678
CHAPTER 9 POSTSCRIPT: THE MEANING OF LIFE
If Sisyphus had a keen and unappeasable desire to be doing just what he found
himself doing, then, although his life would in no way be changed, it would neverthe
less have a meaning for him.... We find that our lives do indeed still resemble that of
Sisyphus, but... the strange meaningfulness they possess is that of the inner compul
sion to be doing just what we were put here to do, and to go on doing it forever. This is
the nearest we may hope to get to heaven.
Taylor is saying that so long as the activities of our life satisfy desires we happen to
have, our life will have meaning for us. Life will possess meaningfulness" for a
person so long as the person wants to do what he
or she is doing
THINKING LIKE A PHILOSOPHER
To many the kind of meaningfulness that Tay
lor suggests life can have will seem to be no mean-
1. Do you agree with Taylor that meaninglessness is
ing at all. For example, while Tolstoy despaired
essentially the kind of pointlessness that Sisyphus' life
represents? Do you agree that our lives or the lives of
that life had no meaning, he was satisfying his
most people around you are like Sisyphus' life?
desires. Yet he questioned whether satisfying his
2. Taylor's view of what makes life meaningful is dif-
desires itself had a point. If someone asks "What is
ferent from Tolstoy's view. Which of the two is more
the meaning of life," it will not help to answer: "to
plausible to you?
satisfy your desires." That answer will only lead to
the question: "But what is the point of that?"
Nevertheless, Taylor's suggestion comes
close to another kind of answer that can be given
to the question whether life has any meaning. That is the answer proposed by
some existentialists: The meaning of life is what you choose to make it.
QUICK REVIEW
Hare argues that a person
gives her life a meaning
by choosing goals that
matter to her and that
give direction to her life.
Meaning that arises out of
such personal choices is
"subjective meaning
9.5 Meaning as a Self-Chosen Commitment
Some philosophers, such as R. M. Hare, have argued that the nihilist response is
mistaken. The nihilist argues life does not have an "objective meaning, a meaning
that does not depend on what one chooses or believes. So the nihilist concludes life
has no meaning. But, Hare claims, life can have a "subjective" meaning, a meaning
that depends on one's choices and beliefs. Life will have "subjective meaning if one
(a) chooses goals that give direction to one's life and (b) believes that these goals
are valuable and worth pursuing. Family, country, religion, friends-all these can
become my personal goals. And if these matter to me, then by choosing to pursue
them, I can give my life meaning and value.
Many philosophers have agreed that the goals we choose to pursue can give life
a "subjective meaning. One of the earliest was Kierkegaard. As we saw in Chapter 4.
Kierkegaard claims the starting point in life is choosing something for which one is
willing to live or die:
What I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to know,
except insofar as a certain understanding must precede every action. The thing is
to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do; the thing is to find a
truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die. Of what use
would it be to me to discover a so-called objective truth, to work through philosophi-
cal systems so that I could, If asked, make critical judgments about them, could point
out the fallacies in each system; of what use would it be to me to be able to develop
# See R. M. Hare, "Nothing Matters," in The Meaning of Lied. Klemke, 241-247
9.5. MEANING AS A SELF-CHOSEN COMMITMENT
a theory of the state... [or] to be able to formulate the meaning of Christianity...if
679
it had no deeper meaning for me and for my life?!
Kierkegaard described three lifestyles
, which he called aesthetic, ethical, and reli:
gious. Which of these lifestyles was best for oneself, he felt, is never clear. Yet the key
ing, one creates the meaning of one's life:
to living authentically is to make a decisive choice among them. And, by so choos-
Every human being...
has a natural need to formulate a life-view, a conception of
the meaning of life and of its purpose. The person who lives aesthetically also does
that, and the popular expression heard in all ages... [to describe this stage of life
QUICK REVIEW
Kerkegaard argues
is): One must enjoy life.... We encounter (some aesthetic) life-views that
teach that that one gives one's life
we are to enjoy life... (through something outside the individual. This is the case
Subjective meaning
with every life-view in which wealth, honors, noble birth, etc., are made life's task
choosing something for
and its content. ... [Other] life-views teach that we are to enjoy life ... [through
which one is willing to
live or die, in particular
something) within the individual himself...ordinarily defined as talent. It may be] by committing oneself to
a talent for practical affairs, a talent for business, a talent for mathematics, a talent an aesthetic, ethical or
for writing, a talent for art, a talent for philosophy. Satisfaction in life, enjoyment, is
religious life
sought in the unfolding of this talent....
