Review for Exam 3

 AGENDA

• participation self-evaluation at Canvas
• Exam 3 -- during tomorrow's class

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Study materials

• The big picture
• Review page
• Meaning page
• your notes, your RRs, comments on your RRs, the readings

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20 QUESTIONS

(1) What do you need to know from Module 5?

• Anything we continued to discuss in Modules 6 and 7
• Tolstoy: his crisis about death, his solution
• Taylor: myth of Sisyphus, his view of meaning

(2) What does Wolf think is right and wrong with Taylor's view of meaning?

(3)  What does she mean by "fitting fulfillment"?

(4) When we discussed Wolf, why did we discuss looksmaxxing?

(5) Why is DeBres unhappy with Wolf's view? Does she completely reject it?

• See: the choppy life vs. the cohesive life

(6) Why does telling your life story add meaning to your life? 

• Is it the sole source of meaning, a necessary source of meaning, or one source of meaning, according to De Bres?
• We embellish, forget, distort, shape our stories...does truth really matter? What does she say?

(7) Why is Strawson so skeptical of narrativism?

• What does he mean by "narrative people" and "non-narrative" people?

(8) Setiya and Hanh both talk about presence and encourage you to meditate. How are they different?

• What is Hanh's "here and now" argument for becoming more present?

(9) Kauppinen (first post, second post) has four arguments why presence during atelic activities does not add any meaning to your life. What are they? (see second post)

(10) What sort of life does have meaning, according to Kauppinen? (see second post)

• a project centered life
• but to avoid post-project deflation, choose your projects wisely
• check-box projects -- going to Machu Pichu
• fertile projects -- learning about the Incas
• prospective ground projects -- becoming a lawyer
• reflexive ground projects -- being a friend, helping children, protecting nature, supporting family -- not completable, but still dedicated to a value (unlike Setiya's examples of atelic activities)

(11) Why is Cottingham dissatisfied with all the meaning in life authors? 

• he thinks they are theorizing about meaning without grappling with human incompleteness
• what are the four dimensions of human incompleteness?

(12) Cottingham says "striving for transcendence" is essential for a meaningful life. How should we express that striving?

(13)  At the beginning of "The Absurd" Nagel talks about feeling small in a large universe and the thought that nothing matters, because it won't matter in a million years. Does he say life is absurd because of such feelings?

(14) Nagel says we oscillate between two views of ourselves. What are the two views?

• Is one better than the other?
• Can we stop oscillating?

(15) How bad is it that life is absurd, according to Nagel?

(16) Does Weinberg think life is totally meaningless? Explain.

(17) Weinberg makes a complicated argument with many steps. What are the main steps.

(18) Nobody seems to be convinced by Weinberg, but what exactly is wrong with her argument. Can you make an objection aimed at one specific step of the argument?

(19) How do you think she would respond to your objection?

(20) Who is the best meaning author we have read? Why is that view best?

Guest speaker: Michael McShane

 AGENDA

1. Descartes reading
2. Review on Monday....come with questions!

Narrativity, etc.

 AGENDA

1. Reminder: guest lecture on Friday...please come!
2. RR32...will be graded leniently!
3. Presentation
4. Weinberg, further thoughts
5. Meaning maps
6. Review

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Presentation

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Weinberg, further thoughts

• 1. Reply at same journal;  2. Reply at meaningness website

• She seems to be assuming this is a model situation--             

                    grow basil ... make pesto (external point)

                    pump gas ... drive your car  (external point) 

                    go to law school ... work as a lawyer (external point)

• Applying this model to leading a life, she discovers a problem

                    leading your life as a whole .... ______________ [what's the external point?]

• Objection in the two replies
• It's a choice whether to think of your life as one big enterprise; it's not inevitable. (reply 2)
• If you do think of it that way, there needn't be an external point (reply 1)

• Back to the beginning of this class: Aristotle snow days

• there's some end to all that we do (telos)
• whatever our end, achieving it makes us characteristically human
• it's eudaimonia -- happiness, flourishing, through moral and intellectual virtue
• flourishing is HOW you live your life
• it's not external to your life
• there is no external point...and that's ok...nothing to be sad about!

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Map of meaning

• will help you review for Exam 2
• will also help you make up your mind about meaning
• POLL

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Review page (tab at top of page)

1,000 × 667

Crying

 AGENDA

1. Weinberg continued
2. Wednesday: narrative presentation, talk about exam 3 a bit, some Weinberg loose ends
3. Friday: guest speaker

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Recap of Weinberg points -- sections 1-3 of "Ultimate Meaning"

(1) Leading your life is an endeavor, like other endeavors (but all encompassing).

