Resources for ‘The Meaning of Life’, Andrea Lechler Free encyclopaedia articles on 'The Meaning of Life • • Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/life-meaning/ Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://www.iep.utm.edu/mean-ana/ Introductory books providing an overview of the topic • • • Terry Eagleton, The Meaning of Life A Very Short Introduction, OUP 2007 Julian Baggini, What's it All About?: Philosophy and the Meaning of Life, Granta 2005 Oswald Hanfling, The Quest for Meaning, Blackwell 1987 (goes together with the anthology edited by Hanfling, see below) Collections of articles • • • • • Seachris (ed.), Exploring the Meaning of Life An Anthology and Guide, Blackwell 2012 Klemke and Cahn (eds.), The Meaning of Life A Reader, OUP 2008 (There are also two earlier editions of the book with slightly different selections.) Benatar (ed.), Life, Death & Meaning Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions Rowman and Littlefield 2004 Hanfling (ed.), Life and Meaning A Reader, Blackwell 1988 Cottingham (ed.), Western Philosophy An Anthology, Blackwell 1996, 2008 (has a section with excerpts on the meaning of life and relevant chapters in other parts of the book, e.g on God and Religion, or Morality and the Good Life) The following article is an overview of literature on the topic, with short descriptions of each work referred to: Metz, "The Meaning of Life", In Oxford Bibliographies Online: Philosophy, http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195396577/obo-9780195396577-0070.xml (accessed 24-Jan-2013) (full version available via Oxford University computers) References for individual classes (some references are to the above works) 1) Different interpretations of the question ‘What is the meaning of life?’ • • • • Eagleton Essays in the first part of Seachris Essays in the third part of Klemke Articles in Stanford and Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2) Life as meaningless Can religion offer meaning? • • • • • • Taylor, ‘The Meaning of Life’, in Good and Evil, 1967, reprinted in Hanfling and Klemke Nagel, ‘The Absurd’, Journal of Philosophy 68(20), 1971, 716-27 Reprinted in Seachris, Klemke, Benatar, Hanfling, Cottingham Feinberg, ‘Absurd Self-Fulfillment’, in Freedom and Fulfillment: Philosophical Essays, Princeton University Press, 1992 Reprinted in Klemke Gordon, ‘Is the Existence of God Relevant to the Meaning of Life?’, The Modern Schoolman 60, 1983, 227-46 Reprinted in Seachris Hanfling, The Quest for Meaning Metz, ‘Could God’s Purpose be the Source of Life’s Meaning?’, Religious Studies 36, 2000, 293-313 Reprinted in Seachris • • • • • • Nozick, ‘Philosophy and the Meaning of Life’, Chapter in Philosophical Explanations, Harvard University Press, 1981 Reprinted (in parts) in Seachris, Klemke, Benatar Craig, ‘The Absurdity of Life without God’, ch in Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics, 3rd ed., Crossway, 2008 Reprinted in Seachris, Klemke (2nd ed.), Cottingham Nagel, The View from Nowhere, OUP, 1986, Chapter XI Pritchard, ‘Absurdity, Angst, and the Meaning of Life’, The Monist, 93(1) (A final draft can be found online here: http://www.philosophy.ed.ac.uk/people/full-academic/documents/AbsurdityMeaningOfLife_002.pdf) Chapters in the last part of Seachris, e.g.: Tolstoy, ‘A Confession’, in Spiritual Writings, ed Moore, Orbis Books, 46-58 Fischer, ‘Why Immortality is not so Bad’, International Journal for Philosophical Studies 2, 1994, 257-270 Metz, ‘The Immortality Requirement for Life’s Meaning’, Ratio XVI, 2003, 161-177 Seachris, ‘Death, Futility, and the Proleptic Power of Narrative Ending’, Religious Studies 47, 2011, 141-163 Kagan, Open Yale course on death: http://oyc.yale.edu/philosophy/phil-176 (has several lectures on whether we have a soul that could be immortal) 3) Subjectivism about meaning • • • • • • • • • • • Taylor, ‘The Meaning of Life’, in Good and Evil, 1967, reprinted in Hanfling and Klemke Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (Le mythe de Sisyphe), 1942, excerpts reprinted in Cottingham, Klemke Chapter by Wolf and reply by Frankfurt in The Contours of Agency Essays on Themes from Harry Frankfurt, 2002 Frankfurt, ‘The Importance of What we Care About’, Synthese 53(2), 1982, reprinted in The Importance of What We Care About, CUP 1988 Wolf, “The Meanings of Lives,” in Perry, Bratman, Fischer, eds., Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings, OUP 2007, reprinted in Seachris Barnes, ‘The Far Side of Despair’, in An Existentialist Ethic, reprinted in Klemke Kekes, ‘The Human World’, Ratio XXII, 2009, reprinted in Seachris Klemke, ‘Living without Appeal: An Affirmative Philosophy of Life’, in Klemke Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism (L’existentialisme est un humanisme), 1946 Wiggins, ‘Truth, Invention, and the Meaning of Life’, in Needs, Values, Truth: Essays in the Philosophy of Value, 1991, reprinted in Rachels, ed., Ethical Theory (interesting paper discussing Taylor’s view, but not an easy read) Wielenberg, ‘God and the Meaning of Life’, from Value and Virtue in a Godless Universe, CUP 2005, reprinted in Seachris (especially section 3) 4) Is a meaningful life an examined life? • • • • • • • • • • Free translations of Plato’s Apology: http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php? option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=766&Itemid=27 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170%3Atext%3DApol Free translations of Plato’s Gorgias: http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php %3Ftitle=766&chapter=93703&layout=html&Itemid=27 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0178%3Atext%3DGorg Free translation of Descartes’s Discourse on Method: http://oll.libertyfund.org/? option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1698&chapter=142003&layout=html&Itemid=27 Encyclopaedia article on Plato’s ethics in general: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-ethics/ Encyclopaedia article on Plato’s shorter ethical works: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-ethics-shorter/ Rowe, ‘Self-examination’, in Morrison (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Socrates Kraut, ‘The examined life’, in Ahbel-Rappe and Kamtekar (eds.), A Companion to Socrates, Blackwell 2005 Woolf, ‘Callicles and Socrates: Psychic (Dis)Harmony in the Gorgias’, in Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy XVIII, OUP 2000 Cottingham, ‘Integrity and Fragmentation’, Journal of Applied Philosophy, 27(1), 2001, pp 2-14: http://www.johncottingham.co.uk/resources/Integrity-and-Fragmentation.doc Smith, Open Yale course ‘Introduction to Political Philosophy’: http://oyc.yale.edu/political-science/plsc-114 (first two lectures on Plato) • • BBC In Our Time episodes on Socrates and on the examined life: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/iotp/all Philosophy Now Radio Show on Socrates: http://philosophynow.org/podcasts/Socrates_Man_and_Myth 5) Is a meaningful life a life in accordance with our nature? • • • • • • • • • • Hanfling’s The Quest for Meaning covers both Rousseau’s and Aristotle’s thoughts on human nature, as well as Mill’s criticisms of appeals to nature Hanfling’s Life and Meaning has relevant readings by all three philosophers Rousseau’s and Aristotle’s views on human nature are also discussed by Loptson, Theories of Human Nature, Broadview Press, several editions Free translation of Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality: http://oll.libertyfund.org/? option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=638&chapter=71084&layout=html&Itemid=27 Some useful secondary literature on Rousseau: o Bertram, Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Rousseau and the Social Contract, 2004 (especially Chapter 2) o Encyclopaedia article on Rousseau: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rousseau/ o Plattner, Rousseau's State of Nature: An Interpretation of the Discourse on Inequality, Northern Illinois University Press, 1979 Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics Translation, Introduction, and Commentary by Broadie and Rowe, OUP 2002, is very helpful Free translations of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and Politics: http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browseAristotle.html Some useful secondary literature on Aristotle: o Hughes, Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Aristotle on Ethics, 2001 o Encyclopaedia article on Aristotle’s ethics: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-ethics/ o Broadie, Ethics with Aristotle, OUP 1991 o Hursthouse, ‘Human Nature and Aristotelian Virtue Ethics’, in Sandis and Cain (eds.), Human Nature, CUP 2012 Mill’s essay ‘Nature’: http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php %3Ftitle=241&chapter=21521&layout=html&Itemid=27 Eagleton, Chapters and Smith, Open Yale course ‘Introduction to Political Philosophy’: http://oyc.yale.edu/political-science/plsc-114 (lectures on Aristotle and Rousseau) 6) What activities are meaningful independent of their effects: Moritz Schlick on play • • • • • • Moritz Schlick, ‘The Meaning of Life’ (‘Vom Sinn des Lebens’), Symposion, 1(4), 1927 English translations in Hanfling, Klemke (3rd ed.), and Schlick, Philosophical Papers, 1979 Arthur Schopenhauer, ‘On the Vanity of Existence’, in Essays and Aphorisms, trans Hollingdale, Penguin, 2004 Reprinted in Seachris Chapters by Wisdom and Huizinga