In contrast to an aesthetic life-view... we often hear about another life-view that
places the meaning of life in living for the performance of one's moral duties. This is
supposed to signify an ethical view of life.... [But it is) a mistake to (see duty as some
thing that is imposed) from outside the individual.... The truly ethical person ...does
not have duty outside himself but within himself.... When a person has felt the inten-
sity of duty with all his energy, then he is ethically
mature, and then duty will break forth within him....
The story of Abraham (in the Bible] contains...
THINKING LIKE A PHILOSOPHER
a teleological suspension of the ethical... [Abraham
faithfully obeyed God's command to sacrifice his
1. Kierkegaard says that choosing to commit yourself to
beloved son although human sacrif violated his
a religious belief is like a leap into something that
ethical duty, at the last moment, God stopped Abra- you cannot prove and for which you cannot give ratio
ham's hand. Abraham represents faith.... He acts
nal reasons. Do you agree? Is religion related to your
by virtue of the absurd.... By his act he transgressed beliefs about the meaning of life?
the ethical altogether and had a higher telos outside 2. Are you religious? If so, have you found that belief is
it, in relation to which he suspended it.
Why then
like a "leap? If not, is your reason for not being reli-
does Abraham do it? For God's sake and-the two
gious related to the idea that religious belief is like a
are wholly identical--for his own sake. He does it for
"leap" into something you cannot prove and that has
God's sake because God demands this proof of his
no rational reasons?
faith; he does it for his own sake so that he can
prove it.
Notice that for Kierkegaard, the meaning of life is subjective. It is by our per
sonal or subjective choice of an aesthetic, ethical, or religious life that we determine
the meaning of life for us. For example, we can choose to pursue wealth or honor
or enjoyment of our talents. Then the pleasure these provide becomes the meaning
of life for us. But the individual may come to feel such a life has little value. Then,
he must choose to stay at the aesthetic stage, whose attractions he knows or commit
himself to the ethical stage. The commitment to the ethical stage of life involves
embracing one's ethical obligations and pursuing pleasure within the bounds of
Soren Kierkegaard, The Journal of Rimand transand ed. A Dru (London: Collins, 1958). #4
Denise Peterfreund White, ed. Great Traditions in Ethics, 8th ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1996),
680 CHAPTER 9. POSTSCRIPT: THE MEANING OF LIFE
ethics. Moral integrity and honesty become the meaning of life. At first, one con
fidently assumes that one can live up to the moral law. But in time the individual
realizes he cannot do all that morality requires, and he experiences guilt or sin. The
individual must then choose. Will he remain at the ethical level and keep trying but
failing to do what ethics demands? Or will he admit that he needs God to save him
from his guilt, and so choose to move to the religious stage?
But the move to the religious stage is a "leap" that is filled with uncertainty.
As Kierkegaard puts it: "All Christianity is rooted in the paradoxical, whether one
accepts it as a believer, or rejects it precisely because it is paradoxical. Aye, it lies
in fear and trembling, which are the desperate categories of Christianity, and of
the leap."" The religious stage is a commitment of one's life to something that
cannot be rationally proved or rationally understood. The move to the religious
stage requires a "leap of faith" like Abraham's decision to trust God when God com-
manded him to sacrifice his son. Such a leap of faith is made alone, without any
guarantee of being right. It is a leap made in "fear and trembling." But we must
choose, and what we choose becomes the meaning of life for us.
