The Meaning of Life

Tom Morris, a former philosophy professor at Notre Dame and author of True Success and many other top-selling books, is one of America's best-known public philosophers. In Philosophy for Dummies, 1 Morris has a fascinating chapter on the meaning of life. His main point is that theists (believers in God) have an easier time than non-theists do in seeing meaning in life, and in affirming the possibility of deeper and more enduring sorts of meaning. Here I examine Morris's argument, develop it in certain respects, offer a couple disagreements, and argue for its basic correctness.

John Muir's writings portray total personality engagement leading to the liberating unification of the following components of aesthetic experience: keen perception, scientific understanding, empathy and a sense of the expressiveness of nature, imagination cultivated by the arts, intellectual recognition of the harmony of contrasts, philosophical aesthetic reflection (little developed in Muir), and joyful appreciation of beauty as divine. Muir's theocentric aesthetic contributes to the current variety of cultural and disciplinary aesthetic perspectives. He shows the roles of empathy and imagination in sensitivity to expressiveness in nature. He points the way toward a post-Kantian conception of the relation of the beautiful and the sublime. And the harmonies he finds range from simple to complex, easy to difficult, and small scale to cosmic. The paper is a version of a document used to launch experiential projects in environmental aesthetics for university art students (and there is support for those who choose not to pattern after the religious dimension of Muir's aesthetic experience). The educational assumption is that it helps those who wish to develop their appreciation of the beauties of nature to study an analysis of an example of heroic personality dynamics with its dimensions of body, mind, and soul so magnificently engaged. How shall we expand our appreciation of the beauties of nature? One set of resources for this project are the writings of John Muir (1838-1914). At the age of

Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) is one of the most acclaimed American dramatists in the twentieth century. His plays are characterized by in-depth analysis of the American reality at that time. This research is an attempt to cast light on Thornton Wilder’s philosophy which affirms that one can lead a very happy life if the meaning of life is well-understood. In Our Town (1938) Wilder embodies such a philosophical conception in the framework of a family institution in the Great Depression of the 1930s. The play emphasizes the fact that there are many ways in which happiness can be achieved. Such a philosophy springs from the fact that Wilder found the American community breaking into pieces, believing that the main task of the artist resides in the attempt to diagnose the social problems and to inseminate the spirit of optimism, hope, and patience.

My theme is ‘life-writing’, understood as the shaping of one's life through the contemplation of values, although this activity is mostly unreflective. To become an art so that one's life can be shaped in greater accord with clearly held values, this process must become reflective. These values have an inescapably ethical dimension, because as we necessarily poetize our surrounding world, we contribute to our personal and communal ethos the character that arises from the culturally shaping power of guiding ideals. Even the immoralist cultivates life within an ethos where obscure feelings connect with some thing or other, whereby certain aims will then appear more valuable than others.

To understand how we cannot help but shape our lives according to dimly or clearly intuited values, I compare Coleridge’s primary imagination, the ‘shaping spirit’ ‘necessary for all human perception’ with Kant’s ‘blind though indispensible function of the soul, without which we would have no cognition at all, yet of which we are scarcely ever conscious’. With Coleridge, we find in imagination an impulse to connect profound but obscure presentiments and ideas with our surroundings. This impulse propels great art and everyday aesthetics alike. Whether we pursue merely what attracts us, or seek value beyond this, all lives are freely shaped, without excuses, as the existentialists say, but not always in the most pellucid consciousness. Our choices inevitably engage us in the poetic art of life-writing. Cast in medias res, we necessarily improvise. But this is no argument against lives being moral-aesthetic works, spontaneous compositions in value.

Al no encontrar remedio a la muerte, ni a la miseria, ni a la ignorancia, los hombres, para ser felices, decidieron no pensar en ellas" (Blas Pascal, Pensamientos, 168). La consideración de la muerte es decisiva para interpretar la vida humana,

Nihilism poses grave problems for those who seek directives to lead their lives. In this article, the three most important ways to deal with nihilism are inquired, with an emphasis on their credibility. Both nihilism from a metaphysical perspective and the emphasis on pleasure from nihilistic considerations are given attention. The acceptance of nihilism can have far-reaching consequences, which are evaluated at various points. Nietzsche’s approach must also be considered. He accepts what he calls a sort of nihilism, but as a means to ‘new’ values. This alternative to nihilism is examined no less critically than the other two stances.

