The human predicament : a candid guide to life's biggest questions / David Benatar.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Benatar, David, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Life.

Meaning (Philosophy).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xix, 264 pages)

Other Title:

Candid guide to life's biggest questions

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2017.

Summary:

'The Human Predicament' engages life's big questions. Are our lives meaningless? Is death bad? Would immortality be better? Alternatively, should we hasten our deaths by acts of suicide? Many people are tempted to offer comforting, optimistic answers to these existential questions. The text offers a less sanguine assessment and defends a substantial, but not unmitigated, pessimism.

Contents:

Preface

A reader's guide

1. Introduction (Life's big questions ; Pessimism and optimism ; The human predicament and the animal predicament ; To tell or not to tell?)

2. Meaning (Introduction ; Understanding the question ; The (somewhat) good news [Meaning sub specie hominis ; Meaning sub specie hominis communitatis ; Meaning sub specie humanitatis] ; Conclusion)

3. Meaninglessness (The bad news ; The theistic gambit ; Nature's 'purposes' ; Scarce value ; Discounting the cosmic perspective; Focusing on terrestrial meaning ; Sour grapes and varieties of meaning worth wanting ; Conclusion)

4. Quality (The meaning and quality of life ; Why people's judgment about the quality of their lives are unreliable ; The poor quality of human life ; Why is there more bad than good? ; Secular optimistic theodicies ; Conclusion).

5. Death (Introduction ; Is death bad? [Hedonism (and its discontents) ; The deprivation account ; Annihilation ; When is death bad for the person who dies? ; The symmetry argument ; Taking Epicureans seriously?] ; How bad are different deaths? ; Living in the shadow of death)

6. Immortality (Delusons and fanatsies of immortality ; Sour grapes ; Conclusion)

7. Suicide (Introduction ; Responding to common arguments against suicide [Suicide as murder ; Suicide as irrational ; Suicide as unnatural ; Suicide as cowardice ; Interests of others ; The finality of death] ; Broadening the case for suicide [A more accurate assessment of life's quality ; Does meaninglessness in life warrant suicide? ; Restoring an individual's control] ; Conclusion)

8. Conclusion (The human predicament in a nutshell ; Pessimism and optimism (again) ; Responding to the human predicament).

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2017.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed May 18, 2017).

ISBN:

0-19-063383-2

0-19-063384-0

0-19-063382-4