Is Human Life Absurd? A Philosophical Inquiry into Finitude, Value, and Meaning

Raymond Angelo Belliotti is SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Philosophy Emeritus. He is the author of 20 books, including Justifying Law; Good Sex; What is the Meaning of Human Life?; Happiness is Overrated; Shakespeare and Philosophy; Dante’s Deadly Sins; and Machiavelli’s Secret.

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroduction1 Defining the Absurd1 Absurdity Within Classical Cinema1.1 Search for the Holy Grail (1975)1.2 The Seventh Seal (1957)1.3 The Big Lebowski (1998)2 Absurdity in Human Life3 Feinberg’s Analysis of Absurdity4 A Working Definition of Absurdity2 Relational Absurdity 1 Tolstoy’s Psychological Collapse and Redemption2 Camus and the Absurd2.1 A Stoic Precursor: Marcus Aurelius2.2 Sisyphus the Defiant Hero2.3 Sisyphus as Prince of Propinquity2.4 Has Camus Demonstrated that Human Life is Absurd?3 Kierkegaard, Religion, and the Absurd4 Sartre and the Absurd4.1 Defining Who We Are4.2 Are We Free?4.3 Emotions4.4 Has Sartre Demonstrated that Human Life is Absurd?5 The Relationship between the Absurd and the Meaningful6 The Contingent Nature of Absurdity3 Internal Absurdity1 Shakespeare and the Absurd2 The Cosmic Perspective and the Personal Perspective3 Schopenhauer’s Derivation of Absurdity from the Nature of Desire4 Nietzsche: Will to Power and Process Values4.1 Nihilism and Will to Power4.2 Grand Strivers and Pogo Sticks4.3 Suffering, Happiness, and Power4.4 Denying Pessimism, Striving Grandly, and Lingering Doubts5 Nagel and the Absurd Within5.1 The Absurd as an Objective Condition and as a Subjective Experience5.2 Is Nagel’s Absurd an Inevitable Part of the Human Condition?5.3 Everyday Absurdity and the Absurdity of an Entire Human Life5.4 What is the Proper Human Response to the Absurd?6 Combatting the Absurd6.1 Process and Inherent Values6.2 Can We Turn “Absurdity” into Practical Advantage?7 The Contingency of Absurdity4 Taylor’s Romance with Meaningful Living1 Taylor and the Absurd1.1 “The Meaning of Life” (1970)1.2 “The Meaning of Human Existence” (1981)1.3 “Time and Life’s Meaning” (1987)1.4 “The Meaning of Life” (1999)2 Reconstructing Taylor on Meaning in Life3 The Cosmic and Personal Perspectives, Again5 Interpreting a Meaningful Human Life1 Full and Attenuated Meaning2 The Fundamentality Theory2.1 The Intuitions in Play2.2 Reason and Meaning2.3 Posthumous Significance and Meaning in Life2.4 Purposive Theories of Meaning3 Why a Positive Visceral Response is Necessary for Meaning in Life4 Subjective Attraction Meets Objective Value5 An Analysis of a Minimally Meaningful Human LifeBibliographyAbout the AuthorIndex