Private Fleming at Chancellorsville: The Red Badge of Courage and the Civil WarUniversity of Missouri Press, 2006 - 359 pàgines What intelligent person has never pondered the meaning of life? For Yuval Lurie, this is more than a puzzling philosophical question; it is a journey, and in this book he takes readers on a search that ranges from ancient quests for the purpose of life to the ruminations of postmodern thinkers on meaning. He shows that the question about the meaning of life expresses philosophical puzzlement regarding life in general as well as personal concern about one's own life in particular. Lurie traces the emergence of this question as a modern philosophical quandary, riddled with shifts and turns that have arisen over the years in response to it. Tracking the Meaning of Life is written as a critical philosophical investigation stretching over several traditions, such as analytic philosophy, phenomenology, and existentialism. It maps out a journey that explores pivotal responses to this question, drawing especially on the thought of Tolstoy, Wittgenstein, Sartre, and Camus and exploring in depth the insights these thinkers offer regarding their own difficulties concerning the meaning of life. In the book's four sections, Lurie discusses Tolstoy's challenge to experience the religious and transcendental meaning of life by choosing a simple, hardworking existence; Wittgenstein's focus on ethics and discovering the sense of the world, his conclusion that the question of the meaning of life makes no sense, and his turning to experience the mystical aspect of the world; Sartre's positing of freedom as the basis of human life, stipulating a personal answer to the question of the meaning of life; and Camus' view of the absurdity of life, unalleviated by any personal meaning. Guided by these views, Lurie imparts new insight to ideas that underlie our concern with life's meaning, such as the difference between attitudes toward life and beliefs and opinions about life, the meaning of words versus the meaning of events, shared meanings versus personal meanings, and the link between ethics and personal identity. Tracking the Meaning of Life is no mere dry philosophical study but a journey that dramatically illustrates the poignancy of the quest for meaning, showing that along the way it gradually becomes more obvious how personal meaning may be found in the pulsations of everyday life. The book offers stimulating reading not only for scholars in philosophy but also for general readers who wish to see how their personal concerns are echoed in modern philosophical thought. More than a description of a journey, it is a map to anxieties and puzzlements we all face, pointing to ideas that can guide readers on their own search for meaning. |
Continguts
1 | |
11 | |
21 | |
chapter 3 An Existential Question | 32 |
chapter 4 An Ancient Question | 43 |
chapter 5 A Modern Question | 58 |
chapter 6 A Defiant Question | 71 |
chapter 7 A Solution that Chases a Dream | 79 |
chapter 18 Life Journeys and Personal SelfIdentity | 178 |
chapter 19 Attributing Personal Meaning to Life | 192 |
chapter 20 A Phenomenological Ontology | 202 |
chapter 21 Freedom as a Problematic Human Mode of Existence | 212 |
chapter 22 An Existentialist Ethics | 221 |
chapter 23 An Existentialist Conception of Meaning | 232 |
chapter 24 Affirmation through Criticism | 241 |
chapter 25 Camus Tells the Stories of Meursault and Sisyphus | 249 |
chapter 8 Wittgenstein Turns to Philosophy | 89 |
chapter 9 The Logical Limits of the World | 97 |
chapter 10 The Cognitive Limits of the World | 105 |
chapter 11 The Ethical Limits of the World | 115 |
chapter 12 The Meaning of Life as the Sense of the World | 125 |
chapter 13 Mystical Experience as a Substitute for Ethics | 136 |
chapter 14 Overcoming the Problem of Life | 144 |
chapter 15 What Cannot Be Put into Words but Makes Itself Manifest | 152 |
chapter 16 Assessing Wittgenstein s View on the Meaning of Life | 160 |
chapter 17 Sartre Takes the Train to Dijon | 171 |
chapter 26 Sartre Disputes Camus | 256 |
chapter 27 Hare Disputes Camus | 266 |
chapter 28 Nagel Disputes Camus | 276 |
chapter 29 Meaning Blindness and Alien LifeForms | 288 |
chapter 30 The Soul of Life | 299 |
chapter 31 The Moral of Camus s Story | 309 |
epilogue Poor Man s Wisdom | 315 |
329 | |
333 | |
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Private Fleming at Chancellorsville: The Red Badge of Courage and the Civil War Perry Lentz Previsualització no disponible - 2006 |
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ability absolute values absurd according adopt answer ascribe assertions attitude authentic believe Camus Camus’s cern claims clarify cognitive concept concerned contends context cultural death declarations described desire despite determine the meaning devoid Dijon discourse embodies encloses eternal ethics everyday everything exis existential experience our lives experienced explain express fact feel formulated freedom give meaning God’s happens happiness human existence ical idea identity important intellectual interpretation invent Kant life’s logic Ludwig Wittgenstein manifested meaning of things meaning we attribute metaphysical Meursault mode of existence modern moral mystical Myth of Sisyphus Nagel nature objective one’s ontology ourselves Peer Gynt personal meaning personal self-identity personally meaningful philosophical journey possible predicament propositions question rational regard religious worldview render Riddle rience Sartre Sartre’s self-conception self-consciousness sense social solution someone sonal soul story super-ego talk tence thinking thought tion Tolstoy Tolstoy’s transcendental understand validity Wittgenstein wonder
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Pàgina 23 - ... what is the right thing?' he asked himself, and suddenly grew quiet. This occurred at the end of the third day, two hours before h|s death. Just then his schoolboy son had crept softly in and gone up to the bedside. The dying man was still screaming desperately and waving his arms. His hand fell on the boy's head, and the boy caught it, pressed it to his lips, and began to cry.
Pàgina 23 - And suddenly it grew clear to him that what had been oppressing him and would not leave him was all dropping away at once from two sides, from ten sides, and from all sides. He was sorry for them, he must act so as not to hurt them: release them and free himself from these sufferings. "How good and how simple!