Life, Death, and Meaning (eBook)

Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions

David Benatar (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2010 | 2., Second Edition
472 Seiten
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (Verlag)
978-1-4422-0171-2 (ISBN)

Infos

Do our lives have meaning? Should we create more people? Is death bad? Should we commit suicide? Would it be better to be immortal? Should we be optimistic or pessimistic? Since Life, Death, and Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions first appeared, David Benatars distinctive anthology designed to introduce students to the key existential questions of philosophy has won a devoted following among users in a variety of upper-level and even introductory courses. While many philosophers in the continental tradition_those known as existentialists_have engaged these issues at length and often with great popular appeal, English-speaking philosophers have had relatively little to say on these important questions. Yet, the methodology they bring to philosophical questions can, and occasionally has, been applied usefully to existential questions. This volume draws together a representative sample of primarily English-speaking philosophers reflections on lifes big questions, divided into six sections, covering (1) the meaning of life, (2) creating people, (3) death, (4) suicide, (5) immortality, and (6) optimism and pessimism. These key readings are supplemented with helpful introductions, study questions, and suggestions for further reading, making the material accessible and interesting for students. In short, the book provides a singular introduction to the way that philosophy has dealt with the big questions of life that we are all tempted to ask.

Autor

David Benatar is professor of philosophy at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Inhalt

Chapter 1 PrefaceChapter 2 IntroductionPart 3 Chapter 1: The Meaning of LifeChapter 4 The Meaning of LifeChapter 5 The AbsurdChapter 6 'Nothing Matters'Chapter 7 Philosophy and the Meaning of LifeChapter 8 Philosophy and the Meaning of LifeChapter 9 The Meanings of LifePart 10 Chapter 2: Creating PeopleChapter 11 Whether Causing Someone to Exist Can Benefit This PersonChapter 12 Why Not Let Life Become Extinct?Chapter 13 On Becoming ExtinctChapter 14 Why it is Better Never to Come into ExistencePart 15 Chapter 3: DeathChapter 16 How to be Dead and Not Care: A Defense of EpicurusChapter 17 The Misfortunes of the DeadChapter 18 AnnihilationChapter 19 Some Puzzles About the Evil of DeathChapter 20 Pre-Vital and Post-Mortem Non-ExistenceChapter 21 Why Death is not Bad for the One who DiedPart 22 Chapter 4: SuicideChapter 23 Of SuicideChapter 24 Suicide and DutyChapter 25 Suicide: A Qualified DefencePart 26 Chapter 5: ImmortalityChapter 27 Immortality: A letterChapter 28 The Makropulos case: reflections on the tedium of immortalityChapter 29 Why Immortality is Not So BadChapter 30 From here to eternity: Is it good to live forever?Part 31 Chapter 6: Optimism and PessimismChapter 32 OptimismChapter 33 The Consolations of OptimismChapter 34 The sad truth: optimism, pessimism, and pragmatismChapter 35 On the Suffering of the World

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 16.1.2010
• Co-Autor: Frederick Kaufman, James Lenman, John Leslie, Steven Luper, Michaelis Michael, Thomas Nagel, Robert Nozick, Christine Overall, Derek Parfit, George Pitcher, Margaret A. Boden, Stephen E. Rosenbaum, David Schmidtz, Arthur Schopenhauer, David B. Suits, Richard Taylor, Bruce N. Waller, Bernard Williams, Peter Caldwell, Fred Feldman, John Martin Fischer, Richard Hare, David Hume, W.D Joske, Immanuel Kant
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Metaphysik / Ontologie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Philosophie des Mittelalters
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Philosophie der Neuzeit
• ISBN-10: 1-4422-0171-1 / 1442201711
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4422-0171-2 / 9781442201712