Life, Death and Meaning

Subtitled 'key philosophical readings on the big questions', this anthology is characterised by the editor as 'analytic existentialism', a new phrase for me. This is based on the fact that big questions are more frequently addressed in the continental existentialist tradition than in the more analytical Anglo-Saxon approach typified by Gilbert Ryle and AJ Ayer. The six sections cover the meaning of life, creating people, death, immortality, suicide, optimism and pessimism. The authors of almost all agnostic or atheist and treat the questions philosophically without any reference to empirical evidence, for instance that relating to death and immortality. Hence they are dealing with postulates and their logical consequences. None of the writers on the meaning of life thinks that there is any intrinsic purpose, although some assert value or meaningfulness on a subjective or social basis. The essays on death use Epicurus as a point of departure, although one contributor takes issue with his contention that pre-vital and post-mortem nonexistence are identical, arguing that only the latter can be regarded as a deprivation. The section on immortality asks whether it would be good to live for ever – certainly not, according to Bernard Williams, who found the prospect overwhelmingly tedious (he was a brilliant lecturer and I heard him in Cambridge 40 years ago). The discussion of suicide reprints historical contributions from David Hume and Immanuel Kant, while Arthur Schopenhauer makes an appearance as representative of pessimism. The book is aimed at philosophy students, and is engaging within its own limitations, but the uninformed reader might have no idea that such big questions can be addressed in the light of evidence from psychic and spiritual experiences, a field almost completely excluded from the Academy.