Humans need to experience meaning in their lives yet often find it difficult to do so. We argue that, for nonreligious individuals in many Western cultures, the materialist and reductionist ideology that surrounds scientific practice and data may be an impediment to attaining a robust sense of meaning in life. Furthermore, scientific materialism and reductionism may be especially problematic for existential mattering—the form of meaning entailing a belief that one’s life matters in the context of the universe as a whole. We review new research supporting this account, along with implications for those immersed in the materialist worldview. We conclude by suggesting possible means of finding meaning, including a sense of existential mattering, without abandoning science, and highlight research directions to further examine these possibilities.

中文翻译：

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科学会侵蚀意义吗？


人类需要体验生活的意义，但往往发现很难做到这一点。我们认为，对于许多西方文化中的非宗教个体来说，围绕科学实践和数据的唯物主义和还原主义意识形态可能会阻碍获得强烈的生活意义感。此外，科学唯物主义和还原论对于存在主义可能尤其成问题——这种意义的形式意味着相信一个人的生命在整个宇宙的背景下很重要。我们回顾了支持这一说法的新研究，以及对那些沉浸在唯物主义世界观中的人的影响。最后，我们提出了在不放弃科学的情况下寻找意义的可能方法，包括存在意义感，并强调了进一步检验这些可能性的研究方向。