Darwinism has become an encompassing theory, leaving the confines of science and accounting for all aspects of life. Such an outlook entails important consequences for the evaluation of life. In particular, organisms are considered mere means for species’ preservation and development, while reason is no special faculty, but rather an outgrowth of functions that are rudimentarily present in animals. Darwinism cannot, for that reason, be said to be ‘true’, but if Darwinism is the correct view, the implications for man are grave, no purpose or meaning of life being discernible. Darwinists are accordingly faced with the question why they continue their inquiries.

Tanrı ve Hayatın Anlamı .............................................................
Ateizm ve Anlamsızlık ................................................................
Evrim ve Hayatın Anlamı ya da Anlamsızlık ........................
Ölüm, Ölüm Ötesi Hayat ve Hayatın Anlamı ............................
Kötülük ve Hayatın Anlamı ..........................................................
Ahlak ve Hayatın Anlamı ..............................................................

İnsanın en önemli özelliklerinden biri, içinde yaşadığı dünyayı, toplumu, geçmişi ve bütün yönleri ile tanımak ve bilmek istemesidir. Bu yüzden hayatın anlamını sorgulama ve onu anlamlı hale getirebilme mücadelesi insanın kadim bir gerçeğidir, denilebilir. Anlam arayışında olduğu sürece insanın sormak zorunda olduğu en temel sorulardan biri, kendisinin ve içinde yaşadığı evrenin niçin var olduğudur. Bu bağlamda insan, ‘Ben kimim?’, ‘Nereden geldim?’, ‘Nereye gidiyorum?’ gibi sorulara cevaplar aramış ve hayatını bu sorulara verilen cevaplar çerçevesinde anlamlandırmaya ve kendini varlıklar arasında konumlandırmaya çalışmıştır. Anlamsız bir varoluş, insan bilincine aykırı olduğu için o, var olduğundan bu yana kendisinin ve dünyanın varoluşunun anlamını kavramaya ve ona bir anlam yüklemeye çalışmıştır.

In contemporary secular societies, many people would acknowledge a concern for something called "spirituality," even if they are not "religious" in any conventional sense. There is a recognition that human beings have what might be called "spiritual needs," in addition to their "material needs," and that fulfilling these needs is important for living well as human beings. 1 This is perhaps most dramatically illustrated in the common phenomenon of someone having a "midlife crisis," i.e., the person who may be successful in material terms but nevertheless feels a sense of existential malaise: there is an experience here of a lack of a deeper sense of meaning in life. But this experience and the questions it involves can arise for anyone provided he or she has reached a certain level of reflectiveness and self-awareness. This collection of essays will examine the nature of spirituality and how it can contribute to "the good life" for human beings. 2 The editor's own general working definition of spirituality is that it is a practical life-orientation that is shaped by what is taken to be a self-transcending source of meaning, which involves strong normative demands, including demands of the sacred or the reverence-worthy. To unpack this definition some here (it is filled out more in Chapter 4): spirituality involves spiritual practicese.g.on retreats or pilgrimages, imitating saints, habituation in virtue, etc.that aim to direct and transform one's life as a whole toward increasing spiritual fulfillment, i.e., toward a more meaningful life. The meaning that makes for a meaningful life here is "strong evaluative meaning," i.e., meaning or value with which we ought 1 See J. Cottingham, The Spiritual Dimension: Religion, Philosophy and Human Value (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 3. 2 In speaking of how spirituality can contribute to the good life, I acknowledge that there may be forms of spirituality that do not so contribute and may even be harmful. I take up this concern in my contribution.

Several philosophers, both in Buddhist and Western philosophy, claim that the self does not exist. The no-self view may, at first glance, appear to be a reason to believe that life is meaningless. In the present article, I argue indirectly in favor of the no-self view by showing that it does not entail that life is meaningless. I then examine Buddhism and argue, further, that the no-self view may even be construed as partially grounding an account of the meaning of life.

