The Really Hard Problem: Meaning in a Material WorldA noted philosopher proposes a naturalistic (rather than supernaturalistic) way to solve the "really hard problem": how to live in a meaningful way—how to live a life that really matters—even as a finite material being living in a material world. If consciousness is "the hard problem" in mind science—explaining how the amazing private world of consciousness emerges from neuronal activity—then "the really hard problem," writes Owen Flanagan in this provocative book, is explaining how meaning is possible in the material world. How can we make sense of the magic and mystery of life naturalistically, without an appeal to the supernatural? How do we say truthful and enchanting things about being human if we accept the fact that we are finite material beings living in a material world, or, in Flanagan's description, short-lived pieces of organized cells and tissue? Flanagan's answer is both naturalistic and enchanting. We all wish to live in a meaningful way, to live a life that really matters, to flourish, to achieve eudaimonia—to be a "happy spirit." Flanagan calls his "empirical-normative" inquiry into the nature, causes, and conditions of human flourishing eudaimonics. Eudaimonics, systematic philosophical investigation that is continuous with science, is the naturalist's response to those who say that science has robbed the world of the meaning that fantastical, wishful stories once provided. Flanagan draws on philosophy, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and psychology, as well as on transformative mindfulness and self-cultivation practices that come from such nontheistic spiritual traditions as Buddhism, Confucianism, Aristotelianism, and Stoicism, in his quest. He gathers from these disciplines knowledge that will help us understand the nature, causes, and constituents of well-being and advance human flourishing. Eudaimonics can help us find out how to make a difference, how to contribute to the accumulation of good effects—how to live a meaningful life. |
From inside the book
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... find it necessary to widen the scope of disciplines involved in the inquiry to include not only all mind sciences and evolutionary biology but also Western and Eastern philosophy , political theory , the history of religion , and what ...
... find certain flavors bitter . The analogy breaks down because there are no brain buds — like taste buds — that are automatically set to find certain truths about our predicament depressing or disenchanting . So I say . We can adopt ...
... find meaning . Is neo - Darwinian mind science ( which includes , but is not exhausted by , evolutionary psychology ) a source of disharmony ? If so , why ? Are there ways to make the relations among what I call spaces of meaning more ...
... find dis-ease among the spaces of meaning involve more than just science and religion. I know artists who are not impressed by traditional religion (they are atheists) but who also find what they take to be the scientific picture ...
... find our way , and live meaningfully . Each member of a Goodman set is space of mean- ing . A Goodman set of spaces of meaning correctly characterized for some group is the Space of Meaning for that group . The Goodman set above of ...
Contents
1 | |
The Comparative Consensus | 37 |
Buddhism and Science | 63 |
4 Normative Mind Science? Psychology Neuroscience and the Good Life | 107 |
5 Neuroscience Happiness and Positive Illusions | 149 |
6 Spirituality Naturalized? A Strong Cat without Claws | 183 |
Notes | 221 |
Bibliography | 265 |
Index | 285 |