AGENDA
- Presentation--SLIDES
- Review
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Exam 2 Advice
Exam covers two modules
- Autonomy module: Nietzsche & Confucius
- Threat of meaningless module: Meaning authors
(1) Don't blur good life and meaning authors
- Nietzsche and Confucius don't talk about meaning
- The authors in module 5 do talk about meaning
(2) Don't blur meaning OF life and meaning IN life
- Holt is worried about the meaning OF life. Why is there something rather than nothing?
- Tolstoy & Taylor are worried about meaning IN life
(3) Meaning IN life
- Meaning IN life: makes MY life better (like happiness, virtue, self-invention)
- Other meanings of "meaning"
- But what is meaning in life? Do we need it?
(4) Fragility
- Cottingham: authors discussing meaning tend to be concerned with the fragility and contingency of life
- good life authors see humans as strong, self-sufficient, in control
(5) What kind of fragility are different authors worried about?
- Tolstoy: death, all our efforts coming to nothing
- Taylor: not death (Sisyphus is immortal), but repetitive effort that comes to nothing
(6) Understand one-pole vs. two-pole meaning scales (Nyholm and Campbell)
- One pole scale (monopolar) vs. two pole scale (bipolar)
- They think of negative meaning primarily as an attack on meaning (e.g. Trump undoing Greta Thunberg's accomplisments)
- We speculated that Taylor could have a hate theory of negative meaning
- You don't need to know all the details in that article (e.g. counterforce vs. defeater model)
(7) Imagery, analogies -- incorporate into answers, don't ignore!
- Tolstoy: the ink spots, the man in the well
- Taylor: the ugly worms, birds, city street, abandoned house, 3 versions of Sisyphus
(8) Arguments
- Tolstoy: two arguments, how he overcomes them
- Taylor: three arguments, objections to them
(9) Define unfamiliar terms
- Setiya: telic vs. atelic
(10) Get ready to be specific
- Nietzsche: how to live passages & morality passages
- Confucius: examples of Li
