What Makes Life Meaningful?: A Debate

The debate between Professors Thaddeus Metz and Joshua W. Seachris explores the concept of life's meaning, focusing on the role of God and the interconnected ideas of mattering, purpose, and sense-making. Metz argues that life can be meaningful through properties such as meriting pride, transcending animal self, making a contribution, and authoring a life-story, while Seachris suggests that God would enhance the meaningfulness of life on these three fronts. The book offers an accessible and scholarly conversation on the topic, suitable for students and scholars alike.

Format: Unspecified
Length: 252 pages
Publication date: 30 November 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Can human life be meaningful? What does talk about lifes meaning even mean? What is Gods role,if any,in a meaningful life? These three questions frame this one-of-a-kind debate between two philosophers who have spent most of their professional lives thinking and writing about the topic of lifes meaning. In this wide-ranging scholarly conversation,Professors Thaddeus Metz and Joshua W. Seachris develop and defend their own unique answers to these questions,while responding to each others objections in a lively dialog format. Seachris argues that the concept of lifes meaning largely revolves around three interconnected ideas—mattering,purpose,and sense-making; that a meaningful human life involves sufficiently manifesting all three; and that God would importantly enhance the meaningfulness of life on each of these three fronts. Metz instead holds that talk of lifes meaning is about a variety of properties such as meriting pride,transcending ones animal self,making a contribution,and authoring a life-story. For him,many lives are meaningful insofar as they exercise intelligence in positive,robust,and developmental ways. Finally,Metz argues that God is unnecessary for an objective meaning that suits human nature. Metz and Seachris develop and defend their own unique answers to these three questions,while responding to each others objections in a dialog format that is accessible to students though—given their new contributions—will be of great interest to scholars as well. Key Features Offers an up-to-date scholarly conversation on lifes meaning by two researchers at the forefront of research on the topic. Provides a wide-ranging,yet orderly discussion of the most important issues. Accessible for the student investigating the topic for the first t.

Can human life be meaningful? What does talk about lifes meaning even mean? What is Gods role,if any,in a meaningful life? These three questions frame this one-of-a-kind debate between two philosophers who have spent most of their professional lives thinking and writing about the topic of lifes meaning.

In this wide-ranging scholarly conversation, Professors Thaddeus Metz and Joshua W. Seachris develop and defend their own unique answers to these questions, while responding to each others objections in a lively dialog format.

Seachris argues that the concept of lifes meaning largely revolves around three interconnected ideas—mattering, purpose, and sense-making; that a meaningful human life involves sufficiently manifesting all three; and that God would importantly enhance the meaningfulness of life on each of these three fronts.

Metz instead holds that talk of lifes meaning is about a variety of properties such as meriting pride, transcending ones animal self, making a contribution, and authoring a life-story.

For him, many lives are meaningful insofar as they exercise intelligence in positive, robust, and developmental ways.

Finally, Metz argues that God is unnecessary for an objective meaning that suits human nature.

Metz and Seachris develop and defend their own unique answers to these three questions, while responding to each others objections in a dialog format that is accessible to students, though—given their new contributions—will be of great interest to scholars as well.

Key Features

Offers an up-to-date scholarly conversation on lifes meaning by two researchers at the forefront of research on the topic.

Provides a wide-ranging, yet orderly discussion of the most important issues.

Accessible for the student investigating the topic for the first time.

Weight: 660g
Dimension: 216 x 138 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032566061