(2) It makes sense to ask what's the point of the whole endeavor. 

(3) Ultimate meaning = the point of the whole endeavor. Everyday meaning = points of our smaller endeavors.

(4) The point of leading your life has to be outside the endeavor, not just a part of the endeavor.  (See building a hut discussion.)

 

(5) Any alleged point of leading your life turns out to be (A) a part of the endeavor, not outside the endeavor, or (B) problematic in some other way.

(6) Therefore, we can't have ultimate meaning.

(7) That's sad! 

(8) But it's not unbearable We do have plenty of everyday meaning. 

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Next section -- 

• Some conceivable points of leading your life 
• Problems with them

Conceivable points

1. Union with God in the afterlife
2. A valuable end beyond the self--alleviating suffering, justice, doing good (e.g. Peter Singer, effective altruism)
3. Buddhist end -- ceasing of rebirth, ceasing of suffering, no self, nirvana

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Union with God in the afterlife

Let's talk about Tolstoy first...

• He was worried about every day meaning--Why write my books? Why care about my family?
• Worried because death wipes out efforts.
• Afterlife solves this problem about everyday meaning for him
• he thinks: some of my efforts have results that are not wiped out by death 
• pleasing God --> eternal rewards
• Is he even asking Weinberg's question?  (probably not!)

Confession, p. 138 (ch. 5)

Confession, p. 166 (ch. 9)

Confession, p. 169 (ch. 9)

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Weinberg's question: Can union with God in the afterlife be the point of leading a life (p. 11-12)

Her answer:

Positing god or the afterlife as the point of life are common examples of widening

and/or postponing the problem of pointlessness. What’s the point of doing god’s will orexisting in the afterlife? Say we have a blissful afterlife. That can seem like the point of life: to achieve a blissful afterlife. But it really only postpones the question, as we can see by imagining life extending into some sort of afterlife. Okay, you get there, you’re happy, now what? What’s the point of the rest of your life/afterlife? Once again, we will note that our lives include their entirety, including their possible afterlife portion, leaving no valued end to serve as a point for living, or afterliving, it. Adding an afterlife epilogue to a regular life just postpones the question by making your life last a lot longer and have this second supernatural chapter.

1. Note--she's assuming (for the sake of argument) that there is union with God in the afterlife 
2. The "now what?" problem.
3. The part problem -- the afterlife is just a part of the totality of your life. What's the point of the totality?

WORKBOOK

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Other possible points of leading a life

What is her response to "doing good" as the point of leading your life?

What might she say about the Buddhist end?

Crying

 AGENDA

• Weinberg, ultimate meaning
• Next Friday: guest lecturer (job candidate)
• Monday May 4: review
• Tuesday May 5: exam 3

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Rivka Weinberg, "Ultimate Meaning: We Don't Have It, We Can't Get It, and We Should Be Very Very Sad" (2021)

The Meaning of It All (2026)

Watch first 5 minutes:

 

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Basic terms and concepts

• Meaning means purpose
• "What is the meaning of life?" = "What is the point of life?"

Everyday meaning (what others call "meaning in life")-- What is the point parts of parts of our lives like having a career, having a family, etc?

Ultimate meaning -(she also calls this "meaning of life") - Take the entire enterprise of leading your life ... what's the point?

Cosmic meaning (discussed in book, not article) -- What is our role in the cosmos as a whole?

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Main claims 

1. There is lots of everyday meaning -- lots of things you do have a point
2.  But there is no ultimate meaning -- leading your life has no point
3. And that's sad!

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Leading your life is your biggest pursuit

Each little diamond is one of your projects
The whole arrow represents the project of leading your life

 My projects/pursuits/enterprises today

1. Getting ready to teach
2. Getting ready to give a talk tomorrow
3. Finishing a book I'm reading
4. Making dinner
5. Etc.
6. Leading my life

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Pursuits and points

Pursuit: Building a hut

• The point of a pursuit is a valued end that is separate and outside of the pursuit itself (call this sthe "externality principle")
• It may be achieved at the same time as the pursuit or after the pursuit is finished.

Possible points of building a hut

• valued end: having fun 
• valued end: having shelter 
• both of these points are separate from and outside of the pursuit itself

Not a possible point of building a hut

• building the walls
• adding the roof
• digging the foundation
• a PART of the pursuit can't be the point of the WHOLE pursuit

Other violations of the externality principle

• what is the point of eating dinner? eating dessert
• what is the point of going to the fair? going on the rides

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Lots of pursuits do have points

Note that some of the pursuits are "telic"and some of them are "atelic."
Atelic pursuits do have a point, they just don't have an ENDpoint.

