The Meaning of Life

Lecture/Discussion October 25, 2012

The Tree of (the Good) Life

Relativis

m

Absolutism

InflexibleOne-size-fits-all Flexib

le

Virtue+

Simple Happiness View Desire

View

Objective List Views

Cultural Relativism Extreme

RelativismVirtue

Where does Nietzsche fit in?

Tolstoy’s crisisIs my life meaningful or meaningless?

Tolstoy, age 51, 1879

Is my life good or bad?

The Meaning of Life1. Life is meaningless, and that’s

terrible2. Life is meaningful because of God3. Life is meaningless, and that’s just

fine4. Life is meaningful without God

Tolstoy’s Conversion“As I looked around at people, at humanity as a whole,I saw that they lived and affirmed that they knew the meaning of life.”

Tolstoy, A Confession (1879)

Tolstoy on thenecessity of faith

“… only in faith can we find the meaning and possibility of life.”Faith gives “an infinite meaning to the finite existence of man; a meaning that is not destroyed by suffering, deprivation or death. Tolstoy, A Confession (1879)

∞

From Tolstoy to THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN

You Tube Clip

Richard Taylor

1. Life is meaningless, and that’s terrible

2. Life is meaningful because of God3. Life is meaningless, and that’s just

fine4. Life is meaningful without God

The Myth of SisyphusThe gods punished Sisyphus for stealing their secrets by forcing him to push a giant boulder up a hill forever. Over and over again it rolled back down, and he was forced to start all over again.

This is objectively

meaningless...

Taylor says...

Why?

Taylor’s definition: a meaningful

activity/life has some significant and lasting result.

The Myth of Sisyphus (Taylor’s revision #1)

... and then the gods took pity on Sisyphus, and injected a drug into his veins so that he would desire his endless labors.

I love pushing!

Revision #1

Revision #1

I love pushing!

OBJECTIVELY MEANINGLESS

BUTSUBJECTIVELY MEANINGFUL

The Myth of Sisyphus (Revision #2)

... and then the gods took pity on Sisyphus, and allowed him to build a permanent castle on top of the hill, making his activity objectively meaningful. Taylor: Boring!

Revision #1

I love pushing!

OBJECTIVELY MEANINGLESS

BUTSUBJECTIVELY MEANINGFUL

ANDNOTHING COULD BE

BETTER

What does any of this have to do with our

lives?

(1) Objective meaninglessness in real life

• ugly worms• migrating birds• busy street• country road

Richard Taylor, “The Meaning of Life”“On a country road one sometimes comes upon the ruined hulks of a house and once extensive buildings, all in collapse and spread over with weeds. A curious eye can in imagination reconstruct from what is left a once warm and thriving life, filled with purpose. There was the hearth, where a family once talked, sang, and made plans; there were the rooms, where people loved, and babes were born to a rejoicing mother; there are the musty remains of a sofa, infested with bugs, once bought at a dear price to enhance an ever-growing comfort, beauty, and warmth. Every small piece of junk fills the mind with what once, not long ago, was utterly real, with children’s voices, plans made, and enterprises embarked upon.”

Can objective meaninglessnessbe avoided?

• heaven (think Tolstoy)• Platonic forms• earthly ideals such as universal

justice and brotherhood

(2) Subjective meaningfulness in real life

• “our deep interest in what we find ourselves doing”

• back to the ruined house— “the day was sufficient unto itself”

Richard Taylor, “The Meaning of Life”“The things to which they bent their backs day after day, reallizing one by one their ephemeral plans, were precisely the things in which their wills were deeply involved, precisely the things in which their interests lay, and there was no need then to ask questions ... the day was sufficient to itself, and so was the life.”

Revision #1 = Us!

I love pushing!

OBJECTIVELY MEANINGLESS

BUTSUBJECTIVELY MEANINGFUL

ANDNOTHING COULD BE

BETTER

Taylor: We should be satisfied with living lives that are

(1) objectively meaningless(2) subjectively meaningful

Last two paragraphs

What do you think?1. Is life really objectively

meaningless?2. Does Taylor define

“meaningful” correctly?3. Is it “enough” for life to be

subjectively meaningful?

Next: is it enough to just want to do whatever we do in life?

Harry FrankfurtThe Reasons of Love

Main ideas1. We have lots of wants/desires 2. Wanting/desiring vs. caring/loving – • not just a question of intensity (p. 11)• not just a question of recognizing intrinsic

value (p. 13, ice cream)3. Caring = a) desiring + b) wanting to

desire + c) identifying with desire (p. 16)4. Caring gives us “as much freedom as it

is reasonable for us to desire” (p. 20)

Main ideas (con’t)5. Caring (not just wanting) determines how we

should live (p. 23)6. Do we care about the right things? No way to

answer. (p. 24)• can’t assign relative weights to goods on list (p. 24)• circularity problem (p. 26)• can’t persuade someone to care with reasons (p.

26)• should give up “pan-rationalist fantasy” (p. 28)• not having reasons doesn’t produce uncertainty (p.

29)

Taylor vs. Frankfurt

I want to push!

[first order desire]

I want to want to push

[second order desire,

i.e. caring]

Which is right?1. Only desiring matters (Taylor) – that

makes life subjectively meaningful, and that’s enough

2. Desiring and caring matter (Frankfurt)

3. Desiring and caring, and having good reasons for desiring and caring matter (Wolf, next week)