James Tartaglia argues that the question of the meaning of life, when properly construed, is 'the keystone of philosophy,' that which 'locks its traditional preoccupations in place' and 'allows them to bear weight in an intellectual culture dominated by science.' He also argues that we ought to reject the question's premise and conclude that 'life is meaningless.' This paper critically examines what Tartaglia calls 'the real question of the meaning of life' and its implications. It concludes that Tartaglia provides no good reasons for maintaining that his version of the question is not, in the words of his imaginary interlocutor, 'a philosophical dead-end,' but that there is a broader sense of the question that might indeed qualify as a fundamental wellspring of philosophical inquiry.

הבל is a key word in Ecclesiastes. This article seeks to analyse the meaning and function of הבל in relation to worthwhile purpose of life. Considering that substantial research has been done on this theme, the attention will be directed at the meaning, function and implication of הבל in relation to the subject of the meaning of life. It will show a redefined and an alternative position on the meaning and function of הבל in the speech, and its relation with 12:13b-14.

In this study, the views about the meaning of life and religion are criticized and the views of people are explained in a more comprehensive and realistic way. For this purpose, an introduction has been made about what is the goal of life first, and then the perspective of religions is explained. In the following sections, it is tried to explain the issues that have not been dealt with so far in terms of meaning. According to the results reached in the article; in particular, the ideas of the theological religions are generally literary, stereotypical, and not sufficiently rational. Religion-oriented views, "God can not be meaningless" approaches such as the distinction between objective and subjective meaning and whether the perfect understanding of God is the God of their own religions is not reasonable enough.

In this article I critically discuss English-speaking philosophical literature addressing the question of what it essentially means to speak of "life's meaning". Instead of considering what might in fact confer meaning on life, I make two claims about the more abstract, meta-ethical question of how to understand what by definition is involved in making that sort of enquiry. One of my claims is that over the past five years there has been a noticeable trend among philosophers to try to change our understanding of what talk of "life's meaning" connotes. For example, whereas most philosophers for a long while had held that such talk is about a kind of value possible in the life of human beings, recently some have argued that certain non-human parts of nature can exhibit meaningfulness, which, furthermore, is not necessarily something valuable. The second claim I advance is that there is strong reason to reject this trend, and instead for philosophers to retain the long-standing approach.

Some people want their lives to possess importance on a large scale. Some crave fame, or at least wide recognition. And some even desire glory that will only be realised after their death. Such desires are either ignored or disparaged by many philosophers. I argue, however, that although few of us have a real shot at importance and fame on any grand scale, these can be genuine personal goods when they meet certain further conditions. Importance that relates to positive impact and reflects our agency answers a distinctive existential concern for one's life, and existence, to matter. And since what is important merits wide appreciation, the step from wanting to be significant and wanting that significance fittingly and widely appreciated is small. Still, desires for importance and fame can take a more vicious character when they are not properly structured, and when they are not dominated by more impartial aims. If we accept the personal value of importance and fame, it is hard to see why that value cannot extend beyond our death; the temporal distribution of glory is actually irrelevant to its value. It is therefore a mistake to identify a concern with posthumous glory with the wish to leave a trace after our death.

This fifth chapter of The Golden Rule (Oxford University Press, 1996) begins with the following paragraph.
  Jesus is a controversial figure partly because the records of his teachings juxtapose intuitively appealing statements with controversial ones. The golden rule, for example, is associated with more problematic teachings. Therefore, whoever would take the initial, obvious sense of Jesus' golden rule as its final sense faces a challenge when interpreting the rule in context. Matthew's Sermon on the Mount (chaps. 5-7) and Luke's comparable Sermon on the Plain (6.20-49) may appear to associate the rule with inferior standards: Give to others, or face the punishment of God (Matthew), and Give generously in order that you may receive abundantly (Luke). But these contexts also associate the rule with a high standard, including the commands to be perfect and to love your enemies. Thus, two main questions arise about the New Testament golden rule: How does the rule relate to notions of reciprocity? And how does the rule relate to the high standard of the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain, a standard that some have called unreasonably high? It is necessary to sort things out in some detail to show that a progressive, reasonable, and high standard emerges from the rule in Matthew and Luke.

