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Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

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Page 1: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Is Life Meaningless?Jean Kazez

Philosophy Department, SMU

Page 2: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

PreludeA few words about

solidarity vs. agreement

Page 3: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Alex Rosenberg’scheerful nihilism

Is he right that life is meaningless??

Professor of Philosophy, Duke University

Page 4: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

BackgroundThe debate about God and

the meaning of life

Page 5: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

An existential crisis

Everything comes to an end … my life is meaningless … I may as well be dead!

Tolstoy, age 51, 1879

Page 6: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Tolstoy’s Conversion“As I looked around at people, at humanity as a whole,I saw that they lived and affirmed that they knew the meaning of life.”

Tolstoy, A Confession (1879)

Page 7: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Tolstoy on thenecessity of faith

“… only in faith can we find the meaning and possibility of life.”

Faith gives “an infinite meaning to the finite existence of man; a meaning that is not destroyed by suffering, deprivation or death.

Tolstoy, A Confession (1879)

Page 8: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Page 9: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Standard Atheist Response

Page 10: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

NO, NONo God

No necessity of God for meaningfulness

Meaning OF life cosmic purpose [need God]

Meaning IN life having your own plans, goals, ultimate aims [don’t need God]

Page 11: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

My primary goal is to be a great climber

MEANING IN LIFE

Page 12: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

My primary goal is to raise my daughters

MEANING IN LIFE

Page 13: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

I’m working on world peace, thank you very much

MEANING IN LIFE

Page 14: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Needed more fulfilling goals, not faith

Page 15: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

For meaning in lifeGod is not necessary

Page 16: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Enter: TroubleCan there really be meaning IN life?

Page 17: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Meaning IN life is only possible if…

Hillary has thoughts ABOUT peace

Michelle has thoughts ABOUT her daughters

Mountain climber has thoughts ABOUT mountains

Page 18: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

ABOUTNESS IS PROBLEMATIC!

My brain weighs 2 poundsIt’s spongy

It’s wetIt has electric charge

And it has aboutness. ABOUTNESS?

Page 19: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Are these things possiblein natural, physical world?

Souls

The self

Free will

Objective morality

Aboutness

Page 20: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Philosophy of aboutness (aka “intentionality”)

Franz Brentano

Edmund Husserl

Jerry Fodor

Daniel Dennett

Ruth Millikan

Fred Dretske

Paul & Patricia Churchland

John Searle

Page 21: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Rosenberg:ABOUTNESS DOESN’T

EXISTLike souls, fairies, witches,

ESP, heaven, destiny, etc. don’t exist

Page 22: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Can’t think aboutmountains

Can’t think aboutdaughters

Can’t think aboutworld peace

Page 23: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Life is meaningless!

NO MEANING OF LIFE

Because no God

NO MEANING IN LIFE

Because no aboutness

Page 24: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Rosenberg: life is

meaningless? What me worry?

Page 25: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Rosenberg: Tolstoy just needed Prozac

Page 26: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Why no aboutness?Rosenberg’s argument why

aboutness doesn’t exist

Page 27: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Aboutness is unreal because

1) Paris too diffuse—what are the boundaries?

2) Neurons too simple—even sea slugs, rats, frogs have them; just “circuitry”.

Page 28: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Aboutness is unreal because

3) Piling up doesn’t help—

“Piling up a lot of neural circuits that are not about anything at all can’t turn them into a thought about stuff out there in the world.”

Rosenberg, p. 184

Page 29: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Why should atheists pay attention?

SCIENTISM* – “The physical facts fix all of the facts.” What “floats” free of physical facts is

unreal, illusory.

NO GOD

NO ABOUTNESS

* Not a dirty word in Rosenberg’s view

Page 30: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

How should we respond?

Page 31: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

1. Dismiss Rosenbergas a nut

Page 32: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

2. Agree, but secretly

Vote for me, even though I think God doesn’t exist, life is meaningless, and nobody has thoughts

about anything.

Page 33: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

3. Dismiss Rosenberg’s view as “self-defeating”

I am not thinking about

anything or talking about

anything!

Page 34: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

4. Reject scientism Come to atheism by another route—e.g.

argument from evil

Say there are genuine facts that float free of physical facts.

Accept aboutness as “floater”

Page 35: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

5. Rebut his argumentsHE SAID LIKE SAYING

“Piling up a lot of neural circuits that are not about anything at all can’t turn them into a thought about stuff out there in the world.”

Rosenberg, p. 184

Piling up a lot of atoms that aren’t conscious can’t make me conscious.

Page 36: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

6. Explain how aboutness arises from physical facts

Page 37: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

How can there be aboutness in

physical world?hard question,

piles of literature

Page 38: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Fly detector

A fly-detector has physical states ABOUT flies.

Page 39: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Paris detector

That’s Paris!

Page 40: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Paris detector

Let’s go to Paris!

Page 41: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Mountain detector Daughter detector

World peace detector

Page 42: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Mission accomplishedAboutness and meaning in life defended

Page 43: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Meaning in LifeExpanding on idea

Page 44: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

1) Love“Love saves us … from squandering our lives in vacuous activity that is fundamentally pointless”

“Love makes it possible … for us to engage wholeheartedly in activity that is meaningful”

-- Harry Frankfurt, The Reasons of Love

Page 45: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

2) Objective attractiveness

“Meaning arises from loving objects worthy of love and engaging with them in a positive way.”

“Meaning arises when subjective attraction meets objective attractiveness.”

-- Susan Wolf, Meaning in Life and Why it Matters (2010)

Page 46: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

2) Objective attractiveness

An activity is objectively attractive when—

A. Benefit is not just received by me—

but shared by others tooB. Benefit is not just visible to me—

but real, factual

-- Susan Wolf, Meaning in Life and Why it Matters (2010)

Page 47: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

3) The arc of a lifeIn a meaningful life we have at least some overarching goals that organize time and energy, making life not just one day after another.

Page 48: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

Meaningless parts of lifeChecking email and Twitter endlessly

(you want to do it, but don’t love it)

Malicious online bullying (might feel brief attraction to this, but not objectively attractive)

Flitting from one project to another, endless chatter at blogs (goes nowhere, creates no life arc)

Page 49: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

What adds meaning to our lives?

Two examples

1) Raising children

2) Working for social justice

Page 50: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

A cost of religion + sexism – not seeing the meaning in your own backyard

Tolstoy’s Crisis

Page 51: Is Life Meaningless? Jean Kazez Philosophy Department, SMU

BibliographyAlex Rosenberg, The Atheist’s Guide to Life: Enjoying Life without Illusions

Jean Kazez, Review of Rosenberg in Free Inquiry (August/September 2012)

Leo Tolstoy, A Confession

Harry Frankfurt, The Reasons of Love

Susan Wolf, Meaning in Life and Why it Matters

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – look up Intentionality; Causal theories of mental content