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do things because they contribute to meaning in life is “one thought too many.” Jonathan Haidt argues that psychology helps illuminate two elements that are key to the achievement of meaning-fulness in human life. One is the idea of vital engagement, which is characterized by experiences of “flow,” defined as
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Jun 2, 2022 · Wolf makes a compelling case that, along with happiness and morality, this kind of meaningfulness constitutes a distinctive dimension of a good life. Full of provocative examples, Meaning in Life and Why It Matters is a reflection on a subject of permanent human concern."--Jacket Includes bibliographical references and index
When the word “meaningful” is used in characterizing a life (or in character-izing what is missing from a life), it calls something to mind, but it is not clear what, nor is it clear that it calls or is meant to call the same thing to mind in all contexts.
Meaning is commonly associated with a kind of depth, and the felt need for meaning is often connected to the worry that one’s life is empty or shallow. An interest in meaning is also frequently associated with thoughts one might have on one’s deathbed.
- Susan Wolf
Given that searching for meaning is an instinctual human motivation, it is important that research investigate whether it does share positive relations with well-being under certain conditions, and whether these relationships are evidenced longitudinally too.
Researchers seem to have two main ways to understand what meaning in life means: coherence and pur-pose, with a third way, signi cance, gaining increasing attention. Coherence means a sense of comprehensibility and fi one’s life making sense. Purpose means a sense of core goals, aims, and direction in life.
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propositions could be said to have meaning, but not objects or events in the world, like the lives of trees, or lobsters, or humans. So the very idea that philosophy could inquire into the meaning of life was taken as a sign of conceptual confu-sion. The solution to the problem, as Ludwig Wittgenstein once remarked, would lie in its ...