You know the purpose of the actions you perform in your life. You eat because you’re hungry, sleep because you’re tired, and read the news because you want to know what’s going on in the world. But what’s the purpose of your life as a whole, of life as such? The answer to that question isn’t obvious.

In this course, we’ll analyze and evaluate theories of the meaning of life. Although this might seem like a vague or frivolous topic, it’s actually one of the most important. People have wondered about it ever since we began to think seriously, and a great many approaches to the problem have been developed. We’ll encounter a variety of fascinating themes:

• What do we mean when we ask “What is the meaning of life?” What sort of question is it, and what sorts of replies count as plausible candidates for an answer?

• Is there a meaning of life? Maybe life is pointless, absurd, or evil.

• What is the significance of mortality? How should we think about living with death?

• What can usefully be said about how best to live or what makes life worth living?

• Why is there something rather than nothing? And given that there is something, why is it as it is, given that it might have been otherwise? Why anything? Why this?

Most of the authors we’ll read are philosophers (Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Nagel, and Susan Wolf, among others), and we’ll use the philosophical method to study our topic: breaking the problem down into its elementary parts, carefully defining terms and concepts, and evaluating the validity of arguments and evidence for and against the various claims on offer. In addition to philosophers, however, we’ll also consult a psychologist (Jonathan Haidt), a couple of poets (Wallace Stevens, Philip Larkin), some painters and sculptors (Böcklin, Michelangelo, Rodin), a composer or two (Rachmaninoff and perhaps R. Strauss, Wagner, or Berlioz), and three films (Alain Resnais and Marguerite Duras’s Hiroshima mon amour, Carol Reed’s The Third Man, and Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless).

This course won’t provide you with any easy answers to the question of the meaning of life. But it will enable you to learn your way around the neighborhood of the question and improve your ability to ask and answer it for yourself.

See review at NDPR: https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/spirituality-and-the-good-life-philosophical-approaches/

Book Abstract: This book presents a broad philosophical study of the nature of spirituality and its relationship to human well-being, addressing an area of contemporary philosophy that has been largely underexplored. David McPherson brings together a team of scholars to examine the importance of specific spiritual practices (including prayer, contemplation, and ritual observance) and spiritually informed virtues (such as piety, humility, and existential gratitude) for 'the good life'. This volume also considers and exemplifies how philosophy itself, when undertaken as a humanistic rather than scientistic enterprise, can be a spiritual exercise and part of a spiritual way of life. Clarifying key concepts, and engaging with major religious traditions such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Confucianism, this book will appeal to students and scholars from various disciplines, including theology, sociology, and psychology, as well as to philosophers, ethicists, and other readers who are interested in modern spiritual life.
Table of Contents
Introduction David McPherson
1. Philosophy, religion, and spirituality John Cottingham
2. The problem of impiety Cora Diamond
3. The virtue of piety Robert C. Roberts
4. Homo religiosus: does spirituality have a place in neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics? David McPherson
5. Desire and the spiritual life Fiona Ellis
6. Between heaven and earth: sensory experience and the goods of the spiritual life Mark R. Wynn
7. The Jewish Sabbath as a spiritual practice Samuel Fleischacker
8. The power of the spoken word: prayer, invocation, and supplication in Islam Mukhtar H. Ali
9. Aristotelian friendship and Ignatian companionship Karen Stohr
10. Starting with compassion Richard White
11. Identifying with the Confucian heaven: immanent and transcendent Dao May Sim
12. Agnostic spirituality John Houston

This paper proposes a quantitative philosophy of happiness (QPH) based on:
(1) some proposed happiness scores applied on the “system of dreams” (SD) associated with each human person (HP) in part (and defined as a personal hierarchy of material and/or spiritual “dreams”/wishes);
(2) a quantitative version of Pascal’s wager (PW);
(3) a model of collective approach of Divinity in the Christian definition.
#DONATIONS. Anyone can donate for dr. Dragoi’s independent research and original music at: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=AQYGGDVDR7KH2

