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THE MEANING AND THE MYSTERY OF LIFE: RESPONSE TO AN ARTICLE BY LAURENCE PEDDLE (THINK 33)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2013

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Abstract

Laurence Peddle's article ‘the Meaning and the Mystery of Life’ poses fascinating questions concerning the purpose or non-purpose of life and the interpretation of experience. My response questions his use of terms such as meaning, mystery and life-after-death, and his appeal to Hume on personal identity. Reason per se cannot take us all the way, nevertheless I enumerate reasons for caution in dismissing other people's self-understanding. The link between interpretation of experience and assumptions already held argues strongly for accepting the limits to human knowledge, thus enabling an openness which avoids premature foreclosure whether atheistic or religious.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2014 

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