On the Meaning of Life

Paperback

Main Details

Title On the Meaning of Life
Authors and Contributors      By (author) John Cottingham
SeriesThinking in Action
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback
Pages:144
Dimensions(mm): Height 198,Width 129
Category/GenrePhilosophy
ISBN/Barcode 9780415248006
ClassificationsDewey:128
Audience
Undergraduate

Publishing Details

Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint Routledge
Publication Date 14 November 2002
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

The question 'What is the meaning of life?' is one of the most fascinating, oldest and most difficult questions human beings have ever posed themselves. In an increasingly secularized culture, it remains a question to which we are ineluctably and powerfully drawn. In this acute and thoughtful book, John Cottingham assesses some of the most influential attempts to explain it, ranging from the bleak existentialist view to the religious demand that human beings amount to something more than Pascal's 'imbecile worms of the earth'. He asks what is involved in the 'disenchantment' of the natural world by science, and argues that, properly understood, modern cosmology and evolutionary theory need not foreclose the possibility of ultimate meaning. He also reflects on the paradox that the very impermanence and fragility of the human condition may lend support to the quest for a 'spiritual' dimension of meaning. Drawing skilfully on a wealth of thinkers, writers and scientists from Augustine, Descartes, Freud and Camus, to Spinoza, Pascal, Darwin, and Wittgenstein, On the Meaning of Life breathes new vitality into one of the very biggest questions.

Reviews

"" On the Meaning of Life would serve well as a textbook for units of lower-level philosophy courses on this issue; general readers would also profit from it. It is concise and clear, and would provide an excellent starting point for discussion with students.."-Jason Kawall, Colgate University