To add to this: I grew up with religion and eventually broke away from it. I went on this hyper-realist streak, looking to break down life and reality into its most fundamental parts. I assumed this would include true meaning. It didn't.
What I found is that meaning is like a delicate ecosystem, and I was strip-mining. I thought I was breaking reality down into its most fundamental pieces, harvesting them and learning the truest truth, but it turned out there were important things that couldn't survive the process, and I was destroying them.
It was only by allowing myself suspension of disbelief and embracing the meaning I already knew inside of me that I was able to pull myself out of nihilism and find happiness again. Meaning was there; I simply had to stop getting in its way. It may not have any physical or metaphysical reality, but it has a reality in the human spirit, and that's really all it needs to be. The proper response to "But meaning is just a fragile idea that lives only in our minds!" is "Yes! And that's why it is so precious and so important to guard carefully!"
We must tend to our gardens, not grind them down for their components
Epilogue: I didn't return to religion, though I did come to appreciate how many things religion got right via millennia of accumulated human experience. And a nice thing about knowing that meaning doesn't come from metaphysics is you don't have to subscribe to any one doctrine; you can internalize the pieces that seem true and set aside the pieces that you believe are wrong, morally or logically.
> Meaning was there; I simply had to stop getting in its way.
You just described the Hero's Journey (Monomyth). The end of the journey is nothing more than the return to the starting point, the world has not changed, the Hero is the one that has changed.
Many people do know this, understand this, and see (their) life as a Journey; what people miss is that not everyone is a Hero.
I had a very similar journey. Even after 10 years I sometimes still slip into existential despair, and the remedy is, as you said, a bit subtle: don’t outright ignore it, but also don’t attack it directly. No matter how hard you stare into the void, you will never see anything but darkness.
It’s a bit like happiness: if you pursue happiness directly, you will surely fail. Instead, pursue worthy goals and care for others, and happiness will take care of itself.
I also learned that, as you wrote, we can lean on human biology. If one asks, “Why should I wish to strive to make progress in life and keep living?” the a suitable answer is simply “Because I’m human and that’s how I’m wired.”
I look at it a bit more like Tinker Bell: meaning may only exist while you believe in it, but that doesn't make it not real. When you believe in it without picking it apart, it's as real as can be. So let yourself.
As a musician I like once put it, careless realism costs souls
What I found is that meaning is like a delicate ecosystem, and I was strip-mining. I thought I was breaking reality down into its most fundamental pieces, harvesting them and learning the truest truth, but it turned out there were important things that couldn't survive the process, and I was destroying them.
It was only by allowing myself suspension of disbelief and embracing the meaning I already knew inside of me that I was able to pull myself out of nihilism and find happiness again. Meaning was there; I simply had to stop getting in its way. It may not have any physical or metaphysical reality, but it has a reality in the human spirit, and that's really all it needs to be. The proper response to "But meaning is just a fragile idea that lives only in our minds!" is "Yes! And that's why it is so precious and so important to guard carefully!"
We must tend to our gardens, not grind them down for their components
Epilogue: I didn't return to religion, though I did come to appreciate how many things religion got right via millennia of accumulated human experience. And a nice thing about knowing that meaning doesn't come from metaphysics is you don't have to subscribe to any one doctrine; you can internalize the pieces that seem true and set aside the pieces that you believe are wrong, morally or logically.