QUICK REVIEW
Many years later, the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre took up several of
Sartre, an atheist, claims
these existential themes. Sartre was an atheist. But he agreed that the meaning of
that only subjective
meaning is possible and life is the result of a choice. Neither God nor human progress can provide us with
that we give subjective purpose and meaning unless we choose to commit ourselves to these. So it is our
meaning to our lives
by choosing to commit
choice itself that makes them meaningful and valuable to us.
ourselves to something
We met Sartre earlier when we were discussing human nature in Chapter 2 and
and thereby giving it value; when we discussed existentialism in Chapter 3. Recall that Sartre holds that there
nothing has value before
it is chosen. Critics argue
are no fixed values to give meaning to our lives. There are no fixed values because
that one must believe
there is no God and so there is no one to establish values for us. Until we choose, life
something is valuable
before one can choose to
has no set value we should pursue and so no objective meaning or purpose. But by
devote oneself to it.
choosing to pursue a cause, a religion, a life goal, I make these valuable and make
them the meaning of my life. Here is how Sartre puts this idea:
God does not exist and we have to face all the consequences of this. The existentialist is
strongly opposed to a certain kind of secular ethics which would like to abolish God...
[but hold) that values exist all the same, inscribed in a
heaven of ideas.
ANALYZING THE READING
The existentialist, on the contrary, thinks it very
1. Kierkegaard says that for the individual at the ethical
distressing that God does not exist, because all pos-
stage moral duty is not "outside himself, but within
sibility of finding values in a heaven of ideas disap-
himself. What do you think he means by this?
pears along with Him. There can no longer be an a
priori Good, since there is no infinite and perfect con-
2. According to Kierkegaard, the religious stage
requires acting "by virtue of the absurd." What do
sciousness to think it. Nowhere is it written that the
Good exists, that we must be honest, that we must
you think he means by this?
not lie; because the fact is we are on a plane where
3. Kierkegaard implies that the ethical stage of life is
there are only men.
in some sense better than the aesthetic stage of life,
If God does not exist, we find no values or com-
and that the religious stage is in some sense better
mands to turn to which legitimize our conduct. So, in
than the ethical stage. Would Sartre agree with this?
the bright realm of values, we have no excuse behind
Do you agree with this? Why?
us, nor justification before us. We are alone, with no
excuses....
4. Sartre claims that if God does not exist, then there
[Some] may object that "your values are not seri-
are "no values or (moral] commands to turn to."
ous, since you choose them yourselves." To that I can
What are his reasons for this claim? Is he right?
only say that I am very sorry that it should be so. But
I have excluded God and, there must be somebody to
Soren Kierkegaard, Kierkegaard Concluding Unscientific Postscript, trans. David E. Swenson (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1911). 96.
681
MindTop To read
more from Jean-Paul Sartres
because meaning can
choices, life can have
9.5. MEANING AS A SELF-CHOSEN COMMITMENT
invent values. We have to take things as they are. And moreover, to say that we invent
values means nothing else but this: life has no meaning a priori. Before you come alive,
life is nothing; it's up to you to give it a meaning, and its value is nothing else but the
meaning that you choose.
But in the end, doesn't Sartre leave us without a compass as we struggle to find
meaning in our lives? If Sartre is right, then before we choose nothing has value, but
when we choose a thing it acquires value for us. If so then we should be able to find
Existentialism and Human
meaning in our lives by choosing anything at all. For we can give value to anything Emotions, click the link in
by choosing it. But this is clearly not true. A person cannot think that her life has
the Mind Tap Reader or go to
meaning if she chooses to devote it to making tiny little piles of sand on the beach.
the Questia Readings folder
in MindTap
To believe life has meaning, we must choose goals or causes that we think had value
even before we chose them. Otherwise, why would we choose them? Why would we
choose to devote our lives to something that does not yet have any value?
