Is philosophy all about the meaning of life?

Tartaglia

Abstract

This article defends a conception of philosophy popular outside the discipline but unpopular within it: that philosophy is unified by a concern with the meaning of life. First, it argues against exceptionalist theses according to which philosophy is unique among academic disciplines in not being united by a distinctive subject matter. It then presents a positive account, showing that the issue of the meaning of life is uniquely able to reveal unity between the practical and theoretical concerns of philosophy, while meeting a range of desiderata for a typical specification of subject matter. After showing how recent analytic work on “the meaning of life” has conflated the traditional question with issues of social meaningfulness, it offers an explanation of why the traditional question has become marginalised in philosophy. The reasons are not good, however, so it concludes that philosophy should embrace its popular image.

Citation

Tartaglia. (2016). Is philosophy all about the meaning of life?. Metaphilosophy, 283-303. https://doi.org/10.1111/meta.12176

• Acceptance Date: Dec 14, 2015
• Publication Date: Apr 8, 2016
• Journal: Metaphilosophy
• Print ISSN: 0026-1068
• Publisher: Wiley
• Pages: 283-303
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/meta.12176
• Keywords: metaphilosophy; meaning of life; philosophy of philosophy; subject matter of philosophy
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/meta.12176