Is Life Meaningless?Jean Kazez

Philosophy Department, SMU

PreludeA few words about

solidarity vs. agreement

Alex Rosenberg’scheerful nihilism

Is he right that life is meaningless??

Professor of Philosophy, Duke University

BackgroundThe debate about God and

the meaning of life

An existential crisis

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

Tolstoy, age 51, 1879

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)

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)

∞

Standard Atheist Response

NO, NONo GodNo 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]

My primary goal is to be a great climber

MEANING IN LIFE

My primary goal is to raise my daughters

MEANING IN LIFE

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

MEANING IN LIFE

∞

Needed more fulfilling goals, not faith

For meaning in lifeGod is not necessary

Enter: TroubleCan there really be meaning IN life?

Meaning IN life is only possible if…

Hillary has thoughts ABOUT peaceMichelle has thoughts ABOUT her daughtersMountain climber has thoughts ABOUT

mountains

ABOUTNESS IS PROBLEMATIC!

My brain weighs 2 poundsIt’s spongy

It’s wetIt has electric charge

And it has aboutness. ABOUTNESS?

Are these things possiblein natural, physical world?

SoulsThe selfFree willObjective moralityAboutness

Philosophy of aboutness (aka “intentionality”)

Franz BrentanoEdmund Husserl

Jerry FodorDaniel DennettRuth MillikanFred Dretske

Paul & Patricia ChurchlandJohn Searle

Rosenberg:ABOUTNESS DOESN’T

EXISTLike souls, fairies, witches,

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

Can’t think aboutmountains

Can’t think aboutdaughters

Can’t think aboutworld peace

Life is meaningless!

NO MEANING OF LIFEBecause no God

NO MEANING IN LIFEBecause no aboutness

Rosenberg: life is

meaningless? What me worry?

∞

Rosenberg: Tolstoy just needed Prozac

Why no aboutness?Rosenberg’s argument why

aboutness doesn’t exist

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”.

Aboutness is unreal because3) 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

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

How should we respond?

1. Dismiss Rosenbergas a nut

2. Agree, but secretlyVote for me, even though I

think God doesn’t exist, life is meaningless, and nobody has thoughts

about anything.

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

I am not thinking about

anything or talking about

anything!

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”

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.

6. Explain how aboutness arises from physical facts

How can there be aboutness in

physical world?hard question,

piles of literature

Fly detector

A fly-detector has physical states ABOUT flies.

Paris detector

That’s Paris!

Paris detector

Let’s go to Paris!

Mountain detector Daughter detector

World peace detector

Mission accomplishedAboutness and meaning in life defended

Meaning in LifeExpanding on idea

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

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)

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)

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.

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)

What adds meaning to our lives?

Two examples

1) Raising children2) Working for social justice

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

∞Tolstoy’s Crisis

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