We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
What is the meaning of life? In the West, this question was considered profound and important in the 1960s through the 1970s in the heyday of existentialism and the popular quest to shape or define one's personal identity outside of conventional categories. Many philosophers subsequently backed away from the question on the grounds that it made no sense: it may be proper to ask questions about the meaning or purpose behind different individual projects, some argued, but to ask about the meaning of life is to commit a category mistake or to assume some discredited philosophy according to which life itself was created to serve a great purpose. Some philosophers revel in there being no meaning or further purpose of life. For example, in The Meaning of Life, Terry Eagleton recommends we see meaning in an understanding of personal interaction modeled after a jazz ensemble, making music simply for its own sake and not for any other purpose.
What we need is a form of life that is completely pointless, just as the jazz performance is pointless. Rather than serve some utilitarian purpose or earnest metaphysical end, it is a delight in itself. It needs no justification beyond its own existence. In this sense the meaning of life is interestingly close to meaninglessness.
In this essay I shall argue that the meaning of our delight or sorrow in life depends very much on the truth of some “earnest metaphysical end” or framework.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