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But the project of living your life doesn't have a point

"The point of building a hut, like all points, will lie outside the hut, as we have noted. But there’s nothing external to your life to serve as the point of leading and living it because your life includes your whole damn life. Human life includes its entirety, leaving nowhere for us to reach for a valued end to serve as a point for leading and living it." ("Ultimate Meaning" p. 4)

"Because your life includes your entire life, there is nothing external to it to serve as a valued end toward which it is directed. This doesn’t mean that your life is worthless or insignificant or not valuable in other ways. It just means that it’s pointless." ("Ultimate Meaning" p. 4)

"The problem of Ultimate Meaning—its metaphysical impossibility—results from the nature of points (i.e., that they are separate from the activities, pursuits, projects, and efforts toward which they’re aimed) and the nature of a human life (i.e., that it includes its entirety). We can see that problem from right here, from right inside our lives and the effort we put into running them." ("Ultimate Meaning" p. 6)

"We can have many valued ends within our lives, and they may provide points for many of our efforts within our lives but they can’t provide a point to or for leading our lives at all. Our lives may be full, even meaningful, overflowing with purposeful projects and enterprises but conducting life itself isn’t one of them. It can’t be. There is nothing that lies separate from it to serve as its valued end." ("Ultimate Meaning" p. 7)

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Next section of her article --attempted solutions (we will discuss Monday)

Brainstorm objections

WORKBOOK

Laughing

 AGENDA

• Nagel, "The Absurd"

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This module -- people dissatisfied in some way with all the meaning-in-life authors

1. We should be seeking (and finding?) transcendence -- John Cottingham (2021)
2. However much you meet the conditions for meaning, your life will still be absurd -- Thomas Nagel (1971)
3. Sorry, but you can't have "ultimate meaning," and that's sad  -- Rivka Weinberg (2026)

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Nagel, "The Absurd" (1971)

INTRO

Nagel: "Most people feel on occasion that life is absurd, and some people feel it vividly and continually." (p. 716)

• Do you feel that life is absurd?  When?
• What does "absurd" mean?
• Is "absurd" the opposite of "meaningful"?
  

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SECTION I

Some triggers for the feeling that life is absurd... that don't really make much sense

• Life is absurd because "what we do today won't matter in a million years (p. 716)
• Nagel: what happens in a million years doesn't matter today
• Life is absurd because "we are tiny specks in the infinite vastness of the universe" (p. 717) 
• Nagel: life would still be absurd if the universe was smaller!
• Life is absurd because there is no "final end" or "ultimate point."  (p. 717)
• Nagel: none is needed, so that doesn't make life absurd  (p. 717)

"The standard arguments for absurdity appear therefore to fail as arguments. Yet I believe they attempt to express something that s difficult to state, but fundamentally correct." (p. 718)

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SECTION II

Nagel's account of the absurdity of life

p. 719

• Absurdity = having the engaged inside view AND the doubting outside view all the time; oscillating between the two; not being able to settle on one or the other

Examples of this dual perspective (serious and engaged on the inside, doubtful from the outside)

• Love and Death (Woody Allen and Diane Keaton 1975) --  discussing philosophy seriously while also being aware of how it seems from the outside
• Listers (2024) -- birding seriously while also looking at birding from the outside
• This dual perspective is very common in comedies....

More examples of the dual perspective?

• inside: serious and engaged 
• outside: doubtful, amused

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SECTION III

Trying to be 100% serious by playing a role in a larger enterprise ... it's not going to totally eliminate the external, doubting stance

• You might try to be 100% serious by being involved in an enterprise such as "service to society, the state, the revolution, the progress of history, the advance of science, or religion and the glory of God" (p. 720)
• But just being part of a larger enterprise isn't enough. What if you learned you were being raised as meat for aliens?

  

  p. 721

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SECTION IV

Why not permanently adopt the outside standpoint and take nothing seriously?

• We can't do that
• Nagel is NOT saying doubt is any more correct than engagement.  Life is absurd because both engagement and doubt are inescapable.  

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Section V SKIP

Oscillating between the standpoints is like feeling both certain and skeptical after studying epistemological skepticism

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Section VI

Is it really important to escape absurdity?

• A mouse's life is not absurd...it's something special about us that our lives are absurd
• You could try to have that detachment all of the time, so you wouldn't oscillate between the two standpoints.  
• Your detached life wouldn't be as absurd as most, but certainly wouldn't be meaningful.

