Category: Meaning of Life
-
‘Pastime’
Whatever we are here for, we are not here to pass time. Our time is to be used and used well. You say it doesn't matter how we spend our time since nothing matters? That may or may not be so. But it matters which. If something does matter and you live as if nothing…
-
What’s It All About?
The question makes sense. Variant: What's it all mean? Ron Crumb's Mr. Natural has an answer for you: The answer illustrates the use of' 'shit' as a quantifier, an 'urban quantifier' if you will. This predicament we are in — call it life — doesn't mean anything. The 'urban' use of 'shit' is an interesting…
-
Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, and the Will to Believe
My friend, I continue to read and reread your Heaven and Hell essay, especially the "Concluding Existential-Practical Postscript". Psalm 23. "The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not…." Let us pray that there is a Good Shepherd who cares deeply about his flock and will do things to relieve their suffering. Can we come…
-
The Universe Groks Itself and the Aporetics of Artificial Intelligence
I will cite a couple of articles for you to ponder. Malcolm Pollack sends us to one in which scientists find their need for meaning satisfied by their cosmological inquiries. Subtitle: “The stars made our minds, and now our minds look back.” The idea is that in the 14 billion years since the Big Bang,…
-
Worldly Success and Spiritual Growth
Worldly success can easily ensnare, and most will fall into the trap. But for some, worldly success has the opposite effect: it reveals the vanity, the emptiness, of worldly success, and thus subserves spiritual advance. One is therefore well-advised to strive for a modicum of success as defined in the worldly terms of property and…
-
Michael Walzer on Religion
At least one lefty gets it, somewhat. Top o' the Stack.
-
A Love of Life Inordinate and Idolatrous?
The case of Susan Sontag. Top o' the Stack.
-
The Greatest Temptation
Resist it.
-
A Love of Life Inordinate and Idolatrous?
Dying of cancer, Susan Sontag raged against the dying of the light, hoping for a cure. "If only my mother hadn't hoped so much." (David Rieff, Swimming in a Sea of Death, Simon and Shuster, 2008, 139.) Hers was a false hope, one fueled by an inordinate and idolatrous love of life: ". . .…
-
Anti-Natalism Article of Mine Now in Print and Online
Vallicella, William F.. "Is the Quality of Life Objectively Evaluable on Naturalism?" Perichoresis, vol.21, no.1, 2023, pp.70-83. https://doi.org/10.2478/perc-2023-0005 Abstract This article examines one of the sources of David Benatar’s anti-natalism. This is the view that ‘all procreation is [morally] wrong.’ (Benatar and Wasserman, 2015:12) One of its sources is the claim that each of our…
-
The Question of the Meaning of Life
A Substack upload that clarifies the question.
-
A Minor Correction Anent ‘Absurd’ with a Little Help from Mark Rothko
In a Substack entry I distinguished four senses of 'absurd,' the logico-mathematical, the semantic, the existential, and the ordinary. About the existential sense I had this to say: 3) Existential. The absurd as the existentially meaningless, the groundless, the brute-factual, the intrinsically unintelligible. The absurdity of existence in this sense of 'absurd' is what elicited Jean-Paul Sartre's…
-
First Thought of the Day
Life is a task; the world is a proving ground. First thought, best thought.
-
Sunday Morning Sermon: A Life Well Lived
To make good use of your time in this world, think of your life above all as a quest, a seeking, a searching, a striving. For what? For the ultimate in reality, truth, value, and for their existential appropriation. One appropriates reality by being authentic, truth by being truthful, values and norms by living…
-
The View from Mount Zappfe
Substack latest.