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This book develops and defends a subjectivist account of meaning in life, which holds that the only place that meaning can ever be found is in the way we experience the living of our lives.
Many philosophers consider that a life can only be meaningful if it meets certain objective standards. For a life to be meaningful, they insist, it needs to make a difference and contribute something important, something that is of value, and not just for the person whose life it is.
In contrast, this book contends that meaningfulness is not an objective quality of lives, nor is it in some way dependent on such a quality. Meaning is not like truth, which is commonly thought to be an objective quality of propositions. Statements or beliefs are not true simply because someone thinks or feels that they are true. Something can appear true that is in fact false. But a person cannot feel their life to be meaningful, while in fact it is not, because meaning does not depend on the presence of certain features without which no life can be rightly considered meaningful. The book therefore concludes that many people live a meaningful life. Meaning is not the prerogative of an elite minority. It is not a measure of human accomplishments.
This book will be essential reading for philosophers and postgraduate students researching the meaning of life and is also suitable for use in teaching on philosophy courses at university level.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: The Apparent Absurdity of Meaning Subjectivism.- Chapter 3: Meaning Nihilism, Ultimate Purpose, and God.- Chapter 4: Death and Ultimate Significance.- Chapter 5: Mattering and Objective Value.- Chapter 6: Are Only Useful Lives Meaningful?.- Chapter 7: Can the Life of Non-Human Animals Be Meaningful?.- Chapter 8: Importance, Achievement, and Post-Mortal Fame.- Chapter 9: Towards a Pluralistic Account of Meaning in Life.- Chapter 10: Existential Distress, Suicide, and Moral Faith.- Chapter 11: What It Means to Experience One's Life as Meaningful.- Chapter 12: Meaning, Doing Good, and Being Good.- Chapter 13: Can the Experience of Meaning Ever Be Illusory?.- Chapter 14: Conclusion.
About the author
Michael Hauskeller is professor of philosophy at the University of Liverpool, and has been Head of the Department of Philosophy since January 2018. Professor Hauskeller has published three previous books with Palgrave Macmillan: Sex and the Posthuman Condition (2014), The Palgrave Handbook of Posthumanism in Film and Television (ed., 2015), and Mythologies of Transhumanism (2016).