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Nagel section VII

How to live with absurdity

1. suicide ... that assumes absurdity is a huge problem and it's not actually a problem at all!
2. bravery, defiance (Albert Camus) ... again, that assumes it's a problem
3. acceptance ... "absurdity is one of the most human things about us: a manifestation of our most advanced- and interesting characteristic" (p. 726)
4. "we can approach our absurd lives with irony instead of heroism or despair" (p. 727)

The ironic life -- incongruity between two attitudes

I love it ... but isn't it kind of silly ... this is great ... but is it great? ... I care .... but should I care?

The wholehearted life

I love it.

Must we live ironically all the time?  Is everything subject to doubt or just some parts of life? 

 

Transcendence

 AGENDA

1. Last week of class--we have class meetings on Monday May 4 AND Tuesday May 5. Exam 3 is on Tuesday May 5.
2. Our next module
3. Cottingham
4. Next reading: pay attention to notations 

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Recap: Meaning in life authors

1. Our meaning IN life authors set aside the meaning OF life -- worries about why we are here, what's the point, etc.
2. They focus on which choices, attitudes, activities, etc., are needed for meaning IN life
• Taylor--just need passion for something
• Wolf--need passion plus objective worth
• DeBres--need to recount true life stories (etc)
• Setiya--need presence during atelic activities (etc)
• Kauppinen--need ground projects
3. They all think you could meet the condition and have "meaning in life"
• example of someone with meaning in life: Tolstoy, before his crisis began

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Next group of authors: Ultimate Meaning

1. Dissatisfied with meaning in life proposals
2. But for very different reasons

John Cottingham --"The Meaning of Life and Transcendence" (2022)

Thomas Nagel -- "The Absurd" (1971)

Rivka Weinberg -- "Ultimate Meaning: We Don't Have it, We Can't Get it, and We Should Be Very, Very, Sad" (2021) -- Also her new book The Meaning of It All:  Ultimate Meaning, Everyday Meaning, Cosmic Meaning, Death, and Time

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John Cottingham

"Transcendence and Meaning In Life" (2022) -- in the collection below

Cottingham's main points

(1) "Meaning in life" literature is inadequate

• "asking about meaning in life invites us to take a more pragmatic and piecemeal approach, and to look at various activities and pursuits within human life that we may find fulfilling or regard as meaningful. This latter approach typically takes what might be called a radically 'immanentist' perspective: the sources of meaning are to be sought entirely within the sphere of our purely human pursuits and activities." (p. 1)

• terminology: immanent (within) vs. transcendent (beyond)

(2) We do (and should) experience human incompleteness

1. Existential dimension. We are "thrown" into existence (Heidegger)

2. Cosmological dimension. "That we are here at all, that the universe exists at all, is a profound mystery that we long to fathom, but we know we will never, and can never, solve. (p. 2)

3. Finitude dimension. "we are keenly aware of our limits, our puniness, our mortality, a tiny speck, as Pascal put it, against an infinite backdrop" (p. 2)  VIDEO
4. Morality dimension. We are morally flawed, subject to moral conflicts

(3) We have an urge for completeness and transcendence

"As finite creatures we reach out anxiously towards the infinite, which we know we can never encompass. We might say that our human mode of being is an interrogative one. What we long for is something that will answer this anxious question, that will bring us completion. If we could have an answer, then we might know the meaning of human life. But – and here is the rub – we also know that such an answer is beyond our human capacity to achieve. So there is an inherent instability or tension at the heart of the question of the meaning of life: we long for it, but we know we cannot have it. We are mired in immanence, yet we yearn for transcendence." (p. 4)

(4) Religious rituals express the longing for transcendence --

"Many traditional spiritual practices can plausibly be understood as aiming to do precisely this. They do not produce a propositional answer to the puzzle of life’s meaning, but they offer a series of formalized procedures and rituals whereby human beings are able to express how they stand in relation to the mystery that confronts them. By enacting their longing for the transcendent, they turn what might have been angry or helpless puzzlement or nihilistic despair into a joyful expression of hope, and thereby find a way of reaching towards the transcendent meaning that is longed for." (p 4) 

•  Catholic offertory prayer  VIDEO
• note he says they express hope, and not necessarily firm belief!     

