#565 Iddo Landau: Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World
RECORDED ON AUGUST 16th 2021.
Dr. Iddo Landau is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Haifa. He has written extensively on the meaning of life. He is the author of Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World.
In this episode, we focus on Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World. We start by discussing what is meaning, and how we decide that a life is meaningful of meaningless. We go through different criteria to determine the meaningfulness of life: the perfectionist view of life; the importance of freedom; if life has to be moral; if an unexamined life is worth living; if life has to be planned or have goals; if people need a purpose; suffering; antinatalism, and Benatar’s perspective; good and bad experiences, and how they weigh on the balance of meaning; our insignificance from the point of view of the Universe; death; suicide; and religion and systems of value. We also talk about the meaningfulness of lives of other animals, and their moral status. Finally, we discuss potential arguments that could convince desperate people that they lives are meaningful.
Time Links:
Intro
What is meaning?
Who decides if a particular life is meaningful?
A perfectionist view
Freedom
A moral life
An unexamined life
Plans and goals
Purpose
Suffering, and suicide
Antinatalism
Meaninglessness from the point of view of the Universe, and death
Religion
Animal lives
Arguments for desperate people
Follow Dr. Landau’s work!
Follow Dr. Landau’s work:
PhilPeople page: https://bit.ly/3x0fbhh
Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World: https://amzn.to/3uMwvo0