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Much more than just an anthology, this survey of humanity's search for the meaning of life includes the latest contributions to the debate, a judicious selection of key canonical essays, and insightful commentary by internationally respected philosophers.
- Cutting-edge viewpoint features the most recent contributions to the debate
- Extensive general introduction offers unprecedented context
- Leading contemporary philosophers provide insightful introductions to each section
- Sales Rank: #861908 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Wiley-Blackwell
- Published on: 2012-09-04
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.70" h x .91" w x 7.50" l, 1.89 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 512 pages
- Used Book in Good Condition
Review
"What is the meaning of life?" is one of the most important questions that can be asked. Indeed, it is the question that attracts many people to philosophy in the first place. But students are often disappointed that their courses do not address it, and instructors who wish to do so have difficulty finding appropriate texts. This anthology is the answer to their problem. It is both a guide to the issue and an excellent collection of readings from a variety of viewpoints. I recommend it for both classroom use and for personal enjoyment.
-Linda Zagzebski, The University of Oklahoma
This is a fine anthology of the best recent essays on one of the deepest philosophical questions. It is a much-needed and successful effort to make serious philosophical work accessible to literate non-specialists and students. The explanatory introductions to each part and references pointing to further readings are especially helpful.
-John Kekes, Union College From the Back Cover
One of philosophy’s traditional purposes was to question the meaning of life, a mission currently enjoying a resurgence of interest among analytic philosophers. As much a guide as it is a reader, this anthology features astutely chosen essays that define the context of this historically core philosophical imperative. Blending classic thinkers with the best contemporary commentary, its thematic structure mirrors the nuanced dialectical terrain of the current debate and extends recognition to the contributions of literary figures.
An extensive general introduction orients the reader to the historical, experiential, and conceptual aspects of the subject, and anticipates likely developments. In addition, each section is introduced by internationally respected philosophers who have themselves made vital contributions to our understanding of the meaning of life, while a wealth of references and suggestions for further reading provides students with a valuable tool for extending their knowledge. Exploring the Meaning of Life: An Anthology and Guide is a comprehensive survey that shepherds readers to the frontiers of modern philosophy at the same time as charting the roads taken to get there.
About the Author
Joshua W. Seachris (PhD, University of Oklahoma) is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, as well as Grant Administrator for The Character Project, which aims to map the contours of the human character by funding key research in philosophy, psychology and theology. He is the author of peer-reviewed articles on a range of topics in philosophy, including the problem of evil, Confucius and virtue, the meaning of life, and death. His work has appeared in the International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Asian Philosophy, Philo, Religious Studies, and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
With Section Introductions by:
John Cottingham (DPhil, Oxford University) is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Reading, Professorial Research Fellow at Heythrop College, University of London, and an Honorary Fellow of St John's College, Oxford. His recent titles include On the Meaning of Life (Routledge, 2003), The Spiritual Dimension (Cambridge University Press, 2005), Cartesian Reflections (Oxford University Press, 2008), and Why Believe? (Continuum, 2009). He is editor of the international philosophical journal Ratio.
John Martin Fischer (PhD, Cornell University) is Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside, where he has held a University of California President's Chair (2006–10). He is the editor of The Metaphysics of Death (Stanford University Press, 1993), and many of his articles on death, immortality, and the meaning of life are collected in his Our Stories: Essays on Life, Death, and Free Will (Oxford University Press, 2011).
Thaddeus Metz (PhD, Cornell University) is Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. His work on developing and evaluating theoretical approaches to what makes a life meaningful has appeared in such journals as American Philosophical Quarterly, Ethics, Ratio, Religious Studies, and Utilitas. His book, Meaning in Life: An Analytic Study, will be published by Oxford University Press in 2012.
Garrett Thomson (DPhil, Oxford University) teaches philosophy at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, where he holds the Compton Chair. He is the author of several books, including On Kant (Wadsworth, 2003), On the Meaning of Life �(Wadsworth 2002), Una Introducci�n a la Pr�ctica de la Filosof�a (PanAmericana, 2002), Bacon to Kant (Waveland Press, 2001), On Leibniz (Wadsworth, 2001), and Needs (Routledge, 1987). With Daniel Kolak, he co-edited the six volumes of the Longman Standard History of Philosophy (Longman's Press, 2006). He is chief executive officer of the Guerrand-Herm�s Foundation for Peace.
Erik J. Wielenberg (PhD, University of Massachusetts-Amherst) is Associate Professor of Philosophy at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He is the author of Value and Virtue in a Godless Universe (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and God and the Reach of Reason (Cambridge University Press, 2007).�Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Does the job
By Jim Summers
I used this as a textbook for a course on the meaning of life I was assigned with little notice. It had already been selected. The text deliberately uses almost exclusively works from the "analytic" tradition and forgoes much of anything from the existentialist-Continental tradition. That said, the selections were adequate to the task of teaching the course. I was disappointed to discover that the choice of religious readings included only persons from the evangelical Christian wing. I had to add in material from other religions--like Buddhism--to show that it is possible to have a religion and not to have a deity or deities. Any competent teacher could use this text and likewise supplement the readings to cover the necessary waterfront of topics. I thought the book very useful in getting back to the idea that questions about the meaning of life are meaningful. Even if some philosophers may think the question lacks meaning, the general public does not. Since so many philosophers gave up talking about such things the general public has sought such information elsewhere, leaving philosophers to wonder why enrollments are perhaps not what they might wish. If the book can convince more academic philosophers to reconsider the topic and develop interesting material to address genuine human concerns, then it has done its job very well.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
A Welcome and Excellent Anthology
By Geoff Crocker
This is a very welcome anthology addressing the neglected but important question of the meaning of life. As Joshua Seachris points out, the mechanisms of science have displaced the teleology of religion.
