AGENDA
- Weinberg continued
- Wednesday: narrative presentation, talk about exam 3 a bit, some Weinberg loose ends
- 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
- Union with God in the afterlife
- A valuable end beyond the self--alleviating suffering, justice, doing good (e.g. Peter Singer, effective altruism)
- 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)
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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.
- Note--she's assuming (for the sake of argument) that there is union with God in the afterlife
- The "now what?" problem.
- The part problem -- the afterlife is just a part of the totality of your life. What's the point of the totality?
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Other possible points of leading a life
