The Meaning of Life

1
The Meaning of Life

• Vice and Virtue in Everyday Life
• Chapter 9

2
Substance, Shadow, and SpiritTao Chien

• We are finite creatures.
• 3 Responses to our finitude Substance, Shadow,
  and Spirit
• Just surrender to the great cycle of things,
  Spirit says.

3
The Bhagavad Ghita

• Arjuna wonders why he should engage the enemy.
• Krishna tells him he must detach himself from
  pleasure and sentiment.
• If we attain non-attachment, then we will do our
  duty.

4
My Confession, Tolstoy

• Life seemed utterly meaningless to Tolstoy, even
  though he had great success.
• The life of the rich and intelligent is
  meaningless.
• The life of the peasants are worthwhile because
  they embrace faith in God.

5
A Free Mans Worship, Russell

• only on the firm foundation of unyielding
  despair, can the souls habitation henceforth be
  safely built. (p. 608)
• The universe is unconcerned with us, but we are
  free to examine, know, criticize, and create.

6
Russell

• Russell found meaning in longing for love,
  searching for knowledge, and having pity for the
  suffering of humanity.

7
The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus

• The one truly serious philosophical problem is
  suicide.
• Life is absurd.
• The only truth in response to lifes absurdity is
  defiance.

8
The Meaning of Life, Nagel

• Nothing explains and gives meaning to life, taken
  as a whole.
• We might find meaning as part of a social or
  political movement, or by appealing to religion.

9
Nagel

• But we can find meaning within our lives, even if
  they have no meaning as a whole.
• Life may be absurd, and we just have to deal with
  it.

10
Existentialism is Humanism, Sartre

• What is existentialism?
• Existence precedes essence.
• Man is nothing but what he makes of himself.
• God does not exist, and we must face the
  consequences of this.

11
Sartre

• Consider an example should the boy leave his
  mother to fight in the war, or remain with her to
  care for her?
• Our choices define the moral norms for humanity.

12
Absurd Self-Fulfillment, Feinberg

• The proper response to the absurdity of life is
  one of irony.
• A scene from a BBC documentary on WWI
• Fulfillment in the midst of absurdity

13
The Human Search for Meaning, Frankl

• Even in a Nazi concentration camp, there is
  freedoma freedom to choose ones own way.
• We need hope in order to live.
• Lifes meaning has no general meaning, but is
  something concrete for each individual.

14
Frankl

• We must be free and responsible.

15
The Book of Job

• The trials and tribulations of Job, and the
  unfairness of life.
• Gods explanation to Job you must have a
  rational faith that the creator and sustainer of
  the universe is good.
• Jobs repentance