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
Results 6-10 of 51
... conceived from the point of view of quantum physics . Could both pictures of the table be held in one's mind at once , or must we go back and forth between them as in a Gestalt illusion , alternating between the two images and never ...
... conceive as a man or a woman in a particular political community. (3) Relatedly, the historical record indicates a persistent human effort to locate excellent ways of being and living. Each age seeks and articulates norms and ideals ...
... conceiving . A convincing example of how our narratives are affected ( perhaps unconsciously ) by ways of speaking and thinking that emerge from abstract spaces of meaning can be found in Lolita , where Vladimir Nabokov expresses the ...
... conceive of their lives on Earth. A Goodman set is useful for locating—initially at an abstract level—the most salient spaces of meaning that make up the Space of Meaning for some social group. Correctly specifying the main spaces of ...
... conceived as dominated or constituted by a spiritual or religious view that provides some small ( albeit possibly false ) hope against their otherwise utterly hopeless lives.14 Such lives are objectively awful , although if we imagine ...
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 |