1. The Meaning of Life Vice and Virtue in Everyday Life Chapter 9

2. Substance, Shadow, and Spirit T’ao Ch’ien ► We are finite creatures. ► 3 Responses to our finitude: Substance, Shadow, and Spirit ► “Just surrender to the great cycle of things,” Spirit says.

3. The Bhagavad Ghita ► Arjuna wonders why he should engage the enemy. ► Krishna tells him he must detach himself from pleasure and sentiment. ► If we attain non-attachment, then we will do our duty.

4. My Confession, Tolstoy ► Life seemed utterly meaningless to Tolstoy, even though he had great success. ► The life of the rich and intelligent is meaningless. ► The life of the peasants are worthwhile because they embrace faith in God.

5. A Free Man’s Worship, Russell ► “…only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.” (p. 608) ► The universe is unconcerned with us, but we are free to examine, know, criticize, and create.

6. Russell ► Russell found meaning in longing for love, searching for knowledge, and having pity for the suffering of humanity.

7. The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus ► The one truly serious philosophical problem is suicide. ► Life is absurd. ► The only truth in response to life’s absurdity is defiance.

8. The Meaning of Life, Nagel ► Nothing explains and gives meaning to life, taken as a whole. ► We might find meaning as part of a social or political movement, or by appealing to religion.

9. Nagel ► But we can find meaning within our lives, even if they have no meaning as a whole. ► Life may be absurd, and we just have to deal with it.

10. Existentialism is Humanism, Sartre ► What is existentialism? ► Existence precedes essence. ► Man is nothing but what he makes of himself. ► God does not exist, and we must face the consequences of this.

11. Sartre ► Consider an example: should the boy leave his mother to fight in the war, or remain with her to care for her? ► Our choices define the moral norms for humanity.

12. Absurd Self-Fulfillment, Feinberg ► The proper response to the absurdity of life is one of irony. ► A scene from a BBC documentary on WWI ► Fulfillment in the midst of absurdity

13. The Human Search for Meaning, Frankl ► Even in a Nazi concentration camp, there is freedom—a freedom to choose one’s own way. ► We need hope in order to live. ► Life’s meaning has no general meaning, but is something concrete for each individual.

14. Frankl ► We must be free and responsible.

15. The Book of Job ► The trials and tribulations of Job, and the unfairness of life. ► God’s explanation to Job: you must have a rational faith that the creator and sustainer of the universe is good. ► Job’s repentance