Life, Death, and Meaning

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Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1442258322
Total Pages : 485 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (422 download)

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Book Synopsis Life, Death, and Meaning by : David Benatar

Download or read book Life, Death, and Meaning written by David Benatar and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-03-28 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do our lives have meaning? Should we create more people? Is death bad? Should we commit suicide? Would it be better to be immortal? Should we be optimistic or pessimistic? Since Life, Death, and Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions first appeared, David Benatar’s distinctive anthology designed to introduce students to the key existential questions of philosophy has won a devoted following among users in a variety of upper-level and even introductory courses. While many philosophers in the "continental tradition"—those known as "existentialists"—have engaged these issues at length and often with great popular appeal, English-speaking philosophers have had relatively little to say on these important questions. Yet, the methodology they bring to philosophical questions can, and occasionally has, been applied usefully to "existential" questions. This volume draws together a representative sample of primarily English-speaking philosophers' reflections on life's big questions, divided into six sections, covering (1) the meaning of life, (2) creating people, (3) death, (4) suicide, (5) immortality, and (6) optimism and pessimism. These key readings are supplemented with helpful introductions, study questions, and suggestions for further reading, making the material accessible and interesting for students. In short, the book provides a singular introduction to the way that philosophy has dealt with the big questions of life that we are all tempted to ask.

The Death of God and the Meaning of Life

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135020906
Total Pages : 262 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis The Death of God and the Meaning of Life by : Julian Young

Download or read book The Death of God and the Meaning of Life written by Julian Young and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-05-16 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the meaning of life? In today's secular, post-religious scientific world, this question has become a serious preoccupation. But it also has a long history: many major philosophers have thought deeply about it, as Julian Young so vividly illustrates in this thought-provoking second edition of The Death of God and the Meaning of Life. Three new chapters explore Søren Kierkegaard’s attempts to preserve a Christian answer to the question of the meaning of life, Karl Marx's attempt to translate this answer into naturalistic and atheistic terms, and Sigmund Freud’s deep pessimism about the possibility of any version of such an answer. Part 1 presents an historical overview of philosophers from Plato to Marx who have believed in a meaning of life, either in some supposed ‘other’ world or in the future of this world. Part 2 assesses what happened when the traditional structures that give life meaning began to erode. With nothing to take their place, these structures gave way to the threat of nihilism, to the appearance that life is meaningless. Young looks at the responses to this threat in chapters on Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Camus, Foucault and Derrida. Fully revised and updated throughout, this highly engaging exploration of fundamental issues will captivate anyone who’s ever asked themselves where life’s meaning (if there is one) really lies. It also makes a perfect historical introduction to philosophy, particularly to the continental tradition.

The Meaning of Life and Death

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Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350073660
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis The Meaning of Life and Death by : Michael Hauskeller

Download or read book The Meaning of Life and Death written by Michael Hauskeller and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-09-19 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the point of living? If we are all going to die anyway, if nothing will remain of whatever we achieve in this life, why should we bother trying to achieve anything in the first place? Can we be mortal and still live a meaningful life? Questions such as these have been asked for a long time, but nobody has found a conclusive answer yet. The connection between death and meaning, however, has taken centre stage in the philosophical and literary work of some of the world's greatest writers: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Soren Kierkegaard, Arthur Schopenhauer, Herman Melville, Friedrich Nietzsche, William James, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Marcel Proust, and Albert Camus. This book explores their ideas, weaving a rich tapestry of concepts, voices and images, helping the reader to understand the concerns at the heart of those writers' work and uncovering common themes and stark contrasts in their understanding of what kind of world we live in and what really matters in life.