Sartre and Kierkegaard, then, may be right when they claim that nothing can
give my life meaning unless I choose it and make it my own. But Sartre, at least,
QUICK REVIEW
seems wrong to claim that before I choose, nothing has value. On the contrary, what
The idea of subjective
meaning suggests that
I choose to devote my life to must be something that I already believe is valuable and
worth pursuing. If it has no value before I choose it, then I will not choose it. And be created through our
so it will not give my life meaning.
meaning through our
So does life have meaning? For many people, life does have meaning because commitment to any of a
they believe that they have a part to play in a larger whole that gives life value and wide variety of worthy
purpose. Such objective meaning might come from being part of a larger divine
human concerns, such
as family, art, loving
plan, or from contributing to human progress. But for many, these sources of mean relationships, raising
ing are no longer significant. Some reject God; some reject the idea of human prog- children, healing, helping
ress; others reject both. The result is that many accept nihilism: They conclude that
moral integrity and
gous faith
life has no meaning
But Kierkegaard and Sartre reveal another possibility. They suggest the possibility
of creating subjective meaning through our choices. In a way, even those who look to
God or human progress for meaning must choose to commit themselves to these. But
if subjective meaning can be created through choice, then the range of meaning is
wider than God and human progress. Life can have meaning through a commitment
to any of a variety of human concerns. For one person, meaning may come through
a commitment to family or to loving relationships. For some meaning may come
through a commitment to art, to political life, or to healing or helping others. For
another, meaning may come through a commitment to living an ethical life of moral
integrity. And for yet others it may come through a commitment to religious faith.
But the key question is the one that Sartre forces us to face: Can anything we
choose-whatever it might be-make life meaningful for us? If Sartre is right, then
meaning is easy. We can find meaning by committing ourselves to the pursuit of
money, the pursuit of pleasure, or even to making little piles of sand on the ocean
shore. But if Sartre is wrong, then meaning is not so easy to come by. If Sartre is
then life can have meaning only if we commit ourselves to an ideal that,
wrong
ahead of time, we know is worth pursuing. As Kierkegaard suggests, finding mean
ing may require the difficult choice of ever more authentic stages of life. Meaning
may be the result of finding at each stage that what I have committed myself to is not
worthy enough and that I need more. If so, then at each stage meaning requires a
commitment to what I know has value, and has value even before I choose it.
Jean-Paul Sartre. Existential and Human Emotion (New York: Philosophical Library, 1957).
25. 19
682
CHAPTER 9 POSTSCRIPT: THE MEANING OF LIFE
PHILOSOPHY AT THE MOVIES
Watch About Schmidt (2002) in which Warren Schmidt, after retiring from his job
as an actuary and having his wife die, feels useless and alienated, and travels in a
Winnebago to visit his daughter to try to convince her not to marry a waterbed sales-
man. What is the meaning of life for Warren's friend Ray? Does the movie seem to
agree with Ray? Does Warren believe or come to believe that his life has a meaning
Explain. What does it mean when at the end of the movie Warren cries over the
picture that Ndugu drew? Is he crying because he sees that life has meaning after all
or because he sees that life has no meaning?
Chapter Summary
We have now come to the end of our philosophical journey. If you must leave a
philosophy course having learned only one thing, the prized possession might be to
travel with a philosophical attitude. Having a philosophical attitude means having
one's eyes open as one journeys through the many decisions that will give shape and
meaning to our lives.
A philosophical attitude is not achieved with a single philosophy course,
although it may begin with one. Rather, the philosophical attitude needs lifelong
nurturing to flourish and strengthen. And it requires something else-courage-
the courage to continue on the journey once begun.
The main points of this chapter are:
9.1 Does Life Have Meaning?
. For many people, the question of whether life has any meaning arises even
when death is not near.
Logical positivists claim the question is meaningless.
9.2 The Theistic Response to Meaning
. The theistic response to the question of the meaning of life holds that the
meaning of life is to be explained in terms of the individual's relationship
to a larger and more significant divine reality.
9.3 Meaning and Human Progress
• Hegel and Marx define the meaning of life in terms of contributing
toward human progress. For Hegel, history progresses toward a fuller
expansion of freedom; for Marx, history progresses toward a classless
society.
9.4 The Nihilist Rejection of Meaning
• The nihilist response to the meaning of life is the claim that life has no
meaning, a view that Arthur Schopenhauer embraced.
9.5 Meaning as a Self-Chosen Commitment
. The existentialists Søren Kierkegaard and Jean-Paul Sartre argue that the
meaning of life is created by what one chooses; for Sartre things have no
apart from our choices.
value apart from our choices, while for Kierkegaard God has value even
OUTLUL AND LEARNING OBJECTIVES
CHAPTER
9 Postscript: The Meaning
of Life
There is both pleasure and pain in tragedy and comedy,
not only on the stage, but on the greater stage of
human life.
