Meaning of life

The meaning of life, or the answer to the question "What is the meaning of life?", pertains to the significance of living or existence in general. Many other questions also seek the meaning of life, including "What should I do?", "Why are we here?", "What is life all about?", and "What is the purpose of existence?" or even "Does life exist at all?" There have been a large number of proposed answers to these questions from many different cultural and ideological backgrounds. The search for life's meaning has produced much philosophical, scientific, and theological speculation throughout history.

The meaning of life as we perceive it is derived from our philosophical and religious contemplation of, and scientific inquiries about existence, social ties, consciousness, and happiness. Many other issues are also involved, such as symbolic meaning, ontology, value, purpose, ethics, good and evil, free will, the existence of one or multiple gods, conceptions of God, the soul, and the afterlife. Scientific contributions focus primarily on describing related empirical facts about the universe, exploring the context and parameters concerning the 'how' of life. Science also studies and can provide recommendations for the pursuit of well-being and a related conception of morality. An alternative, humanistic approach poses the question "What is the meaning of my life?"

Who Are We? (album)

Who Are We? is a 1955 recording of Aldous Huxley giving a lecture at the Vedanta Society of Southern California's Hollywood temple. The lecture was originally recorded on a wire recorder and digitally transferred to CD. Huxley was a student of Swami Prabhavananda, who founded the Society. Along with Christopher Isherwood and other notable disciples of the Swami, Huxley would occasionally give lectures at the society's temples in Hollywood and Santa Barbara.

In the lecture, Huxley goes into some depth about core issues about human existence, asking the primal question: what is our true nature. Included in the CD is a recording of a question and answer session between Huxley and the audience held after the lecture. The lecture was given just a year after the publication of Huxley's book, The Doors of Perception, and he discusses the significance of the drug experience.

In 1955, the same year as the lecture recording, an article with the same title based on the lecture was published in Vedanta and the West, the bi-monthly magazine produced by the Vedanta Society of Southern California.

Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity

Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity (2004) is a treatise by political scientist and historian Samuel P. Huntington (1927–2008). The book attempts to understand the nature of American identity and the challenges it will face in the future.

Describing American identity

Many people point to the American Creed as the core of American identity. Huntington defines the American Creed as embodying the “principles of liberty, equality, individualism, representative government, and private property”. Yet Huntington asks “Would America be the America it is today if in the 17th and 18th centuries it had been settled not by British Protestants but by French, Spanish, or Portuguese Catholics? The answer is no. It would not be America; it would be Quebec, Mexico, or Brazil”. Of all the nations in Europe, and of all the colonies, America alone developed the American Creed — this simple observation requires explanation. This observation leads to two conclusions: that America was an English colony, and that America alone was formed as a result of the Reformation.