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The Bonn Handbook of Globality pp 1333–1341Cite as

Meaning of Life

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Abstract

When handling the concept “meaning of life,” it is necessary to differentiate between meaning of life in a strict sense and meaning in life. While the meaning of life refers to human life in general and out of a super subjective perspective, the meaning in life considers the meaning in an individual life out of a subjective perspective. However, in both versions, a problem arises as to whether the question of a meaningful life could be answered objectively or subjectively. A possible though controversial solution is a unity between the happiness from the subjective perspective and the meaningfulness from the objective. Further, the conflict between meaning of life and morality favors an objectivist approach in the attribution of meaning.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Thaddeus Metz, Recent Work on the Meaning of Life, in: Ethics 112 (2002), pp. 781–814.

  2. 2.

    Susan Wolf, Meaning in Life and Why it Matters, Princeton NJ.: Princeton University Press, 2010.

  3. 3.

    Christian Thies, Der Sinn der Sinnfrage. Metaphysische Reflexionen auf kantianischer Grundlage, Freiburg/Munich: Karl Alber, 2008.

  4. 4.

    Susan Wolf, Meaning in Life and Why it Matters, op. cit., p. 7.

  5. 5.

    Thomas Nagel, The View from Nowhere, New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.

  6. 6.

    Alfred Jules Ayer, The Meaning of Life, New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1990, p. 11.

  7. 7.

    Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphos, London: Penguin, 2005 (French original: Idem, Le mythe de Sisyphe: Essais sur l’Absurde, Paris: Gallimard, 1942).

  8. 8.

    Cf. Christian Thies, Der Sinn der Sinnfrage. Metaphysische Reflexionen auf kantianischer Grundlage, op. cit., pp. 69–83.

  9. 9.

    Max Weber, Religious Rejections of the World and Their Directions, in: Hans Heinrich Gerth/C. Wright Mills (eds.), From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, New York: Oxford University Press, 1946, pp. 350–351 (German original: Idem, Zwischenbetrachtung. Theorie der Stufen und Richtungen religiöser Weltablehnung, in: Idem, Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie. Band 1: Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus, Die protestantischen Sekten und der Geist des Kapitalismus sowie Die Wirtschaftsethik der Weltreligionen, Tübingen: Mohr, 1988 (9th edition), p. 564 (first published 1920)).

  10. 10.

    Susan Wolf, Meaning in Life and Why it Matters, op. cit., pp. 13–33.

  11. 11.

    For example, Viktor E. Frankl, Der Mensch vor der Frage nach dem Sinn. Eine Auswahl aus dem Gesamtwerk, Munich: Piper, 1979.

  12. 12.

    Susan Wolf, Meaning in Life and Why it Matters, loc. cit.

  13. 13.

    Bernard Williams, The Makropoulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality, in: Idem, Problems of the Self. Philosophical Papers 1956–1972, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973, pp. 82–101; Bernard Williams, Internal and external reasons, in: Idem, Moral Luck. Philosophical Papers 1973–1980, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1981, pp. 101–113.

  14. 14.

    Robert Louden, Meaningful but Immoral Lives? in: Beatrix Himmelmann (ed.), On Meaning in Life, Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 2013, pp. 23–43.

  15. 15.

    Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem. A Report on the Banality of Evil, New York: Viking Press, 1963.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Practical Philosophy and Ancient Philosophy, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Christoph Horn

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Correspondence to Christoph Horn .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Political Science, University of Bonn/Center for European Integration Studies (ZEI), Bonn, Germany

    Ludger Kühnhardt

  2. Political Science, History of Ideas and Contemporary History, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Tilman Mayer

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Horn, C. (2019). Meaning of Life. In: Kühnhardt, L., Mayer, T. (eds) The Bonn Handbook of Globality. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90382-8_53

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