PLATO
9.1 Does Life Have Meaning?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES: When finished, you'll be able to
Interpret the question whether life has meaning and explain why it is important
. Explain why some argue that the question itself is meaningless
9.2 The Theistic Response to Meaning
LEARNING OBJECTIVE: When finished, you'll be able to
Describe how some have found the meaning of life in a divine reality
and critically evaluate this view.
9.3 Meaning and Human Progress
LEARNING OBJECTIVE: When finished, you'll be able to
• Describe how some have found the meaning of life in human progress,
and critically evaluate this view.
9.4 The Nihilist Rejection of Meaning
LEARNING OBJECTIVE: When finished, you'll be able to
• Describe the nihilist response to the question of whether life has meaning and
explain how nihilists have argued for their response, critically evaluate the
nihilist view.
9.5 Meaning as a Self-Chosen Commitment
LEARNING OBJECTIVE: When finished, you'll be able to
• Explain the idea of subjective meaning as something created by the individual
and why some have held this view, critically evaluate this view.
Chapter Summary
667
668
CHAPTER 9 POSTSCRIPT THE MEANING OF LIFE
We have completed our overview of the central questions of philosophy: What amb
Is there a God? What is real? What can I know? What is truth? What ought to do?
What is a just society? We close now with a look at a question that is way omie
ted from introductory courses in philosophy. That question is Does life have any
meaning Introductory courses omit it in part because it is a difficult question. We
for many people it is an urgent question and demands an answer. It may have been
what brought them to philosophy in the first place.
It is fitting to conclude our philosophical journey with this question. As you will
see, our discussion will draw from, and rely on what you learned in earlier chapters
Because you have now examined the centrales of philosophy, therefore, you are
better prepared to look into this question. By drawing on your earlier learning this
Mindrop we
chapter will also help bring together what you have learned. This chapter, then
youth of Aberto
draw out some of the consequences of the earlier chapters. For this reason, we call
worn this closing chapter a postscript.
pl
Cayo
important
9.1 Does Life Have Meaning?
dapts with
but of Perhaps the most important question in philosophy is the question "Does life have
Secided upon
meaning The French existentialis philosopher Albert Camus (1915-1960). in
fact, argued that it is the only important question
med andra on the
pouple question whether ande, and the dei
But for many people the question whether wel
when death is not near Many people seem to reach a point in the
hve any value Theththe have their lives
point. They muy feelie Sheenacht when he and
hing, striving and achievement had left him with nothing
to walking shadow poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the store
And then is hard no more the
by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Spynothing
There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide judging whether
life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philoso
phy. All the rest-whether or not the world has three
dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve
ANALYZING THE READING
categories-comes afterwards. These are games, one
1. Camus claims that the urgency of a question
must first answer the fundamental question
depends on the series of the action or choice
ifiask myself how to judge that one question is
the question. What does he way is the most
more went than another, I reply that one judges by
the actions it entails. I have never seen anyone die
section or choice we face to you agree?
for the ontological argument Galleo, who held a sci
2. What, therefore, is the most enti?
entific truth of great importance, abjured it with the
3. How is this most urgent question related to the
greatest ease as soon as it endangered his life
question whether life has meaning!
In a certain sense, he did right. That truth was
not worth the stake. Whether the earth or the sun
1. What follows about how urgent the question whether revolves around the other is a matter of profound
life has meaning Do you agree with Do indifference. To tell the truth, it is a futile question
you agree that all the questions are games or of On the other hand, I see many people die because
profound derence or wie? Why?
