The Meaning of Life

1
The Meaning of Life

• Happiness pursue pleasures that do not involve
  pain (friendships, learning, art appreciation),
  satisfy natural desires (food, sleep), avoid vain
  desires (fame, fashion). The nothingness of death
  is not to be feared
• Stoicism limit interests to things we control
  help others to do likewise
• Objection from the standpoint of the universe,
  our lives are meaningless

Epicurus 341-270 BCE
Epictetus (55-135 CE)
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The Meaning of Life
Aquinas
Tolstoy

• Theistic Response our lives have purpose and
  value because they are part of a divine plan
• Objections If there is no God, life is
  pointless. And if there is a God, then our lives
  are merely means to fulfill his purposes, not
  ours
• Human Progress our lives are meaning-
  ful to the extent that they
  contribute to the advance of
  freedom or a classless society

Hegel
Marx
3
The Meaning of Life Other Views

• Nihilism life is a constant struggle
  satisfaction of needs produces only boredom
  and more struggle
• Subjective meaning/personal choice
• Kierkegaard an authentic life is not based
  on doing what feels right (the aesthetic) or
  what is rational/universal (the moral) but on a
  leap of faith, a commitment to personally chosen
  goals
• J.-P. Sartre life has meaning only in terms of
  our choices to believe otherwise is bad faith

A. Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
(1813-55)
(1905-80)