Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction PDF
Preview Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction
The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction ‘warm intellectual pleasure ... meticulous treatment of the subject. ... It looks like Eagleton got it right.’ Mario Pisani, The Financial Times ‘A charming personal voyage round himself, I can only say it left me thoroughly surprised – and delighted.’ Simon Jenkins, Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year ‘The name Terry Eagleton ... assures us of stimulation, style, sparkling, sometimes acerbic, wit, and wide-ranging erudition. In other words he is eminently readable ... [a] commendably pocket-sized book.’ Gordon Parsons, Morning Star ‘The book’s a little gem’ Suzanne Harrington, Irish Examiner ‘It is a stimulating and often entertaining … Cook’s tour around the chief monuments of western philosophy and literature … The Meaning of Life is unusual and refreshing.’ John Gray, The Independent ‘A lively starting point for late-night debate’ John Cornwell, The Sunday Times VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide. The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology. Very Short Introductions available now: AFRICAN HISTORY CHAOS Leonard Smith John Parker and Richard Rathbone CHOICE THEORY Michael Allingham AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson AND ELECTIONS L. Sandy Maisel CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead THE AMERICAN CLASSICS PRESIDENCY Charles O. Jones Mary Beard and John Henderson ANARCHISM Colin Ward CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw Helen Morales ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Julia Annas CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard ANCIENT WARFARE THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon Harry Sidebottom CONSCIOUSNESS Susan Blackmore ANGLICANISM Mark Chapman CONTEMPORARY ART THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE John Blair Julian Stallabrass ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY ANTISEMITISM Steven Beller Simon Critchley ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn COSMOLOGY Peter Coles ARCHITECTURE Andrew Ballantyne THE CRUSADES Christopher Tyerman ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes CRYPTOGRAPHY ART HISTORY Dana Arnold Fred Piper and Sean Murphy ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland DADA AND SURREALISM THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY David Hopkins Michael Hoskin DARWIN Jonathan Howard ATHEISM Julian Baggini THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS Timothy Lim AUGUSTINE Henry Chadwick DEMOCRACY Bernard Crick BARTHES Jonathan Culler DESCARTES Tom Sorell BESTSELLERS John Sutherland DESIGN John Heskett THE BIBLE John Riches DINOSAURS David Norman THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea DOCUMENTARY FILM BRITISH POLITICS Anthony Wright Patricia Aufderheide BUDDHA Michael Carrithers DREAMING J. Allan Hobson BUDDHISM Damien Keown DRUGS Leslie Iversen BUDDHIST ETHICS Damien Keown THE EARTH Martin Redfern CAPITALISM James Fulcher ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe EGYPTIAN MYTH Geraldine Pinch EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS BRITAIN Paul Langford Paul Wilkinson THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball ISLAM Malise Ruthven EMOTION Dylan Evans JOURNALISM Ian Hargreaves EMPIRE Stephen Howe JUDAISM Norman Solomon ENGELS Terrell Carver JUNG Anthony Stevens ETHICS Simon Blackburn KABBALAH Joseph Dan THE EUROPEAN UNION KAFKA Ritchie Robertson John Pinder and Simon Usherwood KANT Roger Scruton EVOLUTION KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner Brian and Deborah Charlesworth THE KORAN Michael Cook EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn LAW Raymond Wacks FASCISM Kevin Passmore LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews FEMINISM Margaret Walters LITERARY THEORY Jonathan Culler THE FIRST WORLD WAR LOCKE John Dunn Michael Howard LOGIC Graham Priest FOSSILS Keith Thomson MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner FOUCAULT Gary Gutting THE MARQUIS DE SADE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION John Phillips William Doyle MARX Peter Singer FREE WILL Thomas Pink MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers FREUD Anthony Storr THE MEANING OF LIFE FUNDAMENTALISM Malise Ruthven Terry Eagleton GALAXIES John Gribbin MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope