The search for the meaning of life has long been linked with an idea of purposefulness. Within the traditional Hindu caste system, one derived a purpose by virtue of birth into a specific caste group and profession. The notion of such a predestined purpose has long eroded, yet the idea of purposeful living remains with us.

All major religions retain the idea of purpose while science still seeks an answer/reason for our existence and that of the universe we find ourselves in. Indeed purpose underlines much of how science understood life, as Steven Poole explains in his article, Your point is?:

In ancient science (or, as it used to be called, natural philosophy), teleology held that things — in particular, living things — had a natural end, or telos, at which they aimed.

The challenge of purpose remains with science even today, as Vlatko Vedral’s article, What life wants, highlights brilliantly. As Vedral explains, the purpose of inanimate things is preordained by the laws of science, but once we get to living beings, figuring out any purpose becomes much more complicated. Poole’s article takes this one step further in questioning science’s dependence on teleology. Drawing on philosopher Thomas Nagel’s book Mind and Cosmos, Poole pokes at the basic assumptions of science.