On the Meaning of Life (Thinking in Action)

Rating:
Summary: One stab at "the meaning of it all"...
Review: Say the word "philosophy" and most people conjure up images of old dusty sages leaning on Corinthian columns and rhapsodizing about "the meaning of it all". That's the 'romantic' view (if it can be called that). Anyone who has spent time in the philosophy departments of academic institutions knows better. You won't see any togas, and few, if any, people discussing "life philosophy" or "the meaning of life". Perhaps a course on ethics might include a section on "the value of life" or on "leading an ethical life", but probably not on "the meaning of life." Asking a career-minded philosophy professor "so when do we get to 'the meaning of it all?'" will likely yield a brusque lecture on the harsh, Hobbesian realities of academia, or at least a blank stare. Of course questions and issues concerning "the meaning of life" infuse philosophic discourse of all kinds, but not in a blatantly obvious way. Academia can only focus on minute details of such tidal wave issues. Ater all, analytic epistemology still hasn't explained satisfactorily how or why we know what we know (and who knows if it ever will or can), much less why "we're here".

Regardless of everything above, this book takes on the intimidating topic of "the meaning of it all". It does so in about 100 pages, so the issue of scope creeps in. How could anyone decide what to include or exclude from such a discussion? Not to mention how anyone could even conceive of covering "the meaning of it all" in this amount of space. Taking this into account, the author does a good job of keeping the discussion focused and forming an argument around "the meaning of it all". Of course anyone could querulously quibble the details of this book to dust. Many doubtless have and will. Getting caught up in the copious minutiae of the book will only lead to frustration and stalemate. The overreaching argument of the book provides most of the rewards here, not the nitpicky details.The book divides the issue into three sections. Each one argues relatively simple points.

Following a very appropriate citation from "The Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy" that inaugurates the first section, the author points out that even the heady and militantly empirical Logical Positivists of the early twentieth century could not obliterate "the question that won't go away". Modern Science has not helped by depicting the universe as a cold, barren place devoid of any meaning above mathematical interpretations. Does religion offer any hope? Not on the surface, since grand figures such as Nietzsche have deconstructed it intellectually almost beyond the point of value. Nietzsche's concepts of the "Death of God" and the "will to power" get subsumed under the same arrogant mistake of Protagoras' proclamation that "Man is the measure of all things". The author concludes that we cannot create our own values, which begs the question, in the face of this, of what meaningfulness itself implies. After discussing why Nazi torturers could not have meaningful lives, the author concludes the section by saying that meaningful activities are "achievement-oriented", but not in a selfish sense. Values must ultimately have a character of interconnectedness to posit meaning to their subjects.

The second section presents the familiar argument between science and religion. The author accuses both sides of gross misunderstandings, and concludes that nothing in the scientific outlook necessarily precludes anything in the religious outlook, and vice versa. The two can coexist without great difficulty, meaning that no good reason exists as to why scientists cannot be spiritual without contradiction. Of course science neither proves nor disproves a "spiritual realm", and the author uses this fact as a jumping off point to the third section.

The last section focuses on spirituality as the way to "the meaning of it all". The author cautiously separates spirituality from any specific religious doctrines. He ultimately blames the doctrines for the alienation many feel towards religion and spirituality in general. Borrowing Pascal's wager and the benefits that a spritual outlook can provide, the book's argument turns to a plea that rational and vulnerable human beings require a spiritual dimension to their lives to survive. Nothing unbeliveably relevatory or new comes from the text, but that shouldn't elicit surprise. The author says that religions from time immemorial have communicated this same message, but warns us not to sweep this message hastily under the carpet of modern science.

Many opportunities for disagreement inevitably present themselves throughout this argument. Too many to list. In the end, the author has taken a vastly huge subject and put it through a filter that can accommodate the open minded amongst theists and atheists. Readers on the extreme of either side may find much to provoke thier ire. The book treads dangerous waters in places, but the conclusion encompasses the spirituality at the foundation of all religions - and arguably at the base of science - the wonder and mystery of existence.