(5) Life isn't fully meaningful if we don't express the longing for transcendence

"Nothing in the ritual, to be sure, can guarantee that there is indeed such a  transcendent source; and nothing, to be sure, compels us in logic to adopt the path of spiritual praxis (let alone to do so in the specific form described in this liturgical example). But if we resolve to turn our back on any such path, we will, in the absence of some alternative vehicle for expressing the longing in question, be shutting down something in our nature that is not easily silenced. We will have to fall back on purely immanent sources of meaning, which may of course bring great satisfactions in their wake, but which will leave part of our nature unprovided for. And the life of a creature who longs for transcendence but is mired in immanence cannot be a fully meaningful one." (p. 6) 

•  note that he alludes to "alternative vehicles"
• are there alternative vehicles?
• Tolstoy's life wasn't fully meaningful until his crisis and his longing for transcendence

(6) Transcending ourselves by aiming for something better and grander is a partial solution to the sense of incompleteneess, but "does not capture the deeper character of the human urge for transcendence" (p. 7)

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More religious rituals

Meditation -- Thich Nhat Hanh -- path to kingdom of God and the pure land 

Jewish blessings

Seizing the Day (3)

 AGENDA

1. Ethics minor
2. Preview: Ultimate Meaning
3. Kauppinen, part 2

Cottingham -- dissatisfied with "meaning in life" authors we've been reading -- talks about urge for transcendence -- we'll discuss religious meaning Monday

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Presence...living in the moment ... being atelic ... focussing on the here and now ... savoring the present ("presentism" for short)

1. Setiya and Hanh: this will add more meaning to your life
2. Kauppinen's interpretation of Setiya: this is the only thing that adds meaning to your life (2017 book he doesn't say this, 2014 article maybe he says this)

Kaupppinen is critic of presentism

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Kauppinen's four objections to presentism

Based on connection between meaning and pride, admiration, etc.

1. "if someone’s life is meaningful, then attitudes like sense of purpose, agential pride, fulfilment, agential admiration, and elevation are merited by it"  (p. 7)
2. People don't merit these attitudes based on their atelic moments.  THEREFORE,
3. Atelic moments aren't meaningful.

Based on meaning role models

1. People with meaningful lives are inspiring role models. (Martin Luther King, Oprah Winfrey....)
2. People aren't inspiring role models on the basis of their atelic moments. THEREFORE,
3. Atleic moments aren't meaningful.

Based on what cures an existential crisis

1. Finding meaning "cures" an existential crisis -- Is life worth living? What's the point? Does anything really matter if all our efforts come to nothing?
2. Atelic moments don't "cure" an existential crisis. THEREFORE,
3. Atelic moments aren't meaningful.

• It's A Wonderful Life: George Bailey's (Jimmy Stewart) crisis cured by realizing what a huge difference he's made in other people's lives
• Then again Manhattan: Isaac (Woody Allen) lists things that make life worth living,. His list suggests a variety of atelic activities.

Groucho Marx, Willie Mays, Mozart’s "Jupiter Symphony" (2nd movement), Louis Armstrong’s "Potato Head Blues," Swedish movies, Flaubert’s Sentimental Education, Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Cézanne's apples and pears, crabs at Sam Wo's, and Tracy's face.

Futiity objection

1. If a telic activity is pointless and futile, "enjoying the process" is also pointless and futile.
2.  All our telic activities are pointless and futile (says Setiya*). THEREFORE,
3. Enjoying the process is also pointless and futile (Setiya has to say).

    * Does he really say this?

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Kauppinen's positive picture: the project-centered life

• Can you live that life without constant deflation and an impending midlife crisis?

Different kinds of projects

(A) Check-box projects -- once goal is achieved, it disappears from your life -- you want to "have done" the thing -- you could approach any goal this way 

• I want to have visited Machu Pichu

(B) Fertile projects -- reaching one goal leads to setting another goal -- so when you reach a goal the project isn't expelled from your life 

• reaching a level in a video game 
• getting a degree in philosophy
• reading Anna Karenina

(C) Prospective ground projects -- major life goals -- aimed at the future -- like a treasure hunt 

• owning a house
• having children
• publishing a book

(D)  Reflexive ground projects -- major life goals -- no simple future aim  -- sources of meaning

"Instead of being directed towards a temporally distant outcome, they aim at an end that is realized to some degree at each moment of the project’s duration, insofar as one is successful," (p. 16). 

 "One distinctive feature of reflexive aims is thus that when you adopt one, you take responsibility for something putatively valuable that can’t be brought about once and for all, without need for further activity." (p. 17)

Dedication to the project is a Service life as opposed to an Adventurous life. 

