Life, Death & Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big QuestionsDavid Benatar In Life, Death, and Meaning, David Benatar offers a distinctive collection of readings designed to introduce undergraduates and lay readers to the key existential questions of philosophy: Do our lives have meaning? Is death something to be feared? Would it be better to be immortal? Classic and contemporary essays consider such questions as the meaning of life, creating people, death, suicide, immortality, and 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. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
The Meaning of Life | 17 |
The Meaning of Life | 19 |
The Absurd | 29 |
Nothing Matters | 41 |
Philosophy and the Meaning of Life | 49 |
Philosophy and the Meaning of Life | 63 |
The Meanings of Life | 91 |
Why Death Is Not Bad for the One Who Died | 265 |
Suggestions for Further Reading on Death | 285 |
Suicide | 287 |
Of Suicide | 289 |
Suicide and Duty | 297 |
The Morality and Rationality of Suicide | 305 |
Suggestions for Further Reading on Suicide | 319 |
Immortality | 321 |
Suggestions for Further Reading on the Meaning of Life | 113 |
Creating People | 115 |
Whether Causing Someone to Exist Can Benefit This Person | 117 |
Why Not Let Life Become Extinct? | 123 |
On Becoming Extinct | 135 |
Why It Is Better Never to Come into Existence | 155 |
Suggestions for Further Reading on Creating People | 169 |
Death | 171 |
How to Be Dead and Not Care A Defense of Epicurus | 173 |
The Misfortunes of the Dead | 189 |
Annihilation | 199 |
Some Puzzles About the Evil of Death | 221 |
PreVital and PostMortem NonExistence | 241 |
Immortality A Letter | 323 |
The Makropulos Case Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality | 331 |
Why Immortality Is Not So Bad | 349 |
Suggestions for Further Reading on Immortality | 365 |
Optimism and Pessimism | 367 |
Optimism | 369 |
The Consolations of Optimism | 383 |
On the Sufferings of the World | 393 |
Suggestions for Further Reading on Optimism and Pessimism | 403 |
405 | |
About the Contributors | 409 |
Other editions - View all
Life, Death & Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions David Benatar Limited preview - 2004 |
Life, Death, and Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions David Benatar Limited preview - 2016 |
Life, Death, and Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions David Benatar No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
absurd activity actual affairs analytic philosophers answer argue argument Arthur Schopenhauer attitude axiology bad thing believe Bernard Williams betrayal better categorical desire claim concern condition consider course David Hume David Schmidtz dead death is bad deprivation account Derek Parfit duty dying Epicureans Epicurus Epicurus's essay is reproduced Ethics event evil of death example exist earlier existential experience extinction fact feel future goals happen happy hedonism human imagine Immanuel Kant immortality indifferent Joel Feinberg kind least life's meaning lives Lucretius matter meaningful meaningless metaphysical misfortune moral nature nearest world never non-existence Nozick one's optimism optimist pain Parfit perhaps person pessimism pessimist Philosophical Quarterly possible world problem purpose rational reason Robert Nozick seems sense Sisyphus someone sort species suffering suggests suicide suppose symmetry Thomas Nagel thought tion University Press welfare level white rhinos worse wrong