Life, Death, & Meaning
In Life, Death, and Meaning, David Benatar offers a distinctive collection of readings designed to introduce undergraduates and lay readers to the key existential questions of philosophy: Do our lives have meaning? Is death something to be feared? Would it be better to be immortal? Classic and contemporary essays consider such questions as the meaning of life, creating people, death, suicide, immortality, and optimism and pessimism. These key readings are supplemented with helpful...
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Do our lives have meaning? Should we create more people? Is death bad? Should we commit suicide? Would it be better if we were immortal? Should we be optimistic or pessimistic? Life, Death, and Meaning brings together key readings, primarily by English-speaking philosophers, on such _big questions._
PrefacexiIntroduction1Part IThe Meaning of Life171The Meaning of Life192The Absurd293'Nothing Matters'414Philosophy and the Meaning of Life495Philosophy and the Meaning of Life636The Meanings of Life91Suggestions for Further Reading on the Meaning of Life113Part IICreating People1157Whether Causing Someone to Exist Can Benefit This Person1178Why Not Let Life Become Extinct?1239On Becoming Extinct13510Why It Is Better Never to Come into Existence155Suggestions for Further Reading on Creating People169Part IIIDeath17111How to Be Dead and Not Care: A Defense of Epicurus17312The Misfortunes of the Dead18913Annihilation19914Some Puzzles About the Evil of Death22115Pre-Vital and Post-Mortem Non-Existence24116Why Death Is Not Bad for the One Who Died265Suggestions for Further Reading on Death285Part IVSuicide28717Of Suicide28918Suicide and Duty29719The Morality and Rationality of Suicide305Suggestions for Further Reading on Suicide319Part VImmortality32120Immortality: A Letter32321The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality33122Why Immortality Is Not So Bad349Suggestions for Further Reading on Immortality365Part VIOptimism and Pessimism36723Optimism36924The Consolations of Optimism38325On the Sufferings of the World393Suggestions for Further Reading on Optimism and Pessimism403Index405About the Contributors409
\ MetapsychologyFor laypersons, especially those struggling as undergraduates with annoying, seemingly irrelevant concepts made doubly obscure by crusty old philosophers, this collection of insightful, well-written essays will certainly be refreshing.\ \ \ \ \ Philosophical PapersThis book is far and away the best collection of essays in print to address analytic existentialism. In addition to coherently organized, excellent papers that address unique issues, the editor has provided introductory summaries of the papers, study questions about them, and suggestions for further reading.\ \
