Tag Archives: meaning of life

The Meaning of Life (in Under 300 Words)

It turns out some psychologists (Baumeister and Vohs, 2002) have found the meaning of life. Psychologists are much more pragmatic than philosophers. Rather than working out the meaning of life from first principles or anything daft like that they just went … Continue reading

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Alan Watts on the meaning of life

Alan ‘The way of zen’ Watts on life as animated by Matt “South” Stone and Trey “Park” Parker [youtube WGoTmNU_5A0] via Richard Wiseman and Stephen Long’s Blog.

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Meaning of Life returns

I am delighted to say that I have finally got my Meaning of life project back online. Back in 2003, I wrote to every (professional) philosopher in the country (all 643 of them) to ask them about the meaning of … Continue reading

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John Ashbery

My Philosophy of Life Just when I thought there wasn’t room enough for another thought in my head, I had this great idea– call it a philosophy of life, if you will.Briefly, it involved living the way philosophers live, according … Continue reading

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Tim Mawson

St Peter’s College, Oxford 5th Jan 2004 Dear Caspar (if I may), Thank you very much for your letter of the first of October last year. I am sorry to have taken so long in replying to it. Initially, I … Continue reading

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Fiona Macpherson

Dear Mr. Addyman, Thank you very much for your letter asking about the meaning of life, the universe and everything. I cannot provide you will an answer but I hope to show in what way phiolsophy tries to contibute towards … Continue reading

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Nancy Cartwright

By Post: Dear Mr Addyman I’m sorry. I haven’t a clue how to help with your question! Yours Nancy Cartwright

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Wikipedia on the meaning of life

From Wikipedia.org How philosophers have addressed the question Over the millennia, philosophers have had much to say about this question–though philosophers do not fixate on it as much as popular conceptions might lead one to believe. Theories of value–of which … Continue reading

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Mark Sainsbury

From: Mark Sainsbury Date: 18 Oct 2003, 19:48:52 Subject: Meaning Life has no meaning, but individuals can make their lives meaningful by thinking what they would most like to achieve and then trying to achieve that. Self-awareness among ‘cranks and … Continue reading

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‘Orthogonal’

Barnyard animals provide a good example of how not to make a fuss about what it means to live – they just live. Standing in a slaughterhouse queue, a mature sheep, for example, accepts an impending bullet-in-the-brain with perfect metaphysical … Continue reading

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David Papineau

From: David Papineau Date: 16.10.2003, 15:13:50 Subject: the universe etc Dear Caspar Addyman Thanks for your odd letter. If you are really interested in how I think the universe might be, you might look at ‘David Lewis and Schrodinger’s Cat’, … Continue reading

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David Harvey

From: David Harvey Date: 16 Oct 2003, 13:13:11 Subject: The Meaning of Life? Caspar, In common with at least one other respondent, I now understand why a free copy of the New Humanist arrived on my doormat, so thanks for … Continue reading

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Max Steuer

From: Steuer, M Date: 15 Oct 2003, 17:40:28 Subject: Life’s Meaning Dear Caspar I’m an economist, not a philosopher. But it is not for that reason only that I wonder if philosophers are either particularly privileged or interested in the … Continue reading

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Norman Geras

From: Norman Geras Sent: Sat Oct 11 18:23:18 2003 Subject: your letter Dear Caspar Addyman Thank you for your letter of 1 October. On my weblog which you can find here: † http://www.normangeras.blogspot.com/ † I offer daily reflections on this … Continue reading

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Michael Proudfoot

By post: Dear Mr Addyman, As you suggest, I receive a considerable number of unsolicited letters from members of the public, of varying degrees of sanity. I would recommend to you a book by one of my colleagues, here at … Continue reading

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