Books by Joshua Seachris
What does talk about life’s meaning even mean? Can human life be meaningful? What is God’s role, ... more What does talk about life’s meaning even mean? Can human life be meaningful? What is God’s role, if any, in a meaningful life? These three questions frame this one-of-a-kind debate between two philosophers who have spent most of their professional lives thinking and writing about the topic of life’s meaning.
In this wide-ranging scholarly conversation, Professors Thaddeus Metz and Joshua Seachris develop and defend their own unique answers to these questions, while responding to each other’s objections in a lively dialogue format geared primarily toward the scholar, but made accessible to the student.
Seachris argues that the concept of life’s meaning largely revolves around three interconnected ideas—mattering, purpose, and sense-making, that a meaningful human life involves sufficiently manifesting all three, and that God would importantly enhance the meaningfulness of life on each of these three fronts.
Metz instead holds that talk of life’s meaning is about a variety of properties such as meriting pride, transcending one’s animal self, making a contribution, and authoring a life-story. For him, many lives are meaningful insofar as they exercise intelligence in positive, robust, and developmental ways. Finally, Metz argues that God is unnecessary for an objective meaning that suits human nature.
Much more than just an anthology, this survey of humanity's search for the meaning of life includ... more Much more than just an anthology, this survey of humanity's search for the meaning of life includes the latest contributions to the debate, a judicious selection of key canonical essays, and insightful commentary by internationally respected philosophers.
Cutting-edge viewpoint features the most recent contributions to the debate
Extensive general introduction offers unprecedented context
Leading contemporary philosophers provide insightful introductions to each section
Papers by Joshua Seachris
Human Affairs, 2019
Claims that talk of life’s meaning is unmanageable, misguided, or, worse, nonsensical, are overbl... more Claims that talk of life’s meaning is unmanageable, misguided, or, worse, nonsensical, are overblown. Such charges particularly target the traditional formulation of the question, “What is the meaning of life?” This question is intelligible, however, and receives illumination through what I call the meaning triad. One component of this triad—I-MEANING—provides especially important conceptual resources for understanding the question as requesting a single thing (in contrast to amalgam and pluralist views). I will investigate the meaning triad with special focus on I-MEANING en route to defending meaning holism.
Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion
In this entry, we survey key discussions on the role of narrative in theology and philosophy of r... more In this entry, we survey key discussions on the role of narrative in theology and philosophy of religion. We begin with epistemological questions about whether and how narrative offers genuine understanding of reality. We explore how narrative intersects with the problems of evil and divine hiddenness. We discuss narrative's role in theological reflection and practice in general, and in black and feminist theologies specifically. We close by briefly exploring the role of narrative in theorization about life's meaning.
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The Meaning of Life and the Great Philosophers, 2018
While ancient Greek philosophers were often engaged in highly theoretical and abstract pursuits s... more While ancient Greek philosophers were often engaged in highly theoretical and abstract pursuits such as understanding the nature of being or the metaphysical foundation of goodness, Confucius was preoccupied with the ethical transformation of people, and restoring the values that he believed were the linchpins of a healthy and well-ordered society; his teachings bear a deeply practical orientation.
Ethical Theory and Moral Practice
It is a common pessimistic worry among both philosophers and non-philosophers that our lives, vie... more It is a common pessimistic worry among both philosophers and non-philosophers that our lives, viewed sub specie aeternitatis, are meaningless given that they make neither a noticeable nor lasting impact from this vast, cosmic perspective. The preferred solution for escaping this kind of pessimism is to adopt a different measure by which to evaluate life’s meaningfulness. One of two primary routes is often taken here. First, one can retreat back to the sub specie humanitatis perspective, and argue that life is meaningful only when viewed within the local context of human values, cares, and concerns. Or, second, one can distinguish between perspectives and standards for meaningfulness, arguing that the latter are independent of the former and are the most appropriate means by which evaluations of life’s meaningfulness are made. Importantly, none of these issues can be sufficiently addressed without first answering a prior question, and one that is surprisingly under-addressed in the literature: What is the sub specie aeternitatis perspective? Unfortunately, many philosophers who employ this perspective do so without carefully defining or clarifying it, or, if they do clarify what it means, they only note its time and spatial components. I will argue that, in addition to these components, this perspective includes something like a modal component (following Thomas Nagel), and an ontologicalNormative component. I will then apply this more nuanced understanding of the sub specie aeternitatis perspective to the question of whether perspectives can be distinguished from standards for meaningfulness.
New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2012-2013: Ethics and Philosophy, 2013
many others.
Religious Studies, Jan 1, 2006
Death and futility are among a cluster of themes that closely track discussions of life's meaning... more Death and futility are among a cluster of themes that closely track discussions of life's meaning. Moreover, futility is thought to supervene on naturalistic meta-narratives because of how they will end. While the nature of naturalistic meta-narrative endings is part of the explanation for concluding that such meta-narratives are cosmically or deeply futile, this explanation is truncated. I argue that the reason the nature of the ending is thought to be normatively important is first anchored in the fact that narrative ending qua ending is thought to be normatively important. Indeed, I think futility is often thought to characterize naturalistic meta-narratives because a narrative's ending has significant proleptic power to elicit a wide range of broadly normative human responses on, possibly, emotional, aesthetic, and moral levels towards the narrative as a whole.
Philo
Even if the question, “What is the meaning of life?” is coherent, the fact remains that it is vag... more Even if the question, “What is the meaning of life?” is coherent, the fact remains that it is vague. Its vagueness largely centers on the use of the term “meaning.” The most prevalent strategy for addressing this vagueness is to discard the word “meaning” and reformulate the question entirely into questions such as, “What is the purpose of life?” or “What makes life valuable?” among others. This approach has philosophical merit but does not account for the intuitions and sub-questions driving the original question as plausibly as does an interpretation that I call the narrative interpretation. I will argue that the question, “What is the meaning of life?” should be understood as the request for a narrative that narrates across those elements and accompanying questions of life of greatest existential import to human beings.
