Wolf and Scheffler on the meaning of life Flashcards
the meaning of life
To ask about the meaning of life itself is to ask whether the fact of human existence matters independently of whatever attitudes any particular human may take towards it, and, if it does matter in this way, what that mattering consists in.
mattering and cosmic hostility
What gives this question bite is the universe’s apparent hostility to us and our values…
- Individual death
- Cosmic expansion: “heat death” or “big crunch”
mattering and evil
In addition, there is the existence of evil…
- Natural evil: pain and suffering
- Moral evil: the wickedness of humans
fitting fulfillment view (FFV)
- “To live a meaningful life is to love objects worthy of love and to engage with them in a positive way”
- Involves subjective and objective elements that are linked
Subjective - Pertaining to human attitudes and feelings.
Objective - Being independent of human attitudes and feelings.
- The FFV requires that what one loves be objectively worthy of love.
The “be-a-part-of-something-larger-than-yourself view”
To live a meaningful life all that is needed is to participate in or contribute to something with value independent of oneself
The “mere fulfillment view”
- To live a meaningful life all that is needed is to find your passions. Figure bout what turns you on, and go for it.
- Says that all that is needed for a meaningful life is that one find fulfillment in doing something one loves.
the bipartite view
- combining the two other views
- To live a meaningful life is to love objects worthy of love
problems with the FFV
- Wolf says it is false because it is possible for someone who finds fulfillment in doing something they love nevertheless to be living a life lacking in meaningfulness.
Ex. all day pot smoker
the FFV defended
- Wolf’s defense of it is addressed to “what makes a human life meaningful”, not “what is the meaning of human life”
i. We want to see our lives as engaged with things that matter from a perspective external to our lives.
ii. We want to see our lives as “good, valuable, and a proper source of pride”.
iii. We want to express our social natures and feel less alone in the universe- finding fulfillment in objectively worthy communal causes gives us this
objections to the FFV
- Wolf requires that there be objective values, but there are some philosophers who doubt the existence of objective values. What does Wolf say to them?
- Is the FFV compatible with a morally vicious person living a meaningful life? If so, is that a problem for the theory?
- We could be wrong about what is objectively worthy. This means that we could end up living our lives, and loving and engaging in things, based on radically false beliefs. Is this a problem for the theory?
- Is what the FFC requires for a meaningful life sufficient for meaningfulness? What should Wolf say about brave new world-type scenarios?
scheffler’s problem
“Suppose you knew that, although you yourself would live a normal life span, the earth would be completely destroyed thirty days after your death in a collision with a giant asteroid. How would this knowledge affect your attitudes during the remainder of your life”
scheffler’s thoughts on the problem
- We would not be indifferent
- Few would weight the pros and cons of the earth’s destruction
- Most would respond with grief, sadness and distress
projects, success, and time
- Scheffler thinks projects would be especially vulnerable if either (a) their success is expected to take place far in the future or (b) the value of the project stems from benefits to large numbers of people distributed over a long period of time
Ex. cancer research
tradition and communal/national groups
- “By participating in traditions that embody the values to which they are committed, individuals can leverage their own personal efforts to ensure the survival of those values”
In this way, we are aided in our quest to “personalize the future” despite the fact of death
consequences of the infertility scenario (by James)
“James’ speculations invite us to consider the possibility that our conception of a human life as a whole relies on an implicit understanding of such a life as itself occupying a place in an ongoing human history, in a temporally extended chain of lives and generations”