• parenting
• family
• marriage
• governing a country
• being friends with someone
• protecting and loving nature
• advocating for racial equality

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Engaging in reflexive ground projects: 

Example: chatting with your grandmother

Telic: completable

Strongly atelic: can't complete, no connection to a long-term project (e.g. going for a walk), "living in the moment"

 Weakly atelic: can't complete act, but connected to a long-term project (p. 20) 

"Taking responsibility for a practice-dependent value is not 'living in the moment', even though it is not future-oriented in the same way as pursuing a prospective aim. (p. 23)

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Kauppinen says: reflexive ground projects are (or can be) meaningful

They meet Kauppinen's three conditions for being meaningful--

1. The can merit admiration & pride (if they're worthwhile projects)
2. Our "meaningful life" role models are known for their ground projects.
3. You can cure an existential crisis by engaging in ground projects.

Bottom line: find your reflexive ground project, don't look for meaning in disconnected strongly atelic activities!

"meaning is to be found in the various ways of making large-scale progress, from building on what we’ve learned to deepening our understanding, and in the various ways of taking responsibility for valuable tasks that are never completed but can be performed better or worse. (p. 25)

Seizing the Day (2)

 AGENDA

1. Presentation
2. Kauppinen

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Antti Kauppinen-- "Against Seizing the Day"

 Kauppinen's interpretation of Setiya based on two of Setiya's writings

1. He draws on Setiya's book Midlife (2017) -- the chapter we read
2. he also draws on an earlier article -- "The Midlife Crisis" (2014)

2017 book: to get over your midlife crisis ...

1. Do ontinue some telic activities
2. But enjoy the process (Atelic1)
3. Also enjoy the counterparts of your telic activities (Atelic2)
4. Also enjoy other atelic activities (Atelic3)
5. Be present during these atelic activities; learn to be present by meditating

2014 article (see p. 16-17)... talks more about meaning and makes stronger claims

1. Telic activities do have value, but....
2. The ideal life would be completely focused on atelic activities
• do some writing instead of writing a book (it may turn into a book)
• do some hiking instead of hiking the Appalachian Trail (you may hike the whole trail)
• do some dating instead of looking for someone to marry (you may get married)
3. The ideal life is just an ideal, not something to strive fo

Kauppinen interprets Setiya as saying...

1. atelic activities are meaningful! 
2. only atelic activities are meaningful 

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Kauppinen argues for the opposite

what gives your life meaning is your "ground projects," such as "parenting, running, a business, or governing a country" (p. 2) 

"On this picture, meaning isn’t to be found in the here and now, in seizing the day. It is instead a deserved reward of bending the arc of one’s life in the direction of the good by building on past efforts or by keeping a good thing going even when the going gets tough." (p. 3) 

"if someone’s life is meaningful, then attitudes like sense of purpose, agential pride, fulfilment, agential admiration, and elevation are merited by it (see Metz 2001, Wolf 2010, Kauppinen 2013). The problem with throwing projects to the wind and focusing one’s life on strongly atelic activities, then, is that they don’t warrant such attitudes. "(p. 7)

"To be sure, we sometimes use the language of meaning in other ways as well. For example, we may describe certain experiences, events, people, places, or objects as meaningful for us. What this kind of talk says is that these things resonate with us – they give rise to some deep feelings, not just pleasure, for example. There is some temptation to think that a life is meaningful to the extent that it contains such meaningful encounters. But I want to keep this sense of meaningfulness separate from having the kind of sense of purpose or point to our lives that wards off existential concerns (Why am I here? What does it matter if I die tomorrow? What’s the point of all this toil? So what if I’d never existed?)." (p. 7)

"If the angel in It’s a Wonderful Life had reminded George Bailey that he will have a deep experience if he goes to see the Sistine Chapel or dances with his wife, it would have done nothing to stop him from jumping off the bridge – his concern wasn’t that nothing resonated with him, but that he had failed those who depended on him. Focusing on the aptness of meaning-relevant attitudes should help make clear we’re addressing the right question." (p. 7)

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It's a Wonderful Life -- George Bailey is on the verge of suicide but an angel shows him how much of a difference he's made to his community and he realizes life is worth living.

Manhattan -- Isaac is thinking about what makes life worth living and lists a bunch of things that simply resonate with him!

Seizing the Day

AGENDA

1. What is meaning? (recap)
2. Presence

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Recap: What is meaning? What makes a life more meaningful?

1. Union with the infinite (Tolstoy)
2. Having a passion for whatever you're doing (Taylor...but this is just subjective meaning)
3. Subjective attraction to things that are objectively attractive (Wolf)
4. Telling our life stories, which makes us intelligible to ourselves and others  (DeBres says this is just one source of meaning)
5. Presence (Setiya, Hanh)

What is presence?

