Foundations of Philosophy Section III –

Philosophy and the meaning of life

 ‘What is the meaning of life?’

 ‘There is but one serious philosophical

problem and that is suicide. Judging whether
life is or is not worth living amounts to
answering the fundamental question of
philosophy.’ - Albert Camus
‘What is the meaning of life?’: Some
possible meanings of the question
 What is the point or purpose of human
existence in general – especially given the
likelihood that the human race and the planet
on which we live will one day cease to exist?
‘What is the meaning of life?’: Some
possible meanings of the question
 What is the point or purpose of the existence
of any given individual human being in
particular – especially given the fact that you,
like any other human being, will one day die?
 What kind of thing can I usefully do with my
life in order to ‘make a difference’? How do I
avoid wasting or frittering away my life on
trivialities?
‘What is the meaning of life?’: Some
possible meanings of the question
 Is there, ultimately, any ‘meaning’ to human
life? Is human life actually just ‘absurd’– and
if so what, if anything, can we do about this?
 Is there a greater purpose for any individual’s
life beyond the purpose she herself chooses
to give it? Does it make sense to think that
you could give a purpose to your own life?
‘What is the meaning of life?’: Some
possible meanings of the question
 If there is such a higher or greater purpose,
should we think of this in religious terms: in
terms, say, of what role human beings have
in God’s plan for the universe? Or could a
purely secular purpose provide this
‘meaning’?
1 & 2: Schopenhauer and pessimism

Is life a mistake?

Is pessimism warranted?
3 & 4: Sartre and Existentialism
 “Man is nothing else but that
which he makes of himself”

 Freedom, responsibility and

‘bad faith’

 “Hell is other people”: the

self, the other and conflict

 Camus and ‘the absurd’

5 - A religious answer:
Tolstoy and the turn to God

Transcendental meaning:

Is a truly meaningful life

possible without belief in
God?
6 - Review
 Questioning the
question:
The meanings of ‘the
meaning of life’
A tainted gift: Schopenhauer and
pessimism

 Defining pessimism:
1. Human nature is such that human existence inevitably
consists of suffering
2. Non-existence would have been preferable to this life
of suffering.
‘The Vanity of Existence’ – some key
points
 Why is human existence ‘vain’ or ‘futile’?

a) ‘the infiniteness of time and space contrasted with the

finiteness of the individual in both’
b) ‘continual desire without satisfaction’
c) ‘the continual frustration of striving in which life consists’
a) Cosmic insignificance and death

 ‘Time is that by virtue of which everything becomes

nothingness in our hands and loses all real value’ (p.
67)
a) Cosmic insignificance and death
‘I work all day, and get half-drunk at night.
Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare.
In time the curtain-edges will grow light.
Till then I see what’s really always there:
Unresting death, a whole day nearer now,
Making all thought impossible but how
And where and when I shall myself die.
Arid interrogation: yet the dread
Of dying, and being dead,
Flashes afresh to hold and horrify.’
– Philip Larkin, ‘Aubade’
a) Cosmic insignificance and death

 Death renders the achievements of life futile

b) The hungry will
The world as it appears The world as it
really is
Representation
[Vorstellung] Will

Individual wills
b) The hungry will
 ‘This universal conflict is to be seen most
clearly in the animal kingdom. Animals have
the vegetable kingdom for their nourishment,
and within the animal kingdom again every
animal is the prey and food of some other….
every animal can maintain its existence only
by the incessant elimination of another’s’
Schopenhauer, The World as Will
and Representation
b) The hungry will
Will is:
 ‘a blind, irresistable urge’ – has no ultimate
purpose
 The source of human unhappiness

The only purpose in life is escaping the

strivings of the will
‘Human life must be some sort of
mistake’
Because:
‘…man is a compound of needs which are hard to
satisfy; that their satisfaction achieves nothing but a
painless condition in which he is given over only to
boredom; and that boredom is a direct proof that
existence is in itself valueless, for boredom is nothing
other than the sensation of the emptiness of
existence.’
- Schopenhauer, ‘The Vanity of Existence’
‘Human life must be some sort of
mistake’
1. Endless yearning to be rid of one’s
present condition and move into another:
The will never reaches satisfaction
2. The satisfaction of a desire leads not to
happiness but to boredom
3. Human existence is ultimately empty and
futile (our achievements are temporary, and
taken away from us by death)
Never look on the bright side of life…
‘The ceaseless efforts to banish suffering
achieve nothing more than a change in its
form. This is essentially want, lack, care for
the maintenance of life. If, which is very
difficult, we have succeeded in removing
pain in this form, it at once appears on the
scene in a thousand others, varying
according to age and circumstances, such
as sexual impulse, passionate love,
jealousy, envy, hatred, anxiety, ambition,
avarice, sickness, and so on.
Never look on the bright side of life…
Finally, if it cannot find entry in any other shape, it
comes in the sad, grey garment of weariness, satiety,
and boredom, against which many different attempts
are made. Even if we ultimately succeed in driving
these away, it will hardly be done without letting pain
in once again in one of the previous forms, and thus
starting the dance once more at the beginning; for
every human life is tossed backwards and forwards
between pain and boredom.’
- Schopenhauer, The World as Will and
Representation
Schopenhauer’s solution: denial of the
will
Suicide?
No: this merely affirms the will, since it the result of a
wilful decision.

The ascetic ‘saint’

- Renounces the will: contemplation and compassion.

Aesthetic experience
- ‘Losing oneself in art’: temporary respite from the
will’s demands.
Next week: Resisting Schopenhauer’s
pessimism
Motive:

Martin Seligman, Learned Optimism:

- Optimists tend to do better than
pessimists in their careers and
relationships, and enjoy better physical
health!
- Optimism can be learned.
Next week: Resisting Schopenhauer’s
pessimism
One possible method:

Paul Edwards:

‘Cosmic’ and ‘terrestrial’ meaning