Claims for a source of meaning can range from the supernatural, objective or subjective naturalism, or nihilism. Meaning can be defined as significance, worth, coherence, self-fulfilment, or expressed as the narrative of our lives. Essays on death in section V consider how far the end of the story determines this narrative.
Robert Nozick shows that meaning must be independent and is not aided by a god. He claims meaning derives from transcending our limits. Narrow living restricts meaning which is realised in relationship and over time. For Susan Wolf, meaning derives from successful creative projects in life. Jeffrey Gordon presents an admirable case for meaning being independent of God, but does then offer a theistic interpretation. His is the best of the theist essays. William Lane Craig’s is by comparison the worst, claiming that human life is dire without God. One wonders where he has been, why he has not seen happy fulfilled human life, and whether he acknowledges that it is technology rather than God which has determined the human experience. Paul K Moser is allowed to finish the volume with a presentation of the standard evangelical claim that we need to overcome death to have meaning, and that only God can overcome death for us. Neither point is convincing ; he seems not to have read the challenge to theism as the basis for meaning from the other contributors to the same anthology. He simply ignores their argument.
Arjun Markus asks whether meaning is invented or discovered, and suggests it is both. Meaning cannot be dictated, ie absolute, or even objective. Almost by definition it must be subjective. So, according to John Kekes, we create our own meaning. Brooke Alan Trisel contributes an excellent essay arguing convincingly that neither immortality nor long lasting effect generate meaning.
My own conclusion is that meaning is indeed a subjective naturalist interpretation of our lives. We generate our own meaning, as we do our own purpose, and choose our own virtues. To generate and derive meaning from life is to appreciate, enjoy, and make something creative of our life, whether for us and/or others to enjoy. It is our personal metaphysical. The present and the person is ultimately all there is. We need to value this and not dismiss it as transient futility. These essays explore how meaning might be derived. They do not however suggest much what that meaning might be. This is the next important step for philosophy to consider.
Geoff Crocker
Editor ‘Atheist Spirituality’ web site
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
A good collection
By john messerly
from reasonandmeaning.com
The volume contains many of the classic essays from philosophers on the subject, most of which I have summarized in my recent book, The Meaning of Life: Religious, Philosophical, Scientific, and Transhumanist Perspectives. But there are a few new articles, and they have been carefully chosen and add much to the literature. The collection as a whole is comprehensive and quite good.
Seachris begins by contrasting the passion with which a continental thinker like Camus approaches the question with the skepticism of an analytic philosopher like Russell. He wonders which approach is more appropriate. No doubt though, twentieth century analytic philosophers have argued that the question was either unanswerable or meaningless. The juxtaposition of the importance that most people give to the question with the disdain in which it is held by many professional philosophers is striking. This volume suggests that some analytic philosophers are now less suspicious of the question.
Seachris further contrasts the cosmic dimension of the question, the search for a deep universal narrative to render our lives intelligible, with the local or individual dimension, which refers to the search for a good or valuable way of living. Most philosophers argue that these questions are related but exactly how they are is debatable. Seachris notes that most of the essays in the volume are concerned with the individual dimension; thus issues of ethics, aesthetics, and happiness will be relevant.
The question arises because humans can step outside themselves and ask questions like: “Who are we?” Why are we here?” “Does reality care about us?” In short we can see our lives from an eternal, yet seemingly trivial, perspective. The question is born out of both existential angst and philosophical wondering about the nature of the cosmos and how best to live in it. But the question has taken on a new urgency in the Western world with the decline of the influence of the religious worldview, and the arrival of the modern scientific one. As the religion lost cultural respectability, so too did the worldview that accompanied it. In response to this loss, we are left with a question that torments existentialists like Nietzsche, Camus and Sartre, while the analytical philosophers try to clarify it. Philosophers have made some progress in clarifying the question, especially by viewing it, not as one question, but as an amalgamation of many questions such as: “Why does anything exist?” “What’s it all about?” or “What makes life purposeful, valuable, worthwhile or significant?”
He also clarifies the supernatural, nihilistic, and naturalistic alternatives as possible answers. The author does note that work needs to be� done to: 1) understand the extent to which death makes life futile; 2) clarify the relationship between the meaningful and the moral, aesthetic, and eudaimonistic; 3) determine the existent to which values can be part of the natural world; 4) satisfy our need to understand how evil can be related to meaning; and 5) investigate the question of something besides religious narratives can give life meaning.
Here's a brief comment after reading the new articles in the collection. As long as the scientific worldview is incomplete—which it always is given its provisional nature—then a final answer to the meaning of life will never accompany the scientific worldview. Moreover, if humans have an innate need for a narrative, which I suspect they do, then humans desperately need a new narrative to replace the less plausible religious ones. In my view there are such narratives available, narratives of cosmic evolution leading to the realization of transhumanist dreams, and our hope in a more meaningful future. And while these narratives lack the supposed eternal truth of religious narratives, they have the advantage of being much more likely to come true.
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