• living in the present, seizing the day, focusing on the here and now
• mindfulness, awareness, paying attention

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Authors discussing presence 

Kieran Setiya -- last section of chapter from Midlife ("Living in the Present") we already read 

Thich Nhat Hanh -- a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and author -- You are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment 

Antti Kaupinnen --  "Against Seizing the Day" 

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Setiya: how to make progress

1. Phase 1: You're living very telically 
2. Phase 2: You have a midlife crisis
3. Phase 3: You shift to atelic activities 
4. Phase 4: You're "present" during these atelic activities 

How can you learn to be more present?  Why should you be more present? He starts off discussing Buddhism and meditation.

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A little intro to Buddhism--

The Four Noble Truths (four points quoted from Setiya p. 146)

1. Life is suffering
2. The source of suffering is attachment 
3. The solution is to give it up.  
4. The way to do so is the Eightfold Path 

How to give up attachment?

• No more desiring
• No more aversion
• "Absorb the revolutionary metaphysics of 'anatta' or no-self" (p. 147)
• Meditation ... for serenity and insight (p. 147)

Meditation (p. 147)

"There are stages to the meditative process, which begins with quiet, seated concentration on the breath—breathing in and out—­ felt calmly, almost musically in the chest or throat or nose. There is awareness of bodily sensations, sounds, suspended and detached from the need for active response. There is awareness of one’s passing thoughts and feelings, equally suspended, equally detached, their ebb and flow, transient and separable. And there is, in a certain phase of meditation, an intuitive, not merely intellective grasp of impermanence, suffering, and no-­self: I do not exist. This is Buddhist enlightenment." (p. 147)

Thich Nhat Hanh reading -- much more detail about meditation and what it achieves (we'll come back to that)

 

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Presence through meditation: what is its value, according to Setiya?

• Argues against Buddhist ideas like no-self.

"Meditation fosters an intuitive, not merely intellective grasp of the meaning and value of atelic activities." (p. 151) 

"The point I am making here is that it is not sufficient for meaning in life that one attend to the present, to the atelic activities in which you are engaged. It matters what you are doing, not just that you are doing it in the Now." (p. 153) 

"Meditating on your breath, your body, the sounds in your environment is a way to train your appreciation of simple atelic activities: breathing, sitting, listening. There is value in these activities, though not enough for a meaningful life. Attending to their presence is not an end in itself. It is a way to develop your capacity to be in the moment, so as to appreciate the atelic counterparts of the telic activities that matter to you. In order to do this, you must overcome the magnetic pull of the telic orientation. You must prevent your attention from being absorbed by projects. You need the mastery of mental focus, of your own thoughts and feelings, that is nurtured by mindfulness meditation." (p. 153)

So....choose valuable activities AND do them with presence

• Sisphus rolling boulders -- no point in doing with presence!
• doom scrolling
• looksmaxxing
• going for a walk
• listening to music

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Suggestion: atelic activities are not all equally conducive to presence. Even if you meditate, you will find that presence comes naturally in some cases, but is hard in others.

During what activities do you find presence comes easily and naturally?  Poll

Activities designed to foster presence: the Japanese tea ceremony

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Some terms Setiya uses when discussing what has value--

• Ameliorative value -- something is bad and you're fixing or overcoming it
• Existential value -- something is worth doing, nothing bad preceded it

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Thich Nhat Hanh -- 

• a Buddhist monk, so finds genuine Buddhist value in meditation (not surprising!)
• meditation & presence allow you to enter the Pure Land & the Kingdom of God

Hanh p. 9

Hanh p. 12

• 

  Hanh p. 22
  
  

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Narrativity Skepticism

 AGENDA

1. Strawson's anti-narrativism
2. Next week: living in the present, Buddhist ideas, plus a critic

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Narrativists vs. Anti-narrativists

Narrativists' views

1. Narrativism as a theory of human psychology: we continually narrate our lives, building our unified life stories
2. Narrativism as a theory of the self: we ARE our stories
3. DeBres's account of meaning in life: the fitting story view.
4. Other narrativist accounts of meaning in life
• Relationism
• Progressive relationism
• Recountism
• Agency recountism
5. Narrativism as an account of the good life: you're life is going well to the extent you have a life story

Anti-narrativists -- Galen Strawson

"I am not a story"

1. Presents what narrativists say about human psychology and the self (1&2)
2. Argues that it's not true of most people

"Narrativism and meaning in life" (not a required reading)

• Rejects narrativist accounts of meaning in life, such as DeBres

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"I am not a story"

1. We'll first read the yellow passages --narrativist ideas
• you are constantly telling your story
• your life has narrative cohesion
• you're the author of your life and the chief protagonist
2. Then we'll read the purple passages -- anti-narrativist ideas
• Life starts over every day
• Little or no focus on the past
• multiple selves, to some degree in conflict

He's making psychological claims

• We're each Narrative or Non-narrative
• Some are Narrative
• Most are non-narrative

Let's find out!  POLL

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Application to meaning in life -- Strawson, "Narrativity and Meaning in Life"

What is he arguing?