Susan Wolf maintains that the meaningfulness of a life arises when someone acts upon the subjective desire of doing something objectively valuable. This amounts to a hybrid view, which contains both subjectivist and objectivist elements. Wolf's tentative definition of what is objectively valuable amounts to what, in this article, we define as 'intersubjectivism'. As it will be argued, however, intersubjectivism poses a number of problems, which are exacerbated in contemporary society and which shed a new light on the problem of meaning in life. RE-PRINT, PRE-CORRECTION VERSION. Published version available at https://doi.org/10.1515/humaff-2019-0041

In this interview conducted by Skye Cleary of the American Philosophical Association, I describe my philosophical background and speak about the Mystery of Existence and my Tractatus Politico-Philosophicus, which has been inspired, but at the same time is critical of Wittgenstein's Tractatus.

This is a draft of a paper that will be published in a Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement on "Death and Meaning".

Famously, Bernard Williams has argued that although death is an evil if it occurs when we still have something to live for, we have no good reason to desire that our lives be radically extended because any such life would at some point reach a stage when we become indifferent to the world and ourselves. This is supposed to be so bad for us that it would be better if we died before that happens. Most critics have rejected Williams' arguments on the grounds that it is far from certain that we will run out of things to live for, and I don't contest these objections. Instead, I am trying to show that they do not affect the persuasiveness of Williams' argument, which in my reading does not rely on the claim that we will inevitably

Καθηγητής Θεολογικής Σχολής Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών ΤΡΙΑ ΕΡΩΤΗΜΑΤΑ ΠΕΡΙ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΖΩΗΣ 1 Μου τέθηκαν τρία καίρια ερωτήματα για την ζωή, την προέλευσή της και την αλήθεια της από κάποιους φίλους «εντευξόμενους» και, πολύ απλά και αυθόρμητα, για τα τόσο μεγάλα ζητήματα που τα ερωτήματα αυτά αγγίζουν, έχω να απαντήσω λακωνικά τα εξής. 1. Ποιος δημιούργησε ή πως δημιουργήθηκε το σύμπαν; Στο πανάρχαιο ανθρώπινο ερώτημα περί κοσμογονίας και δημιουργίας του σύμπαντος (κόσμου) συναντούμε διάφορες και ποικίλες απαντήσεις, φιλοσοφικές, θρησκειακές και επιστημονικές, οι οποίες όμως δεν συμπίπτουν μεταξύ τους ως προς το περιεχόμενό τους και την προοπτική τους. Γι' αυτό και το ερώτημα παραμένει ανοικτό μέχρι σήμερα και για αυτόν τον λόγο, επίσης, επανέρχεται συνεχώς, τίθεται και ξανατίθεται σε πανανθρώπινο προσκήνιο. Για εμένα προσωπικά, δίπλα στις αναρίθμητες και πολυποίκιλες απαντήσεις, ενδεδειγμένη απάντηση συνιστά η βιβλική προοπτική περί κοσμογονίας και δημιουργίας του σύμπαντος κόσμου, καθώς η προοπτική αυτή όχι μόνον επαληθεύεται πρακτικά αλλά έχει και αντίκρυσμα ζωής, όπως θα δούμε παρακάτω και από τα άλλα δύο συνδυαστικά ερωτήματα και τις απαντήσεις τους, που ακολουθούν. Υπάρχει πράγματι διαδεδομένο σε όλους τους λαούς αυτό το ερώτημα, το οποίο το έθεσαν οι φιλόσοφοι πρώτοι ήδη από την αρχαιότητα. Στη συνέχεια υιοθέτησε το ίδιο ερώτημα και η Θεολογική Γραμματεία και οι σύγχρονοι φιλόσοφοι, και πολλοί άλλοι, καθώς και επιστήμονες, διευρύνοντας λίγο την προοπτική του και θέτοντάς το ακόμη ποιο πλατειά: από που ερχόμαστε και που πηγαίνουμε. Είναι ένα ερώτημα όντως καίριο και πολύ σημαντικό για τη ζωή μας και την προοπτική της, το οποίο απασχολεί τον άνθρωπο σε κάθε εποχή τόσο προσωπικά όσο και συλλογικά. 1 Δημοσιευθὲν ἐν Κώστ. Πέτρου (ἐπιμ.), Τὸ βιβλίο τῶν ἁπλῶν Ἐρωτημάτων, Ἀθήνα, ἐκδ. Ἐντύποις, 2020, σελ. 113-130.

