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How to Live a Meaningful Life Tolstoy, Taylor, Frankfurt, Wolf, Rosenberg
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How to Live a Meaningful Life

Feb 24, 2016

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How to Live a Meaningful Life. Tolstoy, Taylor, Frankfurt, Wolf, Rosenberg. 1. TOLSTOY . Subjective elements. Objective elements. God exists God personally relates to humans God commands certain behavior. Belief in God Desire for union Commitment to religious way of life. 2. TAYLOR. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Page 1: How to Live a Meaningful Life

How to Live a Meaningful LifeTolstoy, Taylor, Frankfurt, Wolf, Rosenberg

Page 2: How to Live a Meaningful Life

• Belief in God• Desire for union• Commitment to religious way of

life

Subjective elements Objective elements• God exists• God personally relates to

humans• God commands certain behavior

1. TOLSTOY

Page 3: How to Live a Meaningful Life

• Loving whatever we do – doesn’t matter what it is

• This just makes life “subjectively meaningful”

• For example, Sisyphus with drug injected

Subjective elements Objective elementsNONE*

* Because none of our activities has a “significant and lasting result”

2. TAYLOR

Page 4: How to Live a Meaningful Life

• More complicated than Taylor• CARE (ch. 1)• LOVE (ch. 2)• SELF-LOVE (ch. 3)

Subjective elements Objective elements NONE*

* See p. 26

3. FRANKFURT

Page 5: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Frankfurt on CARE (ch. 1)

CARING =① wanting X

② wanting to want X③ identifying with wanting X

MEANING (p. 23)

Page 6: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Frankfurt on LOVE (ch. 2)LOVE =

① disinterested concern – no ulterior motive② personal, particular

③ x takes interests of y as his own④ involuntary

⑤ not based on intrinsic value⑥ gives us sense of intrinsic value & ultimate ends

MEANING (p. 65-6)

Page 7: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Frankfurt on SELF-LOVE (ch. 3)LOVE FOR OTHERx loves y and x ≠ y

① disinterested concern – no ulterior motive

② personal, particular③ x takes interests of y as his own ④ involuntary

SELF LOVEx loves y and x = y

Same logic?

Page 8: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Frankfurt (ch. 3)LOVE FOR OTHERSx loves y and x ≠ y

③ x takes interests of y as his own

I love SamSam loves Jay-ZI love Jay-Z

Does this make sense?Do you love whatever the people you love love?

SELF LOVEx loves y and x = y

③ x takes interests of y as his own (and x = y)

I love myselfI love Bob DylanI love Bob Dylan*

*Empty and redundant?Lessons:• Must love other things first to

love myself• Self-love = wholeheartedness

Page 9: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Frankfurt on SELF-LOVE (ch. 3)SELF –LOVEI love Bob DylanI love myselfI love Bob Dylan

① I love other things② I love them in a wholehearted, undivided way

MEANING (p. 99)

Page 10: How to Live a Meaningful Life

① CARE – wanting x, wanting to want x, identification

② LOVE – personal concern for others that gives us sense of their intrinsic value and gives us ultimate ends

③ SELF-LOVE – wholehearted investment in our interests, whatever they are

Subjective elements Objective elementsNONE*

FRANKFURT ON MEANING

Page 11: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Fulfillment …

Subjective elements Objective elements… but it must be fitting

“meaning arises from loving objects worthy of love and engaging with them in positive ways.” (p. 8)

“meaning arises when subjective attraction meets objective worth.” (p. 9)

4. WOLF

Page 12: How to Live a Meaningful Life

The objective condition“the project or activity must possess a value whose source comes from outside of oneself—whose value, in other words, is in part independent of one’s own attitude to it” (p. 37)1. Value must be received by others too (p. 43)• Fails condition: Sisyphus, eating, dieting, working out

2. Value must be perceived by others too (p. 43)• Fails condition: Sisyphus, goldfish fanatic

Page 13: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Henrietta Lacks

Missing subjective fulfillment but not objective worth

Missing objective worth but not subjective fulfillment Eating contest champion

If your life lacks meaning, it could be for two different reasons

Page 14: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Wolf: why does meaning matter?

The standard view of morality & self interest:

MORALITY CAN CONFLICT WITH SELF-INTERESTkeeping a promise vs. going to a movie

giving to charity vs. buying a new TV

In cases of conflict, morality is overriding(Kant, Utilitarians)

Page 15: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Wolf’s View

MORALITY can conflict with SELF-INTEREST

pursuing good life mere inclinations, urges, desires

meaning other aspects (subjective fulfillment plus objective worth)

In a morality vs. meaning conflict, meaning sometimes trumps morality. Morality not always overriding.

