Month: June 2015

Brian McLaren on parables

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Brian D. McLaren on Parables Why did Jesus speak in parables? Why was he subtle, indirect, and secretive? Because his message wasn’t merely aimed at conveying information. It sought to precipitate something more important: the spiritual transformation of the hearers. The form of a parable helps to shape a heart that is willing to enter […]

Wayne Booth on a complicated pronoun

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Wayne Booth on appealing to the authority of “WE” CON: Against the use of “WE” Something is wrong in these confident “we’s,” something worse than a mere stylistic tic. I am shocked at the confidence my younger self sometimes shows in reporting how “we” respond. Who are we, here? “We” flesh-and-blood readers are unpredictable, and […]

On The Meaning of Life and Narrative Identity Theory

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I won’t pretend this list is anywhere near approaching exhaustive, but for those with any interest in the philosophical study of the meaning of life (and narrative identity theory, a closely related pocket of inquiry, I’d submit), these readings can give you a decent introduction to the various questions, positions, and arguments in play, and what’s more valuable, the orientation you’d need to pursue this topic further yourself.

Anthologies

Monographs

  • Julian Baggini, What’s it all about? Philosophy and the Meaning of Life (Oxford UnivPr, 2007).
  • John Cottingham, On the Meaning of Life (Routledge, 2002).
  • John J. Davenport, Narrative Identity, Autonomy, and Mortality: From Frankfurt and MacIntyre to Kierkegaard (Routledge, 2012).
  • Terry Eagleton, The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford UnivPr, 2008).
  • Paul John Eakin, How our Lives Become Stories: Making Selves (Cornell UnivPr, 1999).
  • Peter Goldie, The Mess Inside: Narrative, Emotion and the Mind (Oxford UnivPr, 2012).
  • Garry L. Hagberg, Describing Ourselves: Wittgenstein and Autobiographical Consciousness (Oxford UnivPr, 2008).
  • Alan Jacobs, Looking Before and After: Testimony and the Christian Life (Eerdmans, 2008).
  • Dan MacAdams, The Stories We Live By (Guilford, 1997).
  • Todd May, A Significant Life: Human Meaning in a Silent Universe (UChicago Pr, 2015).
  • Thaddeus Metz, Meaning in Life (Oxford UnivPr, 2014).
  • Anthony Rudd, Self, Value, and Narrative: A Kierkegaardian Approach (Oxford UnivPr, 2012).
  • Marya Schechtman, The Constitution of Selves (Cornell UnivPr, 1996).
  • Susan Wolf, Meaning in Life and Why it Matters (Princeton UnivPr, 2010).

Chapters and Articles

  •  J. Bruner. “Life as Narrative.” Social Research 54/1 (1987): 11-32.
  • Daniel Dennett. “Why Everyone is a Novelist.” Times Literary Supplement (Sept 1988): 16-22.
  • A. C. Grayling. “The Meaning of Life.” In Thinking of Answers: Questions in the Philosophy of Everyday Life (Walker&Company, 2010), 325-328.
  • Gilbert Meilaender. “A Complete Life.” First Things (Jan 2012)
  • Stephen Mulhall. “Theology and Narrative: the Self, the Novel, the Bible.” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 69/1 (2011): 29-43.
  • Thomas Nagel. “The Meaning of Life.” In What Does it all Mean? A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy (Oxford UnivPr, 1987), ch. 10.
  • Robert Nozick. “Philosophy and the Meaning of Life.” In Philosophical Explanations (Belknap, 1983): 571-650.
  • Marya Schechtman. “The Narrative Self.” The Oxford Handbook of the Self (Oxford UnivPr, 2011), ch. 17.
  • Galen Strawson. “Against Narrativity.” Ratio 17/4 (2004): 428-52.
  • J. David Velleman. “The Self as Narrator.” In Self to Self: Selected Essays (Cambridge UnivPr, 2006), ch. 9.
  • Bernard Williams. “Life as Narrative.” European Journal of Philosophy 17/2 (2007): 305-314.

Alva Noe on Consciousness

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There’s an interesting conversation taking place at the interface between philosophy of mind and cognitive neuroscience. One of this conversation’s recurring talking points is the hypothesis of the “extended mind.” Some of the key concerns raised speak to whether the human mind is to be identified with the brain, whether the mind’s powers are analogous to the powers of computers, and what difference it might make to the philosophical and scientific study of the mind if greater consideration is paid to the mind’s character as “embodied, embedded, enacted, and extended.” Alva Noë is one proponent of “extended mind” research, and you can get some sense of the flavor of his contribution to the conversation in the following video.

More from Alva Noë:

For some further orienting to related discussions in Philosophy of Mind and Embodied Cognitive Science, consider the following for serviceable introductions: