Meaningful to us, or meaning full stop?

The field of life's meaning in analytic philosophy has grown massively over the past decade, with increasing publications and conferences focusing on both 'meaning in life' (local meaning) and 'the meaning of life' (cosmic meaning), whereas in the previous decade the focus was almost exclusively on the former. While this has carved out a secure space for life's meaning in analytic philosophy, it has also led to conceptual confusion. My project is to analyse a distinction that has been largely ignored in the literature and which I believe is the cause of this confusion: that between relative and absolute meaning. It is crucial for philosophers to heed this distinction, or they will misunderstand what is being asked by the cosmic question: 'What is the meaning of life?' After exploring different understandings of this distinction, I will argue that an absolute meaning of life - requiring an ultimate metaphysical explanation for existence - is unknowable, but we can still have faith in one by appreciating the mystery of ultimate reality.