The perception of meaning is unavoidable to thinking, reflecting beings. We instinctively find patterns and order in everything we encounter. If we only saw chaos, thought would be impossible. As thinking, reflecting beings we are continually asking ourselves ‘What does this mean?’, ‘How does it relate to me?’ and ‘What should I do?’ The nature of an animal expresses itself directly in its behaviour, but it is the nature of a human being to continually ask itself how to be a good human being. To answer this we need some conception of human life as a whole and how we fit into the world around us. Meaning is a form of nourishment as vital to us as human beings as food or water.