What is the Meaning of Human Life?Rodopi, 2001 - 176 pages This book examines core concerns of human life. What is the relationship between a meaningful life and theism? Why are some human beings radically adrift, without radical foundations, and struggling with hopelessness? Is the cosmos meaningless? Is human life akin to the ancient Myth of Sisyphus? What is the role of struggle and suffering in creating meaning? How do we discover or create value? Is happiness overrated as a goal of life? How, if at all, can we learn to die meaningfully? |
Contents
5 | |
THREE | 51 |
Struggle and Suffering | 62 |
Deflationary Accounts of the Meaning of Life | 73 |
Meaning and Significance | 85 |
FIVE Value | 93 |
Infinite Regress and Radical Subjectivism | 95 |
Realism and AntiRealism | 98 |
What Is Happiness? | 126 |
Can Everyone Be Happy? | 128 |
What Is the Relationship Between Meaningful Lives and Happy Lives? | 129 |
Are Moral and Intellectual Virtues Needed for Happiness? | 131 |
Is the Desired Conscious Condition Sustained Joy or Peace Enough for Happiness? | 132 |
SEVEN Death | 135 |
Death Is Irrelevant to Value and Meaning in Life | 139 |
Death Gives Life Meaning | 140 |
Objectivism and Relativism | 102 |
Molding Alternatives | 103 |
What If Our Values Lack Ultimate Foundations? | 112 |
Critical Pragmatism | 114 |
SIX Why Happiness Is Overrated | 119 |
Happiness as Tranquility | 120 |
Happiness and Sociology | 122 |
Philosophy and Sociology | 125 |
Death Deprives Life of Meaning | 146 |
Death Is a Transition | 149 |
Death Is Relevant But Not Determinant | 152 |
Notes | 157 |
163 | |
About the Author 169 | |
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Common terms and phrases
absurd achieve activities aesthetic amor fati argue Aristotle attitude belief Belliotti boredom choices claim commitment condition consciousness cosmic perspective cosmos create creative desires embody enduring Epicurus eternal evaluation evil existence experience extended joy faith feelings of happiness finite flourishing Friedrich Nietzsche G. E. M. Anscombe goals grand transcender greatest Heidegger human Ibid illusions imagine important independent infinite regress insist intrinsic value joy or peace Kurt Baier lack Lucretius meaning and value meaningful lives merely metaphysical minimally meaningful moral Myth of Sisyphus nature ness Nietzsche Nietzsche's nihilism normative notion Nozick objective organic unity ourselves Perhaps philosophical philosophical theism pleasure possibilities projects psychological question reality reason reimagination relationships religion religious Robert Nozick robustly meaningful Sartre Schopenhauer sense significant Sisyphus Sisyphus's Stoicism strong realism subjectivism suffering theism things tion Tolstoy's trinity trans truth typically ultimate understand Unger unmoved mover valuable value judgments Walter Kaufmann worthwhile York