in Hanfling Erich Fromm, ‘To Have or to Be’, 1976 http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aesthetics-18th-german/ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/gadamer-aesthetics/ 7) Can we find meaning through the pursuit of goals? • • • • • • Neil Levy, ‘Downshifting and Meaning in Life’, Ratio 18 (2), 2005, pp 176-189 Richard Taylor, ‘Time and Life’s Meaning’, The Review of Metaphysics, 40(4), 1987 Reprinted in Seachris Susan Wolf, ‘The Meanings of Lives’, in Perry, Bratman and Fischer (eds.), Introduction to Philosophy Classical and Contemporary Readings, 5th ed (New York: OUP, 2010) Reprinted in Seachris Partridge, ‘Why Care About the Future?’, in Responsibilities to Future Generations, 1981 Available online at: http://gadfly.igc.org/papers/wcaf.htm Leslie, ‘Why not Let Life Become Extinct’, Philosophy, 58, 1983 Leslie, ‘The Risk that Humans Will Woon Be Extinct’, Philosophy, 85, 2010 • • Trisel, ‘Human Extinction and the Value of Our Efforts’, The Philosophical Forum, 35(3), 2004 Reprinted in Seachris http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/21/the-importance-of-the-afterlife-seriously/?_r=2 8) Can we find meaning by transcending our limits? • • • • • • • • Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy (1912), Chapter XV (especially from p 244 onwards): https://archive.org/details/problemsofphilo00russuo ft Bertrand Russell, ‘A Free Man’s Worship’ (1903): http://www.users.drew.edu/~jlenz/br-fmw.html Also reprinted in Klemke and Seachris Robert Nozick, The Examined Life (1989), especially Chapters 15, 22 and 26 Robert Nozick, Philosophical Explanations (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1981), Chapter Reprinted (in parts) in Seachris, Klemke, Benatar Samuel Scheffler, Death and the Afterlife (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013) Last chapter of Eagleton http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell/ BBC In Our Time on Bertrand Russell: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p8fsr 9) Is a meaningful life a life that tells a story? • • • • • • • • Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self The Making of the Modern Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989) Alasdair Macintyre, After Virtue A Study in Moral Theory, 2nd ed (London: Duckworth, 1985) Galen Strawson, ‘Against Narrativity’, Ratio XVII, 2004 Marya Schechtman, ‘The Narrative Self’, in The Oxford Handbook of the Self (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) Johan Bränmark, ‘Leading Lives: On Happiness and Narrative Meaning’, Philosophical Papers 32(3), 2003 Roger Scruton, ‘Timely Death’, Philosphical Papers, 41(3), 2012 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/05568641.2012.743216 Frances Kamm, ‘Rescuing Ivan Ilych: How We Live and How We Die’, Ethics, 113, 2003 John Martin Fischer, ‘Free Will, Death, and Immortality: The Role of Narrative’, Philosophical Papers, 34(3), 2005 Reprinted in Seachris 10) Death and the meaning of life • • • • • • • • • • • Bernard Williams, ‘The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality’, in Problems of the Self: Philosophical Papers, 1956-1972, CUP, 1973, 82-100 Roger Scruton, ‘Timely Death’, Philosphical Papers, 41(3), 2012 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/05568641.2012.743216 Frances Kamm, ‘Rescuing Ivan Ilych: How We Live and How We Die’, Ethics, 113, 2003 John Martin Fischer, ‘Free Will, Death, and Immortality: The Role of Narrative’, Philosophical Papers, 34(3), 2005 Reprinted in Seachris James Lenman, ‘Immortality: A Letter’, Cogito, 1995, 164-169 Bortolotti and Nagasawa, ‘Immortality without Boredom’, Ratio 22, 2009, 261-277 Samuel Scheffler, Death and the Afterlife (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013) http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/suicide/ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/death/ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/euthanasia-voluntary/ Shelly Kagan, Open Yale course on death: http://oyc.yale.edu/philosophy/phil-176 (especially the last four lectures) ... immortal) 3) Subjectivism about meaning • • • • • • • • • • • Taylor, ‘The Meaning of Life’, in Good and Evil, 1967, reprinted in Hanfling and Klemke Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (Le mythe de Sisyphe),... Meaning in Life’, Ratio 18 (2), 2005, pp 176-189 Richard Taylor, ‘Time and Life’s Meaning? ??, The Review of Metaphysics, 40(4), 1987 Reprinted in Seachris Susan Wolf, ‘The Meanings of Lives’, in... Marya Schechtman, ‘The Narrative Self’, in The Oxford Handbook of the Self (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) Johan Bränmark, ‘Leading Lives: On Happiness and Narrative Meaning? ??, Philosophical