they judge that is not worth living. I see others
paradoxically getting killed for the ideas or illusions
that give them a reason for living (what is called a
QUICK REVIEW reason for living is also an excellent reason for dying). I therefore conclude that the
meaning of life is the most urgent of questions
is pointless and has no meaning. Perhaps no one has written och
poignantly than the great Russian novelis leo Totoy (1828-1900
in my writings I had advocated what to me was the only truth that was necessary to
Ive in such a way as to derive the greatest comfort for oneself and one's family
Thus i proceeded to live. But five years ago something very strange to hup
pen with me: I was overcome by minutes at first of perplexity and then of an
of life, as though I did not know how to live or what to do, and I lost myself and was
dejected. But that passed, and I continued to live as before. Then those inches of per
plexity were repeated oftener and oftener, and always in one and the same form. These
arrests of life found their expression in ever the same questions Why Well, the
At first I thought that those were simply aimless, inapropriate questions....
the questions began to repeat themselves obtener and oftener, answers were demanded
more and more persistently, and like dots that fall in the same spot these questions
without any answers, thickened into one black blotch
I felt that what I was standing on had given way that I had no foundation to stand
on, that what I had lived by no longer existed, and that I had nothing to live for
It was as though I had just been living and walking along and had come to an abs
where I saw clearly that there was nothing ahead but perdition. And it was impossible
to stop and go back, and impossible to shut my eyes, in order that I might not see that
there was nothing ahead but suffering and imminent death-complete antion
What happened to me was that i, a healthy, happy man, felt that I could not
living-an insurmountable force drew me on to find release from life.... The thought
of suicide came to me as naturally then as the thought of improving my le had come
to me before
All this happened to me when I was surrounded on every side by what is consid
ered to be complete happiness. I had a good loving and beloved wife, good children
and a large estate, which grew and increased without
any labor on my part. I was respected by my neigh
bors and friends, more than ever before, was praised
by strangers, and, without any self deception could
consider my name famous... And while in such
condition I arrived at the conclusion that I could not
This mental condition expressed itself to me in
this forme my life is a stupid, mean trick played on
ne by somebody.... Involuntarily imagined that
there, somewhere, there was somebody who
phy
whether as me
THINKING LIKE A PHILOSOPHER
cause people wewe
de for the
People often ask about the meaning of life when death enters their lives. The
death of someone they love or their own death may be imminent. Death brings every
thing we are or ever hoped to be to a complete end. What's the point of all our stri
ing, then? At such times human life may seem brief and insignificant in the face of the
Nearly everyone at one time other
about suicide Camicie
philosophical question and outcome
sidered suicide whe) Do you agree
most se ouest
Albert Camus Aard Rewing.fr
Tandem. Justin O'Brien
Newp1955).
670
CHAPTER 9 POSTSCRIPT: THE MEANING OF LIFE
now having fun as he looked down upon me and saw
THINKING LIKE A PHILOSOPHER
me, who had lived for thirty or forty years, learning.
developing, growing in body and mind, now that I
1. Do you think it is important for your life to have a
had become strengthened in mind and had reached
meaning or is this a question that doesn't really mat-
that summit of life from which it lay all before me.
ter to you? If you are having a lot of fun or are just
standing as a complete fool on that summit and see
happy and content, do you think it would be better ing clearly that there was nothing in life and never
for you to ignore the question?
would be. And that was fun to him....
2. At this point in your life, what do you think is the
I could not ascribe any sensible meaning to a single
meaning or purpose of your life?
act or to my whole life. I was only surprised that I had
3. If you were to become depressed like Tolstoy did,
not understood this from the start. All this had long ago
been known to everybody. Sooner or later there would
do you think the meaning you attribute to your life
would help you through such a crisis?
come diseases and death (they had come already) to my
dear ones and to me, and there would be nothing left
but stench and worms. All my affairs, no matter what
they might be, would sooner or later be forgotten, and I
myself should not exist. So why should I worry about all these things? How could a man fail
to see this and live--that was surprising! A person could live only so long as he was drunk,
but the moment he sobered up, he could not help seeing that all that was only a deception,
and a stupid deception at that....
"My family?" I asked myself. But my family, my wife and children, they are also
human beings. They are in precisely the same condition that I am in: they must either
live in the lie or see the terrible truth. Why should they live? Why should I love them.
why guard, raise, and watch them? Is it for the same despair which is in me, or for dull-
ness of perception? Since I love them, I cannot conceal the truth from them.-every
step in understanding will lead them up to this truth. And the truth is death."
