The Meaning of Life and Death: Ten Classic Thinkers on the Ultimate Question

Description

What is the point of living? If we are all going to die anyway, if nothing will remain of whatever we achieve in this life, why should we bother trying to achieve anything in the first place? Can we be mortal and still live a meaningful life? Questions such as these have been asked for a long time, but nobody has found a conclusive answer yet. The connection between death and meaning, however, has taken centre stage in the philosophical and literary work of some of the world's greatest writers: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Soren Kierkegaard, Arthur Schopenhauer, Herman Melville, Friedrich Nietzsche, William James, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Marcel Proust, and Albert Camus. This book explores their ideas, weaving a rich tapestry of concepts, voices and images, helping the reader to understand the concerns at the heart of those writers' work and uncovering common themes and stark contrasts in their understanding of what kind of world we live in and what really matters in life.

Michael Hauskeller is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Liverpool, UK and the author of of Biotechnology and the Integrity of Life (2007), Better Humans? Understanding the Enhancement Project (2013) Sex and the Posthuman Condition (2014), Handbook of Posthumanism (2015) and Mythologies of Transhumanism (2016).

Hauskeller's excellent and original work, often brilliant, certainly among the best new philosophy I've read in five years, can be practical for readers ... A brief review cannot do even one of these thinker's reflections justice. However, both readers who see the question as indeed ultimate and the sceptics of life meaningfulness will find this work so stimulating that one savours every paragraph, by the end wishing for more. * Journal of Applied Philosophy * Well written, richly informative, and deeply meaningful, this volume will be an excellent primer for anyone seeking a clear and concise understanding of these thinkers' ideas on the meaning of life and death. The volume is remarkable for demonstrating that when it came to trying to understand the essential questions of life, little changed over the 200 years this book covers, a span of time that embraces the industrial revolution. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. * CHOICE * Drawing on ideas from some of the world's most intriguing thinkers, Hauskeller invites us on a philosophical journey, in which we consider different aspects of life and death. Bringing together exciting philosophers such as Wittgenstein and Nietzsche, and renowned literary figures such Tolstoy and Proust, the book offers a new set of perspectives on the time-honoured question of the meaning of life and death. * Havi Carel, Professor of Philosophy, University of Bristol, UK * Highly recommended. Hauskeller has made a wise selection of work by philosophers and fiction writers about the connection between death and meaning in life. The book as a whole represents many of the main ideas in this area of such deep existential interest. * John Martin Fischer, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and University Professor, University of California, USA *