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. |
From inside the book
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... meaning and sense of things , including ourselves . 11 Each space contains information about possibilities for self ... spaces of meaning contribute to the constitution of our worlds . A world , or the multiplicity of worlds , in the ...
... spaces are getting attention or having an impact ( perhaps short - lived ) ... Meaning for twelfth - century Europeans would not include science at all ... spaces that we make sense of things , orient our lives , find our way , and live ...
... spaces of meaning there are . Whatever the spaces of meaning that make up some Space of Meaning are , they are the only locations available in which to locate meaning . Thus , if meaning is to be located , it will be in that Space or ...
Contents
The Comparative | 37 |
Buddhism and Science | 63 |
Normative Mind Science? Psychology Neuroscience and the Good | 107 |
Copyright | |
5 other sections not shown