Death, Immorality, and Meaning in Life

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Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9780190921149
Total Pages : 203 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (211 download)

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Book Synopsis Death, Immorality, and Meaning in Life by : John Martin Fischer

Download or read book Death, Immorality, and Meaning in Life written by John Martin Fischer and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019-06-19 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "There are seven chapters, addressing philosophical issues pertaining to death, the badness of death, time and death, ideas on immortality, near death experiences, and extending life through medical technology. The book is shorter, and less elaborate, than Kagan's Death. And it goes into more depth about a selection of central issues related to death and immortality than May's book. It gives an original take on various basic puzzles pertaining to death, and integrates a discussion of these philosophical issues with an analysis of near-death experiences, as well as an exploration of contemporary efforts to extend life by heroic medical means"--

Life Death

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226826449
Total Pages : 323 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (268 download)

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Book Synopsis Life Death by : Jacques Derrida

Download or read book Life Death written by Jacques Derrida and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2023-06-19 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The seventh in our series of Derrida's seminars, Life Death provides interdisciplinary reflections on the relationship of life and death—now in paperback. One of Jacques Derrida’s most provocative works, Life Death deconstructs a deeply rooted dichotomy of Western thought: life and death. In rethinking the relationship between life and death, Derrida undertakes a multi-disciplinary analysis of a range of topics across philosophy, linguistics, and the life sciences. Derrida gave this seminar over fourteen sessions between 1975 and 1976 at the École normale supérieure in Paris to prepare students for the agrégation, a notoriously competitive exam. The theme for the exam that year was “Life and Death,” but Derrida made a critical modification to the title by dropping the coordinating conjunction. The resulting title of Life Death poses a philosophical question about the close relationship between life and death. Through close readings of Freudian psychoanalysis, the philosophy of Nietzsche and Heidegger, French geneticist François Jacob, and epistemologist Georges Canguilhem, Derrida argues that death must be considered neither as the opposite of life nor as the truth or fulfillment of it, but rather as that which both limits life and makes it possible. Derrida thus not only questions traditional understandings of the relationship between life and death but also ultimately develops a new way of thinking about what he calls “life death.”

Death and the Meaning of Life

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Publisher : Nova Publishers
ISBN 13 : 9781560727040
Total Pages : 130 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (27 download)

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Book Synopsis Death and the Meaning of Life by : graf Leo Tolstoy

Download or read book Death and the Meaning of Life written by graf Leo Tolstoy and published by Nova Publishers. This book was released on 2000 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents materials that reveal the essence of Tolstoy's beliefs on immortality, death, God, and the meaning of life. Contains two booklets ("About Immortality" No. 751 and "About Death" No. 752) compiled by Tolstoy comprising quotations from various philosophers explaining the meaning that death gives to life; essays explaining the actions that Tolstoy thought must be taken to grow spiritually; and finally, diary entries (translated here for the first time in English) pertaining to spiritual themes made during the last year of Tolstoy's life.

Life Against Death

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Publisher : Middletown, Conn. : Wesleyan University Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 392 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (321 download)

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Book Synopsis Life Against Death by : Norman Oliver Brown

Download or read book Life Against Death written by Norman Oliver Brown and published by Middletown, Conn. : Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 1959 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A shocking and extreme interpretation of the father of psychoanalysis.

A Significant Life

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022623570X
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (262 download)

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Book Synopsis A Significant Life by : Todd May

Download or read book A Significant Life written by Todd May and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-04-02 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A tour de force. It is a thoughtful, subtle, beautifully written discussion of what it takes to live a meaningful life.” —Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice Throughout history most of us have looked to faith, relationships, or deeds to give our lives purpose. But in A Significant Life, philosopher Todd May offers an exhilarating new way of thinking about meaning, one deeply attuned to life as it actually is: a work in progress, a journey—and often a narrative. Offering moving accounts of his own life alongside rich engagements with philosophers from Aristotle to Heidegger, he shows us where to find the significance of our lives: in the way we live them. May starts by looking at the fundamental fact that life unfolds over time, and as it does so, it begins to develop certain qualities, certain themes. Our lives can be marked by intensity, curiosity, perseverance, or many other qualities that become guiding narrative values. These values lend meanings to our lives that are distinct from—but also interact with—the universal values we are taught to cultivate, such as goodness or happiness. Offering a fascinating examination of a broad range of figures—from music icon Jimi Hendrix to civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer, from cyclist Lance Armstrong to The Portrait of a Lady’s Ralph Touchett to Claus von Stauffenberg, a German officer who tried to assassinate Hitler—May shows that narrative values offer a rich variety of criteria by which to assess a life, specific to each of us and yet widely available. They offer us a way of reading ourselves, who we are, and who we might like to be.