See also: Nietzsche, Frankfurt, Hurka

Page 16: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Example. Suppose Jon is trying to decide whether to help Sandy victims or run unofficial NYC marathon. Running has more meaning to him than helping.

MORALITY MEANING

Page 17: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Objections, commentsJohn Koethe (poet & philosopher) –1. When should we say an artist has fulfilled the

objective worth condition?2. Does the artist have to be successful?3. What’s his answer?

Page 18: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Objections, comments

Robert Adams (philosopher) –1. Subjective element = just love, not feeling of

fulfillment (which implies success). “One of the things about positive meaning in life is that one can have it even when one’s hopes and projects are not fulfilled and one does not feel good.” (p. 78) His example?

2. Her “objective” condition is really “intersubjective” not “objective”

3. Other points in Adams?

Page 19: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Objections, comments

Nomy Arpaly (philosopher) – 1. Subjective fulfillment is enough. Goldfish nut (if there

are any at all) doesn’t show need for objective worth—problem is that he is deluded about the nature of goldfish or intellectually limited. www.marryyourpet.com

2. Are we ever motivated by desire for meaning? 3. Doesn’t morality have some sort of privileged status?4. What else?

Page 20: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Objections, comments

Jonathan Haidt (psychologist)1. No such thing as objective worth2. Subjective fulfillment involves “vital

engagement” and “hive psychology”3. We don’t find subjective fulfillment from

being goldfish nuts, eating contests, lawnmower racing, etc.

4. What else?

Page 21: How to Live a Meaningful Life

How to live a meaningful life

Purely subjective viewsTaylorFrankfurt

Subjective/objective viewsTolstoy (religious)Wolf (unreligious)

Page 22: How to Live a Meaningful Life

• Living in accordance with purpose of the universe

Subjective elements Objective elements• Universe has a purpose that we

can help fulfill

1. Does the universe have such a purpose?

2. Can we tell what it is?3. If the universe has a purpose,

must there be a supreme being?

LINK

5. ANOTHER S/O VIEW

Page 23: How to Live a Meaningful Life

NONE Subjective elements Objective elements

NONE

6. ROSENBERG

NONE

Life is completely meaningless—no fulfillment, no objective worth. But don’t worry, it doesn’t matter!

Coming next week.

Page 24: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Rosenberg’s 8 points

1. Life’s persistent questions have scientific answers. “Scientism is my label for what any one who takes science seriously should believe…”

2. All the facts about fundamental particles “fix” all of the other facts. We should “trust physics to be scientism’s metaphysics”

Page 25: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Rosenberg’s 8 points

3. The are no purposes—”in biology, in human affairs, and in human thought processes”– No cosmic purpose– No purpose of human existence– I have no purposes, no goals*– Wipes out both subjective & objective elements of

meaning!

* See 6 & 7 too

Page 26: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Rosenberg’s 8 points

4. Darwinian evolution is the inevitable result of 2nd Law of Thermodynamics (law of increased entropy—disorder, chaos)

Page 27: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Rosenberg’s 8 points

5. No objective morality“Either [a] our core morality is an adaptation because it is the right core morality or [b] it’s the right core morality because it’s an adaptation, or [c] it’s not right, but only feels right to us.”

Can anyone think of another possibility – [d]?

Page 28: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Rosenberg’s 8 points

6. We don’t understand our own minds or brains. “The mind is no more a purpose-driven system than anything else in nature.”

7. The brain doesn’t have beliefs, wants, thoughts, hopes; there is no meaning of any sort; there is no self, soul, agent, person.

Page 29: How to Live a Meaningful Life

Rosenberg’s 8 points

8. History has no shape or meaning – we’re not going anywhere

Page 30: How to Live a Meaningful Life

NONE Subjective elements Objective elements

NONE

6. ROSENBERG

NONE

Taylor, Frankfurt, Wolf … all wrong about subjective elements.

Wolf, Tolstoy … wrong about objective elements

LIVE HAS NO MEANING, PERIOD!

Page 31: How to Live a Meaningful Life

NONE Subjective elements Objective elements

NONE

6. ROSENBERG

NONE

How can we defend the subjective elements from Rosenberg’s attack?

How can we defend the objective elements?

For more on the subjective elements, see “Is Life Meaningless?” slides 25-41

Page 32: How to Live a Meaningful Life