And in order to free myself from that terror, I wanted to kill myself. The terror of
the darkness was too great, and I wanted as quickly as possible to free myself from it by
means of a noose or a bullet. It was this feeling that more than anything else drew me
on toward suicide.?
QUICK REVIEW
with no meaning to
express in his art, Tolstoy
stopped writing and
became depressed
Tolstoy--then one of the world's most acclaimed writers-concluded that life
had no meaning. His family and his writing had earlier sustained him. In his love
for his family he had found the only truth," and in poetry and art he had found
"reflections of life" that had sustained him. But now he felt that the truth is death."
Ahead of him and everyone he loved lay death. Eventually everything anyone had
been or done in life would disintegrate and be forgotten. And that, he came to
believe, made life pointless. Art and family sustained him no longer and he fell into
a deep suicidal depression.
We will return to Tolstoy shortly when we examine how he eventually answered
the question of the meaning of life. Here we need to note only that Tolstoy's need
to find meaning in life is a need that many of us have felt. Or will someday feel.
Events may eventually force us to ask whether the things we have devoted our lives
to achieving have any real meaning. This question, which has brought many people
to philosophy, is the question that we now discuss.
What Does the Question Mean?
But what, exactly does this question mean? There are some philosophers who
have claimed that the question itself has no meaning. The question is literally
1
Leo Tolstoy, My Confession, trans. Leo Wiener (Boston: Dana Estes & Company, Publishers, 1908).
16-24
9.2. THE THEISTIC RESPONSE TO MEANING
671
We saw earlier. Take A J. Ayer, for example. He argued that besides tautologies, the
meaningless. This is the position of the logical positivists, whose empiricist views
only meaningful questions are factual questions, that is questions we can answer by
sense observation. The question whether life has meaning, he claims, is not a factual
question. So the question itself has no meaning
... there is no sense in asking what is the ultimate purpose of our existence, or what is
the real meaning of life.... The position is not that our existence unfortunately lacks a
purpose which, if the fates had been kinder, it might conceivably have had. It is rather
that those who inquire, in this way, after the meaning of life are raising a question to
which it is not logically possible that there should be an answer.... If a question is so
framed as to be unanswerable, then it is not a matter for regret that it remains unan-
swered. It is therefore, misleading to say that life has no meaning: for that suggests
that the statement that life has a meaning is factually significant, but false; whereas
the truth is that, in the sense in which it is taken in this context, it is not factually
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Ayer, Cara, and the
het logo
daim that the question
meness best
not actualtion
that can be resolved
through sense perception
Critics reply
Important questions cant
bered through
perception
significant.
But most people today believe that the logical positivists are mistaken. In par
ticular, people reject the idea that the only meaningful statements are tautologies
and factual claims our senses can verify. In fact, many of our most pressing social,
religious, and moral questions seem to make perfectly good sense. Yet they cannot
be resolved through the use of our senses. Moreover, many modern philosophers
have shown-as we will see that the question of the meaning of life can have a
perfectly understandable meaning.
But if the question is not meaningless, what, then, does it mean? One way of
understanding the question "What is the meaning of life?" is to take it as asking
whether my life has a larger or more important purpose than merely living. In other
words, is my individual life related to something larger and more significant that
gives my finite life value?
This seems to be the way that Leo Tolstoy understood the question. Despite
being respected and loved, he fell into a deep depression when he began to feel that
life is meaningless. Tolstoy came out of his profound funk when he decided that to
have meaning, his finite life had to be related to the infinite God.
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Totoy and others the
the question to be asking
whether it has a larger or
more important purpose
than merely living
9.2 The Theistic Response to Meaning
Perhaps the most common way that people answer the question whether life has
meaning is in terms of their relationship to God. This is an ancient response to the
question. For example, we saw in Chapter 2 that Thomas Aquinas argues that every
thing has a purpose, including human beings:
Now here on earth, the simplest elements exist for the sake of compound minerals:
these latter exist for the sake of living bodies, among which plants exist for animals,
and animals for humans. . . . Now humans naturally desire, as their ultimate
purpose,
to know the first cause of all things. But the first cause of all things is God. So the
ultimate purpose of human beings is to know God."