Birth and Death of Meaning

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Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1439118426
Total Pages : 287 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (391 download)

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Book Synopsis Birth and Death of Meaning by : Ernest Becker

Download or read book Birth and Death of Meaning written by Ernest Becker and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-05-11 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uses the disciplines of psychology, anthropology, sociology and psychiatry to explain what makes people act the way they do.

Top Five Regrets of the Dying

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Publisher : Hay House, Inc
ISBN 13 : 1401956009
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis Top Five Regrets of the Dying by : Bronnie Ware

Download or read book Top Five Regrets of the Dying written by Bronnie Ware and published by Hay House, Inc. This book was released on 2019-08-13 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revised edition of the best-selling memoir that has been read by over a million people worldwide with translations in 29 languages. After too many years of unfulfilling work, Bronnie Ware began searching for a job with heart. Despite having no formal qualifications or previous experience in the field, she found herself working in palliative care. During the time she spent tending to those who were dying, Bronnie's life was transformed. Later, she wrote an Internet blog post, outlining the most common regrets that the people she had cared for had expressed. The post gained so much momentum that it was viewed by more than three million readers worldwide in its first year. At the request of many, Bronnie subsequently wrote a book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, to share her story. Bronnie has had a colourful and diverse life. By applying the lessons of those nearing their death to her own life, she developed an understanding that it is possible for everyone, if we make the right choices, to die with peace of mind. In this revised edition of the best-selling memoir that has been read by over a million people worldwide, with translations in 29 languages, Bronnie expresses how significant these regrets are and how we can positively address these issues while we still have the time. The Top Five Regrets of the Dying gives hope for a better world. It is a courageous, life-changing book that will leave you feeling more compassionate and inspired to live the life you are truly here to live.

Exploring the Meaning of Life

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Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 0470658789
Total Pages : 512 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (76 download)

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Book Synopsis Exploring the Meaning of Life by : Joshua W. Seachris

Download or read book Exploring the Meaning of Life written by Joshua W. Seachris and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much more than just an anthology, this survey of humanity's search for the meaning of life includes the latest contributions to the debate, a judicious selection of key canonical essays, and insightful commentary by internationally respected philosophers. Cutting-edge viewpoint features the most recent contributions to the debate Extensive general introduction offers unprecedented context Leading contemporary philosophers provide insightful introductions to each section

Remembering Lives

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351842048
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (518 download)

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Book Synopsis Remembering Lives by : Lorraine Hedtke

Download or read book Remembering Lives written by Lorraine Hedtke and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grief is frequently thought of as an ordeal we must simply survive. This book offers a fresh approach to the negotiation of death and grief. It is founded in principles of constructive conversation that focus on "remembering" lives, in contrast to processes of forgetting or dismembering those who have died. Re-membering is about a comforting, life enhancing, and sustaining approach to death that does not dwell on the pain of loss and is much more than wistful reminiscing. It is about the deliberate construction of stories that continue to include the dead in the membership of our lives.

What's It All About?

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Publisher : Granta Publications
ISBN 13 : 1847089208
Total Pages : 179 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (47 download)

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Book Synopsis What's It All About? by : Julian Baggini

Download or read book What's It All About? written by Julian Baggini and published by Granta Publications. This book was released on 2013-07-11 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Secular-minded readers seeking an alternative to The Purpose-Driven Life have an excellent starting point here.”—Publishers Weekly For readers who are serious about confronting the big issues in life—but are turned off by books which deal with them through religion, spirituality, or psychobabble, this is an honest, intelligent discussion by a philosopher that doesn't hide from the difficulties or make undeliverable promises. It aims to help the reader understand the overlooked issues behind the obvious questions, and shows how philosophy does not so much answer them as help provide us with the resources to answer them for ourselves. “Useful and provocative.”—The Wall Street Journal “Looking for a clear guide to what contemporary philosophy has to say about the meaning of life? Baggini takes us through all the plausible answers, weaving together Kierkegaard, John Stuart Mill, Monty Python, and Funkadelic in an entertaining but always carefully reasoned discussion.”—Peter Singer, author of How Are We To Live “The question of the meaning of life has long been a byword for pretentious rambling. It takes some nerve to tackle it in a brisk and no-nonsense fashion.”—New Statesman