Objectives The present study aimed to examine the meaning in life and well-being of young, middle-aged, and older adults. Methods & Materials In this research, a total of 215 participants including 84 young (aged 17-25 years), 59 middle-aged (aged 26-46 years), and 72 older adults (aged 65-80 years) were selected from Tehran city via purposive sampling. The instruments used in this study consisted of the meaning of life questionnaire and Ryffs Scales of Psychological Well-being. Results The results of Mancova analyses showed significant differences between the three age groups. The older people had the most ability in the meaning in life, self-acceptance, positive relation with others, personal growth and purpose in life. Conclusion Research findings indicate that age affects the meaning in life and well-being. So, elderly can be known as a self-awareness, development and relaxation.

Much has been written about what makes life in general or individual lives meaningful. Yet meaning judgments are aimed not only at lives, but also at things in life. Here I explore what elicits the judgment that things in life are personally meaningful, "things" such as people, relationships, memories, items, places, events, etc. On my account of personal meaning judgments, what makes something personally meaningful is that it provides a sense of connection for the one making the judgment. I begin by further exploring what is meant by "connection" and then show that, once we make room for personal meaning judgments in our theory of meaning in life, we can set up a new critical perspective on prior theories, such as those by Susan Wolf and Thaddeus Metz. Unfortunately, prior theories fail to guide us toward the important kind of meaning that we gain from personally meaningful things. (The article and full journal issue can be found at philosophyoflife.org.)

When we look at the number of deaths from the virus epidemic, it is not that much compared to deaths in wars, internal turmoil or drugs. The most important factor that worries people, even though the number of deaths is low, is that the person does not know when and where he or she is going to encounter the virus.

Unfortunately, our world is drifting towards a new catastrophe every day due to reasons such as wars, dictators, epidemics and climate change.

This study aimed to investigate relationship between meaning of life and quality of life in patients with breast cancer. The population of this research Consists of 20- 70 years old married women with breast cancer which are under treatment in hospital and therapy centers in Rasht. Group patients with breast cancer consist of 40 patients with retentive surgery and
20 patients with retentive surgery which selected by using purposive method. Data was collected using meaning of life questionnaire and quality of life questionnaire that is developed for patients with cancer. Independent t-student and Pearson correlation were used for analyzing data. Results have suggested that there are relationship between meaning of life
and quality of life which is significant in p<0.05. Meaning of life and quality of life in patients with retentive Surgery significantly greater than patients with modify radical mastectomy.
Key words: Breast cancer; Meaning of life; Quality of life

Only by stopping and preferably reversing the aging process, immortality is possible.  Aging is the gradually progressing - and so far inevitable - decline of physiological functions eventually leading to death.  Age-related diseases are caused by impairments of essential metabolic pathways to such an extent that they are significantly impairing the vitality of the organism as a whole.  Many age-related diseases are adversely affecting the nervous system and/or cardiovascular system and are often the final causes of death.  Telomerase overexpression has been shown in mouse studies to lead to extended lifespan [Bernades et al]. It has also been shown by Harley et al, that a natural compound TA-65, when taken as a dietary supplement drastically reduced the percentage of senescent cells in individuals. These results come only as recent characterizations of the contents of dried roots of Astralagus used in traditional Chinese medicine. De Jesus et al further showed that the effect of TA-65 is telomerase dependent; in this proposal I am outlining experiments to further characterize the molecular mechanism of TA-65 and determine its ability to help slow down the aging process by enhancing telomerase activity.