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Philosophy Through the Year offers and lively and welcoming space in which to learn about philosophy – and start to ask and explore philosophical questions with others. In each instalment, we will look at one set of big philosophical issues – the problem s and questions that have been puzzling people for well over two thousand years. Tutors will give short introductions to some of the most important ideas and arguments in each topic, and provide short philosophical texts for participants to read, think about, and discuss together.
The Meaning of Life
Tell someone at a party that you’re a philosopher, and they might well assume that you’re interested in something called ‘the meaning of life’. But what does it mean, exactly, for life to have ‘meaning’? Even though it’s quite hard to be clear about this, many philosophers have reflected on what life’s meaning might consist in. Does life have a goal, and can this goal be said to be life’s ‘meaning’. Or, if life doesn’t really have a goal, does this mean that life must be meaningless (as many have thought; or, that life, in its passing, is just intrinsically meaningful? What do God, or the moral life, have to do with the meaning of life? Would life be meaningful if there were no God, no life after death, nothing beyond the physical world? This course explores a range of thinkers who have wrestled with these questions, from famous atheists like Friedrich Nietzsche, to religious pessimists like Arthur Schopenhauer, and Christians who have proposed radically new answers, like Simone Weil. We will also see how religious teachings – especially those of Jesus of Nazareth –might connect to philosophical questions.
In our seminars, we will focus on fairly recent pieces of writing (essays, journal articles, interviews, etc.) that have taken up the topic, with the thought of some of the great canonical philosophers there in the background. Hopefully this will help to give a sense of how and why the topic of ‘the meaning of life’ has re-entered mainstream philosophy.
Note: readings are available either via the embedded links, or by scrolling to the bottom of the page to find the pdfs. Where there are two or more readings listed, the first will be the primary focus of discussion.
We will begin by considering why it might be that the question of ‘the meaning of life’ arises. Why are we able to ask this question; what does it mean that we do, in fact, ask it? Richard Taylor’s essay is an accessible reflection on the image of Sisyphus, whilst Thomas Nagel’s article is a rather more rigorous account of what it could mean to find absurd, and what this may say about humanity.
Seminar readings:
- Richard Taylor, ‘The meaning of life’
- Thomas Nagel, ‘The absurd’
In this session, we will focus on the question of how we might understand the connection between the subjective experience of something as ‘meaningful’ with the sense that we sometimes judge things to be objectively meaningful, or without meaning. For example, if someone is enjoying their life experiences, does this entail that such experiences are meaningful? How can we make sense of the experience of coming to find what was previously experienced as enjoyable to be, in fact, empty and futile? These questions are intimately connected to what is sometimes called the question of value realism, or moral realism: the idea that happiness, valuation and the sense of meaning and respond to, or ‘track ’, objective reality.
Seminar readings:
- Susan Wolf, ‘The meanings of lives’
- Susan Wolf, ‘Happiness and meaning’
In this session we explore the possible connections between human finitude and death, and meaning. Whereas many theists have claimed that without belief in God, and hope for life beyond death, finite life would be empty and meaningless, the opposite claim has also been made: that life is meaningful because, or insofar as, it is limited. In other words, life has meaning because it is limited, because we can die. Martin Hagglund has recently developed his own version of this basic claim, and we will explore his ideas in the seminar. An older article by Bernard Williams is also associated with the claim that immortal life would be meaningless, and those who have time may
Seminar readings:
- Martin Hagglund, ‘Beauty that must die’
- Bernard Williams, ‘The Makropolus case: Reflections on the tedium of immortality’
In this session we explore questions around purpose, and how the idea that human life as such, or reality/the universe may (or may not) have a purpose is connected with the question of meaning. Sometimes it seems as though the question of meaning is just another way of talking about the purpose of life; however, we can also find things meaningful that do not obviously have any purpose – most notably in the experience of beauty. In the conversation with Drew Chastain, one question that is explored is of the nature of the connection between meaning and purpose– does the absence of cosmic purpose imply that reality as such is ‘meaningless’, or not? In the interview with Philip Goff, Goff summarises his book, which puts forward the idea that the universe is, in some sense, purposeful; even though the possibility of life being meaningful does not depend on this fact. There is also a review of Goff’s book at the link below.
Seminar reading:
- Drew Chastain, ‘Meaning’ in The Things that Really Matter, ed. Hauskeller (pdf below)
- A summary of and engagement with Philip Goff’s book Why? The Purpose of the Universe, in Christian Century: https://www.christiancentury.org/print/pdf/node/43173
- Interview with Philip Goff, at Closer to Truth, here: https://closertotruth.com/video/philip-goff-on-the-purpose-of-the-universe/
In this final session we ask what the question of the existence of God has to do with the question of meaning. Charles Taylor claims that the distinctive think about secular modernity is the rise, for the first time, of ‘a purely self-sufficient humanism accepting no final goals beyond human flourishing’. Martha Nussbaum, in her article ‘Transcending humanity’ responds to Taylor’s critique of her earlier book (The Fragility of Goodness), and explores the question of whether the aspiration to transcend the limitations of the human condition gives rise to an inhuman account of human life. Taylor continues his engagement with Nussbaum on this issue in his lecture A Catholic Modernity? (especially sections II and III). We will explore the conversation between Taylor and Nussbaum in our seminar. On a rather different note, we will also explore what Robert Spaemann says about God, meaning and rationality (pdf below).
Seminar reading:
- Martha C Nussbaum, ‘Transcending humanity’ in Love’s Knowledge (pdf below)
- Robert Spaemann, ‘Rationality and faith in God’ in Communio
We would greatly appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to provide feedback on your experience with this module and/or the entire course. Please complete the evaluation form here:
Evaluation form - Philosophy Through the Year
Thank you for your time and valuable input.
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Stuart is the Theology Lead at LJC. He graduated with a degree in Literature and Theology from the University of Hull in 2000. From 2003-9 he studied Philosophical Theology part-time at the University of Nottingham, whilst continuing to work in the third sector with vulnerably-housed or homeless people, and young asylum seekers (as well as pulling pints in a pub). He was Lecturer at York St John University for almost a decade, before moving to London Jesuit Centre in 2021. He now lives in South East London, and spends as much time as he can in the woods.
