The Really Hard Problem: Meaning in a Material WorldIf 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. |
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... assertions about the natural world but that , through various techniques , immunize themselves from fal- sifiable tests . For the purposes of the present discussion , we ought to keep our eyes out for these two claims : 1. Mental ...
... assertions about such happenings . Life after death occurs in another world ( in the Abraha- mic religions , the " next world " ) . This might seem to give afterlife stories the same immunity as stories that creation stories have . But ...
... assertions were test- able , either confirmable or dis - confirmable , whereas the meaning of music , visual art , and literature was not testable , or better not testable in the same way , but none- theless meaningful . Others were ...
Contents
The Comparative | 37 |
Buddhism and Science | 63 |
Normative Mind Science? Psychology Neuroscience and the Good | 107 |
Copyright | |
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