What Do We Mean When We Talk about Meaning? PDF
Preview What Do We Mean When We Talk about Meaning?
What Do We Mean When We Talk About Meaning? What Do We Mean When We Talk About Meaning? STEVEN CASSEDY 1 3 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. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America. © Oxford University Press 2022 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, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries 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 work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data Names: Cassedy, Steven, author. Title: What do we mean when we talk about meaning? / Steven Cassedy. Description: New York, NY, United States of America : Oxford University Press, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021045022 (print) | LCCN 2021045023 (ebook) | ISBN 9780190936907 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190936914 | ISBN 9780190936921 (epub) | ISBN 9780190936938 Subjects: LCSH: Meaning (Philosophy) | Meaning (Philosophy)—Religious aspects—Christianity. Classification: LCC B105.M 4 C38 2022 (print) | LCC B105.M 4 (ebook) | DDC 121/.68—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021045022 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021045023 DOI: 10.1093/ oso/ 9780190936907.001.0001 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America For Patrice, Mike, Meghan, Liam, Isaac, Eva, Peter, and Sophia, who fill me with love, pride, and awe Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction: This Ambiguous, Ubiquitous Word 1 1. The Ancient World Got Along Without It Until the Rise of Christianity 11 2. Christianity, Scripture, and “Reading” the World, from Augustine to Bishop Berkeley 24 3. Idealism and Romanticism: From the Language of Nature to the Meaning of Life (or the World) 43 4. Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson Bring the “Mystery of Existence” and the “Sense of Life” to the English- Speaking World 74 5. Two Russian Titans Weigh In 94 6. Paul Tillich: Bridge to the Twentieth Century and the “Age of Anxiety” 119 7. Meaning in the Age of Anxiety and Well Beyond 130 8. Meaning Goes Clinical, Therapeutic, and Popular 141 9. Meaning Bridges the Secular and the Sacred 163 Conclusion: The Marvel of Meaning 183 Notes 187 Index 205 Acknowledgments Thanks to Patrice, the love of my life, for her invaluable help. Thanks to Theo Calderara, my editor at Oxford University Press, for his help, from the moment I first inquired about my project to its publication. Thanks also (in no particular order) to Richard Elliott Friedman, University of Georgia; the late David Goodblatt, olev ha- sholem, UC San Diego; Tim Cassedy, Southern Methodist University; James Tartaglia, Keele University; Emily Esfahani Smith, Washington DC; William Breitbart, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NY; William Fitzgerald, King’s College London; Julia Mebane, Indiana University; Anthony T. Edwards, UC San Diego; Robert Cancel, UC San Diego; Donna Cancel, San Diego; William Propp, UC San Diego; Richard Spinello, Boston College; Mark Massa, Boston College; Liam Bergin, Boston College; Christian Danz, Vienna University; Todd Kontje, UC San Diego; William Arctander O’Brien, UC San Diego; Anthony Grafton, Princeton University; Eric Watkins, UC San Diego; Clinton Tolley, UC San Diego; Anders Engberg-P edersen, University of Southern Denmark; Robert H. Abzug, University of Texas, Austin; Alastair Hannay, University of Oslo, Norway; Andrew Finstuen, Boise State University; Rabbi Simon Jacobson, Meaningful Life Center, Brooklyn, NY; Seth Lerer, UC San Diego; Stephen D. Cox, “The Other” (Steve), UC San Diego; Alexandra Popoff, Canada; Inessa Medzhibovskaya, New School, NYC; Beth Holmgren, Duke University; Irina Paperno, UC Berkeley; Alain J.-J . Cohen, UC San Diego; Barbara L. Fredrickson, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Alexander Batthyány, International Academy for Philosophy, Principality of Liechtenstein; Timothy Pytell, California State University, San Bernardino; Robert P. Ebert, Princeton University; Christoph Fehige, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany; Edward Mendelson, Columbia University; Gordon Marino, St. Olaf College; Rabbi Ed Feinstein, Valley Beth Shalom, Encino, CA; Daniel Gardner, MD, San Diego; Matthew Zetumer, MD, San Diego; Henry E. Allison, Boston University; Page duBois, UC San Diego; Alan Jacobs, Baylor University; Martin Leiner, Friedrich- Schiller- Universität Jena, Germany; Eric Brandt, University of Virginia Press.
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