought experiments involving four tabula rasa subjects—each with
distinct capacities for pleasure and pain—I argue that consciousness is effectively
“powered off” prior to experiencing pleasure or pain, establishing these as the in-
trinsically (un)desirable, non-negotiably essential “boot-up” qualia without which
no human action (whether cognitive or physical) is possible.
I further distinguish between purpose, meaning, intrinsic desirability, and good-
ness, offering rigorous definitions that enhance ethical and meta-ethical discourse.
The paper also critiques theological arguments on life’s purpose, showing they
reduce to pleasure and pain, while addressing common objections to hedonism, such
as insatiability and short-termism. These findings provide fertile ground for new
directions in aesthetics, psychology, ethics, and politics, setting the stage for future
work in these domains.