To my surprise, most of the people with whom I have talked about the meaning of life have told me that they did not think that their lives were meaningful enough.
Many even presented their lives as outright meaningless. But I have often found the reasons my interlocutors gave for their views problematic.
Many, I thought, did not pose relevant questions that might have changed their views, or take the actions that might have improved their condition. Some of them, after our discussions, agreed with me.
In other words, Landau thinks that people who feel purposeless actually misunderstand what meaning is. Those who do think meaning can be discerned, however, fall into four groups, according to Thaddeus Metz, writing in the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy. Some are god-centered and believe only a deity can provide purpose. Others ascribe to a soul-centered view, thinking something of us must continue beyond our lives, an essence after physical existence, which gives life meaning.
The two naturalist camps are split over whether the human mind makes meaning or these conditions are absolute and universal. Objectivists argue that there are absolute truths which have value, though they may not agree on what they are. For example, some say that creativity offers purpose, while others believe that virtue, or a moral life, confers meaning. Subjectivists—Landau among them—think that those views are too narrow. If meaning happens through cognition, then it could come from any number of sources.
For subjectivists, depending on who and where we are at any given point, the value of any given activity varies. Popular Latest. The Atlantic Crossword. Sign In Subscribe. Coherence : how events fit together.
This is an understanding that things happen in your life for a reason. Purpose : the existence of goals and aims. This is the belief that you are alive in order to do something. This is the sense that your life matters. Do you feel out of control—tossed about in life without rhyme or reason? If so, you need a better grasp on coherence. Do you lack big plans, dreams, or ideas for your future that excite you?
Supposing there are two bearers of meaning in a life, important questions arise. Naturalists until recently had been largely concerned to show that meaning in life is possible without God or a soul; they have not spent much time considering how such spiritual conditions might enhance meaning, but have, in moderate fashion, tended to leave that possibility open an exception is Hooker Lately, however, an extreme form of naturalism has arisen, according to which our lives would probably, if not unavoidably, have less meaning in a world with God or a soul than in one without.
Another salient argument for thinking that God would detract from meaning in life appeals to the value of privacy Kahane , —85; Lougheed , 55— Beyond questioning the value of our privacy in relation to God, one thought-provoking criticism has been to suggest that, if a lack of privacy really would substantially reduce meaning in our lives, then God, qua morally perfect person, would simply avoid knowing everything about us Tooley First and foremost, there has been the argument that an immortal life could not avoid becoming boring Williams , rendering life pointless according to many subjective and objective theories.
The literature on this topic has become enormous, with the central reply being that immortality need not get boring for more recent discussions, see Fischer , 79—, , —42; Mawson , 51—52; Williams , 30—41, —29; Belshaw , — However, it might also be worth questioning whether boredom is sufficient for meaninglessness.
Suppose, for instance, that one volunteers to be bored so that many others will not be bored; perhaps this would be a meaningful sacrifice to make. Being bored for an eternity would not be blissful or even satisfying, to be sure, but if it served the function of preventing others from being bored for an eternity, would it be meaningful at least to some degree?
Another reason given to reject eternal life is that it would become repetitive, which would substantially drain it of meaning Scarre , 54—55; May , 46—47, 64—65, 71; Smuts , —44; cf. Blumenfeld If, as it appears, there are only a finite number of actions one could perform, relationships one could have, and states one could be in during an eternity, one would have to end up doing the same things again.
To be sure, one might not remember having done them before and hence could avoid boredom, but for some philosophers that would make it all the worse, akin to having dementia and forgetting that one has told the same stories.
Others, however, still find meaning in such a life e. A third meaning-based argument against immortality invokes considerations of narrative. With immortality, the novel never ends How meaningful can such a novel be? In reply, some reject the idea that a meaningful life must be akin to a novel, and intead opt for narrativity in the form of something like a string of short stories that build on each other Fischer , —77, , — Others, though, have sought to show that eternity could still be novel-like, deeming the sort of ending that matters to be a function of what the content is and how it relates to the content that came before e.
There have been additional objections to immortality as undercutting meaningfulness, but they are prima facie less powerful than the previous three in that, if sound, they arguably show that an eternal life would have a cost, but probably not one that would utterly occlude the prospect of meaning in it. Note that at least the first two rationales turn substantially on the belief in immortality, not quite immortality itself: if one were immortal but forgot that one is or did not know that at all, then one could appreciate life and obtain much of the virtue of courage and, conversely, if one were not immortal, but thought that one is, then, by the logic of these arguments, one would fail to appreciate limits and be unable to exemplify courage.
Much of the procedure has been to suppose that many lives have had meaning in them and then to consider in virtue of what they have or otherwise could. However, there are nihilist or pessimist perspectives that question this supposition. According to nihilism pessimism , what would make a life meaningful in principle cannot obtain for any of us. One straightforward rationale for nihilism is the combination of extreme supernaturalism about what makes life meaningful and atheism about whether a spiritual realm exists.