Asian Philosophy, Jan 1, 2008
A striking feature of Confucius' grief at the death of his beloved disciple Yan Hui is its profou... more A striking feature of Confucius' grief at the death of his beloved disciple Yan Hui is its profound intensity, an intensity detectable nowhere else in the Analects. Like his disciples, the reader of the Analects may be puzzled by the depth of Confucius' grief in this instance. In distinct accounts, Philip Ivanhoe and Amy Olberding bring some measure of intelligibility to the Master's grief. While partially plausible, I think their offerings on the matter fall short of being fully satisfying. Specifically, I argue that Olberding's proposal that Confucius loses certain developmental avenues after Hui's death should be augmented with the claim that the great depth of his grief largely follows from the importance of Confucius' expression of virtue in the lives of his disciples. It was Yan Hui who best facilitated his Master's expression of virtue, and with Hui's passing, Confucius loses an avenue to a robust expression of virtue, a loss he laments deeply.
International Journal for Philosophy of Religion
It is often argued that the great quantity of evil in our world makes God’s existence less likely... more It is often argued that the great quantity of evil in our world makes God’s existence less likely than a lesser quantity would, and this, presumably, because the probability that some evils are gratuitous increases as the overall quantity of evil increases. Often, an additive approach to quantifying evil is employed in such arguments. In this paper, we examine C. S. Lewis’ objection to the additive approach, arguing that although he is correct to reject this approach, there is a sense in which he underestimates the quantity of pain. However, the quantity of pain in that sense does not significantly increase the probability that some pain is gratuitous. Therefore, the quantitative argument likely fails.
What is this thing called the meaning of life?
Book Reviews by Joshua Seachris
Notre Dame Philosophical Review, 2016
In this ground-breaking, far-reaching, and carefully-argued book, Tim Mulgan puts a previously un... more In this ground-breaking, far-reaching, and carefully-argued book, Tim Mulgan puts a previously underdeveloped view on a conceptual-dialectical map largely dominated by theism and naturalism. This view he calls "ananthropocentric purposivism" (AP). AP is the view that, contra atheism, the universe has a purpose, but, contra benevolent theism (BT), that purpose is non-human-centered. Put simply, there is a cosmic purpose, but humans are irrelevant to that purpose. Mulgan contends that we live in a religiously ambiguous universe where the available evidence reasonably can be understood in profoundly different ways by humans (hence, the presence of both theistic and atheistic interpretations of the world). He claims that a more careful look at that evidence should prompt us to take AP seriously, and may even tip the scales in favor of AP over both BT and atheism. In Purpose in the Universe he takes this more careful look.
Faith and Philosophy, 2014
In The Purpose of Life: A Theistic Perspective, Stewart Goetz contributes to the expanding discus... more In The Purpose of Life: A Theistic Perspective, Stewart Goetz contributes to the expanding discussion within analytic philosophy on life's meaning. Regrettably, for the better part of the last century analytic philosophers devoted next to no attention to a topic at the heart of the human condition-the meaning of life. However, recent momentum in the other direction is encouraging, and Goetz's new book adds energy to this young, yet developing body of research.
Media by Joshua Seachris
In this short interview, Joshua Seachris, Program Director for the Center for Philosophy of Relig... more In this short interview, Joshua Seachris, Program Director for the Center for Philosophy of Religion and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, discusses the question, "What is the meaning of life?"
Uploads
Books by Joshua Seachris
In this wide-ranging scholarly conversation, Professors Thaddeus Metz and Joshua Seachris develop and defend their own unique answers to these questions, while responding to each other’s objections in a lively dialogue format geared primarily toward the scholar, but made accessible to the student.
Seachris argues that the concept of life’s meaning largely revolves around three interconnected ideas—mattering, purpose, and sense-making, that a meaningful human life involves sufficiently manifesting all three, and that God would importantly enhance the meaningfulness of life on each of these three fronts.
Metz instead holds that talk of life’s meaning is about a variety of properties such as meriting pride, transcending one’s animal self, making a contribution, and authoring a life-story. For him, many lives are meaningful insofar as they exercise intelligence in positive, robust, and developmental ways. Finally, Metz argues that God is unnecessary for an objective meaning that suits human nature.
Cutting-edge viewpoint features the most recent contributions to the debate
Extensive general introduction offers unprecedented context
Leading contemporary philosophers provide insightful introductions to each section
Papers by Joshua Seachris
Book Reviews by Joshua Seachris
Media by Joshua Seachris
In this wide-ranging scholarly conversation, Professors Thaddeus Metz and Joshua Seachris develop and defend their own unique answers to these questions, while responding to each other’s objections in a lively dialogue format geared primarily toward the scholar, but made accessible to the student.
Seachris argues that the concept of life’s meaning largely revolves around three interconnected ideas—mattering, purpose, and sense-making, that a meaningful human life involves sufficiently manifesting all three, and that God would importantly enhance the meaningfulness of life on each of these three fronts.
Metz instead holds that talk of life’s meaning is about a variety of properties such as meriting pride, transcending one’s animal self, making a contribution, and authoring a life-story. For him, many lives are meaningful insofar as they exercise intelligence in positive, robust, and developmental ways. Finally, Metz argues that God is unnecessary for an objective meaning that suits human nature.
Cutting-edge viewpoint features the most recent contributions to the debate
Extensive general introduction offers unprecedented context
Leading contemporary philosophers provide insightful introductions to each section