GALILEO Stillman Drake MEDIEVAL BRITAIN GAME THEORY Ken Binmore John Gillingham and GANDHI Bhikhu Parekh Ralph A. Griffiths GEOPOLITICS Klaus Dodds MODERN ART David Cottington GERMAN LITERATURE Nicholas Boyle MODERN CHINA Rana Mitter GLOBAL CATASTROPHES Bill McGuire MODERN IRELAND Senia Pašeta GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger MOLECULES Philip Ball GLOBAL WARMING Mark Maslin MORMONISM THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND Richard Lyman Bushman THE NEW DEAL Eric Rauchway MUSIC Nicholas Cook HABERMAS James Gordon Finlayson MYTH Robert A. Segal HEGEL Peter Singer NATIONALISM Steven Grosby HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood THE NEW TESTAMENT AS HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson LITERATURE Kyle Keefer HINDUISM Kim Knott NEWTON Robert Iliffe HISTORY John H. Arnold NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner HIV/AIDS Alan Whiteside NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN HOBBES Richard Tuck Christopher Harvie and HUMAN EVOLUTION Bernard Wood H. C. G. Matthew HUMAN RIGHTS Andrew Clapham NORTHERN IRELAND HUME A. J. Ayer Marc Mulholland IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden NUCLEAR WEAPONS INDIAN PHILOSOPHY Sue Hamilton Joseph M. Siracusa INTELLIGENCE Ian J. Deary THE OLD TESTAMENT INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION Michael D. Coogan Khalid Koser PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close PAUL E. P. Sanders RUSSIAN LITERATURE Catriona Kelly PHILOSOPHY Edward Craig THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION PHILOSOPHY OF LAW S. A. Smith Raymond Wacks SCHIZOPHRENIA PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone Samir Okasha SCHOPENHAUER Christopher Janaway PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards SEXUALITY Véronique Mottier PLATO Julia Annas SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer POLITICS Kenneth Minogue SIKHISM Eleanor Nesbitt POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY David Miller SOCIAL AND CULTURAL POSTCOLONIALISM Robert Young ANTHROPOLOGY POSTMODERNISM Christopher Butler John Monaghan and Peter Just POSTSTRUCTURALISM SOCIALISM Michael Newman Catherine Belsey SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce PREHISTORY Chris Gosden SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR Catherine Osborne Helen Graham PSYCHOLOGY SPINOZA Roger Scruton Gillian Butler and Freda McManus STUART BRITAIN John Morrill PSYCHIATRY Tom Burns TERRORISM Charles Townshend THE QUAKERS Pink Dandelion THEOLOGY David F. Ford QUANTUM THEORY THE HISTORY OF TIME John Polkinghorne Leofranc Holford-Strevens RACISM Ali Rattansi TRAGEDY Adrian Poole THE RENAISSANCE Jerry Brotton THE TUDORS John Guy RENAISSANCE ART TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITAIN Geraldine A. Johnson Kenneth O. Morgan ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway THE VIKINGS Julian Richards THE ROMAN EMPIRE WITTGENSTEIN A. C. Grayling Christopher Kelly WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler THE WORLD TRADE RUSSELL A. C. Grayling ORGANIZATION Amrita Narlikar Available soon: 1066 George Garnett NELSON MANDELA EXPRESSIONISM Katerina Reed-Tsocha Elleke Boehmer GEOGRAPHY John A. Matthews and SCIENCE AND RELIGION David T. Herbert Thomas Dixon HISTORY OF LIFE Michael Benton THE UNITED NATIONS HISTORY OF MEDICINE Jussi M. Hanhimäki William Bynum THE VIETNAM WAR MEMORY Jonathan Foster Mark Atwood Lawrence For more information visit our websites www.oup.com/uk/vsi www.oup.com/us Terry Eagleton The meaning of life A Very Short Introduction 1 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York Terry Eagleton 2007 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published in hardback 2007 First published as a Very Short Introduction 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Eagleton, Terry, 1943– The meaning of life: a very short introduction / Terry Eagleton. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN-13: 978–0–19–953217–9 1. Life. 2. Meaning (Philosophy) I. Title. BD431.E14 2008 128–dc22 2007051203 ISBN 978–0–19–953217–9 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport, Hampshire For Oliver, who found the whole idea deeply embarrassing This page intentionally left blank Contents List of illustrations xi Preface xiii 1 Questions and answers 1 2 The problem of meaning 33 3 The eclipse of meaning 56 4 Is life what you make it? 78 Further reading 102 Index 106
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