The Meaning of
Life
Vice and Virtue in Everyday
Life
Chapter 9
Substance, Shadow,
and Spirit
T’ao Ch’ien
► We
are finite creatures.
► 3 Responses to our finitude:
Substance, Shadow, and Spirit
► “Just surrender to the great cycle of
things,” Spirit says.
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.
► Life
My Confession,
Tolstoy
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.
A Free Man’s
Worship,
Russell
► “…only on the firm foundation of
unyielding despair, can the soul’s
habitation henceforth be safely built.”
(p. 608)
► The universe is unconcerned with us,
but we are free to examine, know,
criticize, and create.
Russell
► Russell
found meaning in longing for
love, searching for knowledge, and
having pity for the suffering of
humanity.
The Myth of Sisyphus,
Camus
► The
one truly serious philosophical
problem is suicide.
► Life is absurd.
► The only truth in response to life’s
absurdity is defiance.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
The Human Search for
Meaning, Frankl
► Even
in a Nazi concentration camp,
there is freedom—a freedom to choose
one’s own way.
► We need hope in order to live.
► Life’s meaning has no general
meaning, but is something concrete
for each individual.
Frankl
► We
must be free and responsible.
The Book of Job
► The
trials and tribulations of Job, and
the unfairness of life.
► God’s explanation to Job: you must
have a rational faith that the creator
and sustainer of the universe is good.
► Job’s repentance