The Good Cause Account of the Meaning of Life Aaron Smuts (Rhode Island College –
[email protected] – http://www.aaronsmuts.com) General Question: What makes a life meaningful? Not: What is the meaning of life? Thesis: One's life is meaningful to the extent that it promotes the good. Basic Intuitions BI1: Some lives are more meaningful than others: Abraham Lincoln vs. the grass counter. BI2: Lives devoted to hideous evil are worse than meaningless. They have anti-meaning: ex. Hitler. BI3: A life spent in the experience machine would be meaningless. Welfare and Meaning Welfare (aka well-being, prudential value) = what makes a life good for the one who lives it. Welfare != Meaning {crib test vs. death bed test} A1: Lives can be low in welfare, but high in meaning: ex. proverbial soldier in a foxhole; Achilles reentering the battle. A2: Lives can be plausibly high in welfare, but low in meaning: ex. blissfully happy Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, gangsters. A3: Experience machine: There are different degrees of uncertainty about levels of welfare and meaning. Subjectivist Theories Two notions of "subjective": S1: A subjective psychological state (e.g. "internal"). S2: A property is subjective if it is constitutively dependent on the reactions of observers. Taylor's Revised Sisyphus Myths: RSM1: Sisyphus builds a grand temple. RSM2: Sisyphus is given the desire to roll stones. Objections to Subjectivist Theories: OS1: The Experience Machine—Compare curing cancer inside and outside the machine. OS2: The Grinning Excrement Eater. OS3: It's a Wonderful Life (1946)—George discovers that his life was meaningful. Previously he was mistaken. Hybrid Theories Wolf's "Fitting Fulfillment View": Meaning arises when subjective attraction meets objective attractiveness. Virtues of Hybrid Theories: V1: Avoid the Experience Machine Objection. V2: Avoid the Excrement Eater Objection. Objections to Hybrid Theories: OH1: The Final Outcome Argument (Russell, Craig, Taylor). [Note: This objection fails.] OH2: It's a Wonderful Life – George's life was meaningful, yet not fulfilling. Objectivist Theories The Good Cause Account (GCA): one's life is meaningful to the extent that one promotes the good. Support: It's a Wonderful Life | fulfilling != meaningful Wielenberg's Alternative: Meaning comes from intrinsically valuable activities: ex. falling in love, teaching, creating. Objections to GCA O1: Sisyphus and the Vultures (Wolf, Meaning in Life and Why it Matters) O2: Potter's Impact on George R1: Failure of transitivity {If A causes B and B causes C, A causes C; counter-ex. Falling rock, jump, survival} R2: Distant causal chains {my parent's copulating my stubbing my toe this morning} O3: The Objection from Vicious Incompetence O4: The Objection from External Meaning (aka "The Pottersville Test") O5: The Objection from Eternal Repetition O6: The Objection from the Results Machine O7: The Lassie Objection O8: The Objection from Nihilism Marist College, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies – 9/27/2012 (6:30 pm, Henry Hudson Room)