If you believe that God or a soul is necessary for meaning in life, and if you believe that neither is real, then you are committed to nihilism, to the denial that life can have any meaning. The most common rationales for nihilism these days do not appeal to supernaturalism, or at least not explicitly.
According to a second version, life would be meaningless if there were no set of moral standards that could be fully justified to all rational enquirers, but it so happens that such standards cannot exist for persons who can always reasonably question a given claim Murphy , 12— According to a third, we hold certain beliefs about the objectivity and universality of morality and related values such as meaning because they were evolutionarily advantageous to our ancestors, not because they are true.
Street One must draw on the intricate work in meta-ethics that has been underway for the past several decades in order to appraise these arguments. In contrast to error-theoretic arguments for nihilism, there are rationales for it accepting that objective values exist but denying that our lives can ever exhibit or promote them so as to obtain meaning.
One version of this approach maintains that, for our lives to matter, we must be in a position to add objective value to the world, which we are not since the objective value of the world is already infinite Smith The key premises for this view are that every bit of space-time or at least the stars in the physical universe have some positive value, that these values can be added up, and that space is infinite.
If the physical world at present contains an infinite degree of value, nothing we do can make a difference in terms of meaning, for infinity plus any amount of value remains infinity.
One way to question this argument, beyond doubting the value of space-time or stars, is to suggest that, even if one cannot add to the value of the universe, meaning plausibly comes from being the source of certain values. For Benatar, the bads of existing e. If indeed the state of not existing is no worse than that of experiencing the benefits of existence, then, since existing invariably brings harm in its wake, it follows that existing is always worse compared to not existing.
Although this argument is illustrated with experiential goods and bads, it seems generalizable to non-experiential ones, including meaning in life and anti-matter. The literature on this argument has become large for a recent collection, see Hauskeller and Hallich What one does in a certain society on Earth over 75 years or so just does not amount to much, when considering the billions of temporal years and billions of light-years that make up space-time.
Others naturally maintain that cosmic significance is irrelevant to appraising a human life, with some denying that it would be a genuine source of meaning Landau , 93—99 , and others accepting that it would be but maintaining that the absence of this good would not count as a bad or merit regret discussed in Benatar , 56—62; Williams , — Finally, a distinguishable source of nihilism concerns the ontological, as distinct from axiological, preconditions for meaning in life.
Perhaps most radically, there are those who deny that we have selves. Do we indeed lack selves, and, if we do, is a meaningful life impossible for us see essays in Caruso and Flanagan ; Le Bihan ? Somewhat less radically, there are those who grant that we have selves, but deny that they are in charge in the relevant way.
That is, some have argued that we lack self-governance or free will of the sort that is essential for meaning in life, at least if determinism is true Pisciotta ; essays in Caruso and Flanagan Non-quantum events, including human decisions, appear to be necessited by a prior state of the world, such that none could have been otherwise, and many of our decisions are a product of unconscious neurological mechanisms while quantum events are of course utterly beyond our control.
If none of our conscious choices could have been avoided and all were ultimately necessited by something external to them, perhaps they are insufficient to merit pride or admiration or to constitute narrative authorship of a life.
In reply, some maintain that a compatibilism between determinism and moral responsibility applies with comparable force to meaning in life e. Supernaturalism 2. God-centered Views 2. Soul-centered Views 3. Naturalism 3. Subjectivism 3. Objectivism 3. Rejecting God and a Soul 4. Supernaturalism Most analytic philosophers writing on meaning in life have been trying to develop and evaluate theories, i.
Soul-centered Views Notice that none of the above arguments for supernaturalism appeals to the prospect of eternal life at least not explicitly. Objectivism Objective naturalists believe that meaning in life is constituted at least in part by something physical beyond merely the fact that it is the object of a pro-attitude. Rejecting God and a Soul Naturalists until recently had been largely concerned to show that meaning in life is possible without God or a soul; they have not spent much time considering how such spiritual conditions might enhance meaning, but have, in moderate fashion, tended to leave that possibility open an exception is Hooker Bibliography Works Cited Agar, N.
Arpaly, N. Audi, R. Ayer, A. Klemke ed. Baier, K. Barnes, H. Belliotti, R. Leiden: Brill. Belshaw, C. Benatar, D. Bennett-Hunter, G. Blumenfeld, D. Bradford, G. Brogaard, B. Calhoun, C. Campbell, S. Caruso, G. Cooper, D. Durham: Acumen Publishing. Cottingham, J. Seachris and S. Goetz eds. Craig, W. Seachris ed. Danaher, J. Darwall, S. Davis, W. Dorsey, D. Egerstrom, K.
Ellin, J. Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace. Accessed 12 Nov. Nglish: Translation of life for Spanish Speakers. Britannica English: Translation of life for Arabic Speakers. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Log in Sign Up. Save Word. Essential Meaning of life. She was happy and healthy for most of her life. I've known her all my life. He is nearing the end of his life.
This is the financial opportunity of his life. He believes in living life to the fullest. We can laugh at things in movies that would scare us in real life. Her children say that she has ruined their lives.
0コメント