What's It All About?: Philosophy and the Meaning of Life PDF
Preview What's It All About?: Philosophy and the Meaning of Life
What’s It All About? Philosophy and the Meaning of Life Julian Baggini OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS What’s It All About? This page intentionally left blank What’s It All About? Philosophy and the Meaning of Life Julian Baggini 2005 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. 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 offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © by Julian Baggini 2004 First published in Great Britain by Granta Books 2004. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press 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, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Baggini, Julian. What’s it all about? : philosophy and the meaning of life / Julian Baggini. p. cm. ISBN-13: 978-0-19-530008-6 ISBN-10: 0-19-530008-4 1. Life. 2. Meaning (Philosophy) I. Title. BD431.B23 2005 128—dc22 2005006373 “The Flaw in Paganism” by Dorothy Parker, used by permission of Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd. Quotation from Man and Supermanby George Bernard Shaw, used by permission of The Society of Authors, on behalf of the Bernard Shaw Estate. “Moments of Pleasure” words and music by Kate Bush © 1993, reproduced by permission of Kate Bush trading as Noble & Brite, London WC2H 0QY. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Acknowledgements The two people who require thanking above all others are Lizzy Kremer and George Miller, without both of whom this book would not have seen the light of day, nor deserved to. I can’t bring myself to list the others I need to thank without pointing out a curious purpose the list of acknowledgements seems to have, especially in academic journals. Often it seems to be a means of signalling to the wider world how important and well connected the author is. There should always be at least two or three intellectual heavyweights in the list of people thanked, just to show the good company the author keeps. Let me just say, then, that this list does not describe my social circle, but simply lists those who have responded to requests for information or otherwise helped me out, in ways great or small. They are Nicholas Fearn, Mathew Iredale, Oliver James, Jonathan Rée, John Shand, Jeremy Stangroom and Galen Strawson. Thanks also to Sajidah Ahmad, Gillian Kemp, Lesley Levene, Alison and David Worthington and Louise Campbell. If I’ve left anyone out, I’m very sorry. I have a feeling my memory isn’t as good as it used to be, but to be honest, I can’t remember how good it used to be. This page intentionally left blank Contents Introduction 1 1 Looking for the blueprint 5 2 Living life forwards 23 3 More things in heaven and earth 40 4 Here to help 58 5 The greater good 72 6 As long as you’re happy 89 7 Becoming a contender 106 8 Carpe diem 124 9 Lose your self 140 10 The threat of meaninglessness 158 11 Of which reason knows nothing 174 Conclusion 185 Further reading and references 189 This page intentionally left blank What’s It All About?
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