AGENDA
- Ethics minor
- Preview: Ultimate Meaning
- 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)
- Setiya and Hanh: this will add more meaning to your life
- 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)
- "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)
- People don't merit these attitudes based on their atelic moments. THEREFORE,
- Atelic moments aren't meaningful.
- People with meaningful lives are inspiring role models. (Martin Luther King, Oprah Winfrey....)
- People aren't inspiring role models on the basis of their atelic moments. THEREFORE,
- Atleic moments aren't meaningful.
- 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?
- Atelic moments don't "cure" an existential crisis. THEREFORE,
- 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
- If a telic activity is pointless and futile, "enjoying the process" is also pointless and futile.
- All our telic activities are pointless and futile (says Setiya*). THEREFORE,
- Enjoying the process is also pointless and futile (Setiya has to say).
- Can you live that life without constant deflation and an impending midlife crisis?
- I want to have visited Machu Pichu
- reaching a level in a video game
- getting a degree in philosophy
- reading Anna Karenina
- owning a house
- having children
- publishing a book
"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
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)
- The can merit admiration & pride (if they're worthwhile projects)
- Our "meaningful life" role models are known for their ground projects.
- You can cure an existential crisis by engaging in ground projects.
"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)
