is life meaningless? jean kazez philosophy department, smu
TRANSCRIPT
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Is Life Meaningless?Jean Kazez
Philosophy Department, SMU
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PreludeA few words about
solidarity vs. agreement
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Alex Rosenberg’scheerful nihilism
Is he right that life is meaningless??
Professor of Philosophy, Duke University
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BackgroundThe debate about God and
the meaning of life
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An existential crisis
Everything comes to an end … my life is meaningless … I may as well be dead!
Tolstoy, age 51, 1879
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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)
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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)
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∞
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Standard Atheist Response
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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]
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My primary goal is to be a great climber
MEANING IN LIFE
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My primary goal is to raise my daughters
MEANING IN LIFE
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I’m working on world peace, thank you very much
MEANING IN LIFE
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∞
Needed more fulfilling goals, not faith
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For meaning in lifeGod is not necessary
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Enter: TroubleCan there really be meaning IN life?
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Meaning IN life is only possible if…
Hillary has thoughts ABOUT peace
Michelle has thoughts ABOUT her daughters
Mountain climber has thoughts ABOUT mountains
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ABOUTNESS IS PROBLEMATIC!
My brain weighs 2 poundsIt’s spongy
It’s wetIt has electric charge
And it has aboutness. ABOUTNESS?
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Are these things possiblein natural, physical world?
Souls
The self
Free will
Objective morality
Aboutness
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Philosophy of aboutness (aka “intentionality”)
Franz Brentano
Edmund Husserl
Jerry Fodor
Daniel Dennett
Ruth Millikan
Fred Dretske
Paul & Patricia Churchland
John Searle
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Rosenberg:ABOUTNESS DOESN’T
EXISTLike souls, fairies, witches,
ESP, heaven, destiny, etc. don’t exist
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Can’t think aboutmountains
Can’t think aboutdaughters
Can’t think aboutworld peace
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Life is meaningless!
NO MEANING OF LIFE
Because no God
NO MEANING IN LIFE
Because no aboutness
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Rosenberg: life is
meaningless? What me worry?
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∞
Rosenberg: Tolstoy just needed Prozac
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Why no aboutness?Rosenberg’s argument why
aboutness doesn’t exist
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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”.
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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
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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
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How should we respond?
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1. Dismiss Rosenbergas a nut
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2. Agree, but secretly
Vote for me, even though I think God doesn’t exist, life is meaningless, and nobody has thoughts
about anything.
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3. Dismiss Rosenberg’s view as “self-defeating”
I am not thinking about
anything or talking about
anything!
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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”
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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.
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6. Explain how aboutness arises from physical facts
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How can there be aboutness in
physical world?hard question,
piles of literature
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Fly detector
A fly-detector has physical states ABOUT flies.
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Paris detector
That’s Paris!
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Paris detector
Let’s go to Paris!
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Mountain detector Daughter detector
World peace detector
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Mission accomplishedAboutness and meaning in life defended
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Meaning in LifeExpanding on idea
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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
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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)
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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)
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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.
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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)
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What adds meaning to our lives?
Two examples
1) Raising children
2) Working for social justice
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A cost of religion + sexism – not seeing the meaning in your own backyard
∞
Tolstoy’s Crisis
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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