A. Ayer, "The Claims of Philosophy, from E. D. Niemke and Steven M. Can, eds. This
Thomas Aquinas, Sud Costa Gni, bil, ch. 22. part. 7. 8. ch. 2. part. ll. translated by
Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008). 201
Manuel Velasquez
672
CHAPTER 9 POSTSCRIPT: THE MEANING OF LIFE
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Aquinas' theistic response
to the question is that the
meaning of human life
is related to the purpose
that humans have in a
larger plan or cosmic order
devised by God, and this
purpose is to know and be
united with God. Tolstoy
accepted this as a reason
for living
Aquinas' view can be called the theistic response to the question of meaning.
The theistic response claims that human life has meaning because humans are
part of a plan or providential order devised by God. Within that plan, all things
in the universe have purpose and value. The purpose of finite human beings, in
particular, is to know the infinite God and be united with Him. Life on earth, while
brief, is valuable insofar as it is a preparation for that future union with that infinite
God. Human life, then, is not a tiny, insignificant, and meaningless "hour upon
the stage that ends with nothing. Human life has a meaning because each
person
is related to an infinite significant whole within which each finite individual has a
place.
This theistic response is the one that led Tolstoy out of his depression. As
Tolstoy wrote:
I understood that it was not right for me to look for an answer to my question in
rational knowledge, and that the answer given by rational knowledge was only an
indication that the answer might be answered...only when into the discussion of the
question should be introduced the question of the relation of the finite to the infinite.
I also understood that, no matter how irrational and monstrous the answers might be
that faith gave, they had this advantage that they introduced into each answer the
relation of the finite to the infinite, without which there could be no answer.
No matter how I might put the question, "How must I live?" the answer of faith is,
"According to God's law." "What result will there be from my life?"-"Eternal torment
or eternal bliss." "What is the meaning which is not destroyed by death?"-"The union
with infinite God, paradise."
Thus, outside rational knowledge, which had to me appeared as the only one, I was
inevitably led to recognize that all living humanity had a certain other non-rational
knowledge, faith, which made it possible to live.
It alone gave to humanity answers to the questions
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of life, and, in consequence of them, the possibility
1. Tolstoy implies that if life has no meaning, then it is
of living
logical to choose suicide. Does Camus agree? Do
Ever since humanity had existed, faith had given
you agree? Why or why not?
the possibility of living, and the chief features of faith
were everywhere one and the same. No matter what
2. Tolstoy suggests that if human life ends with nothing
more than "death-complete annihilation," then
answers faith may give, its every answer gives to the
finite existence of man the sense of the infinite-a
it has no meaning. Is he right? If human life did
not end with death but went on forever, would
sense which is not destroyed by suffering, privation,
and death. Consequently in faith alone could we find
human life then necessarily be meaningful? In other
the meaning and possibility of life.
words, is eternal life by itself sufficient to make life
meaningful? Is eternal life necessary to make life
Then I began to cultivate the acquaintance of the
believers from among the poor, the simple and unlet
meaningful?
tered folk, of pilgrims, monks, dissenters, peasants....
3. Tolstoy suggests that "faith relates the finite
I began to examine closely the lives and beliefs of
existence of man" to something "infinite" that is
these people, and the more I examined them, the
"not destroyed by suffering. privation, and death."
more did I become convinced that they had the real
namely, union with infinite God." Why would
faith, that their faith was necessary for them, and that
-union with infinite God" give Tolstoy the meaning
it alone gave them a meaning and possibility of life....
he wanted?
I began to love these people.... Thus I lived for
about two years, and within me took place a transfor
mation.... What happened with me was that the life
of our circle-of the rich and the learned-not only
disgusted me, but even lost all its meaning. All our acts, reflections, sciences, arts-all
that appeared to me in a new light. I saw that all that was mere pampering of the appe
tites, and that no meaning could be found in it; but the life of all the working masses, of
all humanity, which created life. presented itself to me in its real significance. I saw that
that was life itself and that the meaning given to this life was truth, and I accepted it.
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