Nothingness and the meaning of life : philosophical approaches to ultimate meaning through nothing and reflexivity / Nicholas Waghorn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Waghorn, Nicholas, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Life.-.

Meaning (Philosophy).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (313 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : Bloomsbury, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"What is the meaning of life? Does anything really matter? In the past few decades these questions, perennially associated with philosophy in the popular consciousness, have rightly retaken their place as central topics in the academy. In this major contribution, Nicholas Waghorn provides a sustained and rigorous elucidation of what it would take for lives to have significance. Bracketing issues about ways our lives could have more or less meaning, the focus is rather on the idea of ultimate meaning, the issue of whether a life can attain meaning that cannot be called into question. Waghorn sheds light on this most fundamental of existential problems through a detailed yet comprehensive examination of the notion of nothing, embracing classic and cutting-edge literature from both the analytic and Continental traditions. Central figures such as Heidegger, Carnap, Wittgenstein, Nozick and Nagel are drawn upon to anchor the discussion in some of the most influential discussion of recent philosophical history. In the process of relating our ideas concerning nothing to the problem of life's meaning, Waghorn's book touches upon a number of fundamental themes, including reflexivity and its relation to our conceptual limits, whether religion has any role to play in the question of life's meaning, and the nature and constraints of philosophical methodology. A number of major philosophical traditions are addressed, including phenomenology, poststructuralism, and classical and paraconsistent logics. In addition to providing the most thorough current discussion of ultimate meaning, it will serve to introduce readers to philosophical debates concerning the notion of nothing, and the appendix engaging religion will be of value to both philosophers and theologians."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

Contents:

Introduction: A Crisis in Meaning

Part I: Getting Us Nowhere - the Geography of Nothingness 1. Heidegger and the Evolution of das Nichts ; 2. Strange Bedfellows: Carnap and Derrida's Critiques of the Heideggerian Nothing

Part II: Think Nothing of It - the Conceptuality of Nothingness. 3. Nothing Under the Microscope ; 4. To Be AND Not to Be

Is that the Answer? ; 5. Feeling Nothing: Is the Affective Effective? ; 6. Arguing

Avoid!

Part III: Nothing To Do With Me: the Application of Nothingness. 7. The Quest for Meaning

8. Divine Inspiration? On Religion as a Source of Meaning

Concluding Speculations

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781472529855

1472529855

9781472594334

1472594339

9781472534569

1472534565

OCLC:

1197816028