Death Is But a Dream

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Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0525542841
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (255 download)

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Book Synopsis Death Is But a Dream by : Christopher Kerr

Download or read book Death Is But a Dream written by Christopher Kerr and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-02-11 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book to validate the meaningful dreams and visions that bring comfort as death nears. Christopher Kerr is a hospice doctor. All of his patients die. Yet he has cared for thousands of patients who, in the face of death, speak of love and grace. Beyond the physical realities of dying are unseen processes that are remarkably life-affirming. These include dreams that are unlike any regular dream. Described as "more real than real," these end-of-life experiences resurrect past relationships, meaningful events and themes of love and forgiveness; they restore life's meaning and mark the transition from distress to comfort and acceptance. Drawing on interviews with over 1,400 patients and more than a decade of quantified data, Dr. Kerr reveals that pre-death dreams and visions are extraordinary occurrences that humanize the dying process. He shares how his patients' stories point to death as not solely about the end of life, but as the final chapter of humanity's transcendence. Kerr's book also illuminates the benefits of these phenomena for the bereaved, who find solace in seeing their loved ones pass with a sense of calm closure. Beautifully written, with astonishing real-life characters and stories, this book is at its heart a celebration of our power to reclaim the dying process as a deeply meaningful one. Death Is But a Dream is an important contribution to our understanding of medicine's and humanity's greatest mystery.

Religion and the Meaning of Life

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108421563
Total Pages : 197 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion and the Meaning of Life by : Clifford Williams

Download or read book Religion and the Meaning of Life written by Clifford Williams and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-04-09 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores life's meaning through the lens of belief in God and lived realities including boredom, denial of death, and suicide.

The Human Predicament

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190633832
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (96 download)

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Book Synopsis The Human Predicament by : David Benatar

Download or read book The Human Predicament written by David Benatar and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-05 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are our lives meaningful, or meaningless? Is our inevitable death a bad thing? Would immortality be an improvement? Would it be better, all things considered, to hasten our deaths by suicide? Many people ask these big questions -- and some people are plagued by them. Surprisingly, analytic philosophers have said relatively little about these important questions about the meaning of life. When they have tackled the big questions, they have tended, like popular writers, to offer comforting, optimistic answers. The Human Predicament invites readers to take a clear-eyed and unfettered view of the human condition. David Benatar here offers a substantial, but not unmitigated, pessimism about the central questions of human existence. He argues that while our lives can have some meaning, we are ultimately the insignificant beings that we fear we might be. He maintains that the quality of life, although less bad for some than for others, leaves much to be desired in even the best cases. Worse, death is generally not a solution; in fact, it exacerbates rather than mitigates our cosmic meaninglessness. While it can release us from suffering, it imposes another cost - annihilation. This state of affairs has nuanced implications for how we should think about many things, including immortality and suicide, and how we should think about the possibility of deeper meaning in our lives. Ultimately, this thoughtful, provocative, and deeply candid treatment of life's big questions will interest anyone who has contemplated why we are here, and what the answer means for how we should live.

Determinism, Death, and Meaning

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000507963
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis Determinism, Death, and Meaning by : Stephen Maitzen

Download or read book Determinism, Death, and Meaning written by Stephen Maitzen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-11-29 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers new arguments for determinism. It draws novel and surprising consequences from determinism for our attitudes toward such things as death, regret, grief, and the meaning of life. The book argues that rationalism is the right attitude to take toward reality. It then shows that rationalism implies determinism and that determinism has surprising and far-reaching consequences. The author contends that the existence of all of humanity almost certainly depends on the precise time and manner of your death and mine; that purely retrospective regret, relief, gratitude, and grief are irrational for all but those who hold extreme values; and that everyone’s life has an unending impact on the future and thereby achieves the strongest kind of meaning that it makes sense to desire. Written in a direct and accessible style, Determinism, Death, and Meaning will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working in metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and value theory, as well as general readers with a serious interest in these topics.