The human predicament
Journal Data
| Type | SOURCE_BOOK |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (GB) |
| ISBN-13 | 9780190633813 |
| Open Library | OL19739868W |
| Total publications | 4 |
| Coverage period | 2017 - 2017 |
| Language | EN |
| Cited by | 68 |
| Impact factor | 1.25 |
| h-index | 1 |
| i10-index | 1 |
"Are our lives meaningful, or meaningless? Is our inevitable death a bad thing? Would immortaility be an improvement? Would it be better, all things considered, to hasten our death by suicide? Many people ask these big questions - and some people are plagued by them. Surprisingly, analytic philosophers have said relatively little about these important questions about the meaning of life. When they have tackled the big questions, they have tended, like popular writers, to offer comforting, optimistic answers. [This book] invites readers to take a clear-eyed and unfettered view of the human condition."--Jacket.
The Human Predicament
The Human Predicament engages life’s big questions. Are our lives meaningless? Is death bad? Would immortality be better? Alternatively, should we hasten our deaths by acts of suicide? Many people are tempted to offer comforting, optimistic answers to these existential questions. The Human Predicament offers a less sanguine assessment and defends a substantial, but not unmitigated, pessimism. It is argued that while our lives can have some meanin…
Suicide
This chapter examines suicide as one response to the human predicament. It is argued that while suicide can bring relief from appalling quality of life, it is not a cost-free exit from the human predicament. Even when it is the least bad option, it nonetheless involves annihilation. Moreover, it fails to address the problem of meaninglessness at any level. Indeed, it often (even though not always) exacerbates that problem by limiting the sorts of…
Meaninglessness
This chapter is the second of two chapters concerned with whether life is meaningless. In this chapter, it is argued that life has no meaning sub specie aeternitatis (that is, no purpose or point from a cosmic perspective). Nihilism about cosmic meaning is the bad news. Some people deny that life lacks cosmic meaning while others argue that it does not matter that life lacks such meaning. The chapter responds to such arguments, some of which are …
The human predicament
Are our lives meaningful, or meaningless? Is our inevitable death a bad thing? Would immortaility be an improvement? Would it be better, all things considered, to hasten our death by suicide? Many people ask these big questions - and some people are plagued by them. Surprisingly, analytic philosophers have said relatively little about these important questions about the meaning of life. When they have tackled the big questions, they have tended, …
Meaninglessness
This chapter is the second of two chapters concerned with whether life is meaningless. In this chapter, it is argued that life has no meaning sub specie aeternitatis (that is, no purpose or point from a cosmic perspective). Nihilism about cosmic meaning is the bad news. Some people deny that life lacks cosmic meaning while others argue that it does not matter that life lacks such meaning. The chapter responds to such arguments, some of which are …
The Human Predicament
The Human Predicament engages life’s big questions. Are our lives meaningless? Is death bad? Would immortality be better? Alternatively, should we hasten our deaths by acts of suicide? Many people are tempted to offer comforting, optimistic answers to these existential questions. The Human Predicament offers a less sanguine assessment and defends a substantial, but not unmitigated, pessimism. It is argued that while our lives can have some meanin…
Suicide
This chapter examines suicide as one response to the human predicament. It is argued that while suicide can bring relief from appalling quality of life, it is not a cost-free exit from the human predicament. Even when it is the least bad option, it nonetheless involves annihilation. Moreover, it fails to address the problem of meaninglessness at any level. Indeed, it often (even though not always) exacerbates that problem by limiting the sorts of…
Meaninglessness
This chapter is the second of two chapters concerned with whether life is meaningless. In this chapter, it is argued that life has no meaning sub specie aeternitatis (that is, no purpose or point from a cosmic perspective). Nihilism about cosmic meaning is the bad news. Some people deny that life lacks cosmic meaning while others argue that it does not matter that life lacks such meaning. The chapter responds to such arguments, some of which are …
The human predicament
Are our lives meaningful, or meaningless? Is our inevitable death a bad thing? Would immortaility be an improvement? Would it be better, all things considered, to hasten our death by suicide? Many people ask these big questions - and some people are plagued by them. Surprisingly, analytic philosophers have said relatively little about these important questions about the meaning of life. When they have tackled the big questions, they have tended, …