Academic Edgelords EP13: What if There’s No Meaning to Life? (On Benatar’s The Human Predicament)
This week we ask probably the most commonly uttered philosophical question: is there a meaning to life? To help us approach an answer, we read the first few chapters of philosopher David Benatar’s The Human Predicament.
Benatar’s answer is as edgy as it gets. No, there’s no meaning to life, and no matter how much we try to soothe ourselves, this is a terrible state of affairs. Though Benatar is a pessimist, he admits that human lives can have social or personal meaning, but on a cosmic scale we are totally insignificant.
On this episode, we debate whether Benatar’s idea of “cosmic meaning” even makes sense. We also consider the way our own personal upbringings might influence the way we take up this question.
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