1. Most of us are Non-narrative. (Strawson believes)
2. If a Non-Narrative person tells a life story with a conventional narrative form, it is bound to be mostly false.
3. A mostly false story can't add meaning to life (DeBres agrees). THEREFORE,
4. For most of us, recounting our life stories isn't meaningful.

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An amusing anti-narrative perspective from Tyler Cowen

Life Stories

 AGENDA

1. DeBres overview
2. Discussion
3. Next time: Galen Strawson, critic

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Helena DeBres, "Narrative and Meaning in Life"

Recap: Four versions of the view that narrative adds meaning to life

1. Relationism--the actual narrative relations add meaning to our lives
2. Progressive relationism--the actual narrative relations add meaning to our lives provided that the narrative is progressive
3. Recountism--recounting our life stories adds meaning to our lives
4. Agency recountism--recounting our life stories adds meaning to our lives when we are autonomous protagonists of our stories and telling the story is therefore empowering

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DeBres's main idea

• Parallel
• Seeking meaning OF life...you want the universe to be intelligible
• Seeking meaning IN life ... you want yourself to be intelligible
• By telling our own life stories we make our own lives intelligible to ourselves and others
• So telling our life stories contributes to meaning in life (recountism)

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Her theory of meaning in life: The Fitting Story View 

"Fitting Story. Telling a story about one’s life that is (i) true and (ii) adheres to a set of (salient) narrative conventions, contributes to the meaningfulness of one’s life. It does so by making the life more intelligible to oneself and others, thereby enabling the goods of understanding and community." (p. 562)

Clarifications

1. The story must be true--"a wildly inaccurate --one involving major fabrications, distortions, or omissions--can't render the life that it treats intelligible" (p. 562)
2. The narrative must adhere to narrative conventions...otherwise, does not increase intelligibility
   

Theory is very modest --

"Although I have argued here that recounting one’s life story contributes to meaning, I haven’t argued that doing so is necessary for a meaningful life or sufficient for a life of superlative meaning. In fact, I deny both of those claims. I believe that the bulk of meaning in life is supplied not by “fitting stories,” but directly by the projects, relationships, activities, and experiences that are the stuff of which those stories are told. Possession of such goods could render a life meaningful even if narrative intelligibility were absent and lack of them could render a life substantially meaningless even if narrative intelligibility were present. Relatedly, although I believe that narrative addresses some deep and widespread human concerns, I make no claim here that all humans experience those concerns or that all humans find narrative a useful response to them." (p. 570)

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Objections to the Fitting Story View

(1) Too many cases where narrative doesn't add meaning to a life

• Imagine  Sisyphus continually telling his life story...still a meaningless life
• Imagine Choppy Life continually telling his life story...doesn't add much meaning

DeBres's reply

(2) Narrative view shouldn't have a truth requirement

• Life stories are often only partially true
• We embellish, we forget, we shape our own stories, we deceive ourselves

DeBres's reply

(3) The most meaningful lives break free from narrative conventions

DeBres's reply: even very unique lives can be told within existing narrative conventions

(4) This theory gives bad advice--that we should live in such a way that we have good stories to tell.

DeBres's reply

(5) Clover and Daisy do all the same things, but only Clover tells her life story. Doesn't seem plausible that Clover's life is more meaningful. 

DeBres's reply

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DISCUSSION -- WORKBOOK

Suppose that telling your life story does contribute meaning to your life. Does the story have to be true or do you just have to believe it's true?

Example of an untrue life story

• This American Life, episode 504 (Michael Lewis)
• Emir Kamenika, his story of how he got into college
• He came to the US from war torn Bosnia
• Goes to a rough high school in Atlanta
• Mrs Ames assigns an essay...he can't really speak English...plagiarizes an essay he had translated out of a book he stole from a library in Bosnia
• Mrs Ames writes him a letter of recommendation, he gets into Harvard
• He goes on to become a professor in the business school at University of Chicago
• His life story, which he loves to tell, is about the shameful essay and how Mrs Ames saved his life
• The producer brings Emir and MrsAmes together
• She says his story is false!  His trengths would have made him succeed without her and she doesn't even remember the essay.
• Later on he just keeps telling his story about the essay and Mrs Ames saving his life