A puzzle about meaning and luck

Hammerton, Matthew

doi:10.1111/rati.12330

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…This distinction between meaning‐conducive activity and meaning‐neutral passivity breaks down if we consider the possibility that luck plays a role in the meaningfulness of our lives. As Matthew Hammerton (2022) observes, meaningfulness seems to be subject to a certain element of luck, e.g., the ways in which our projects have inadvertent knock‐on effects that still seem to be meaning‐conducive. The denial that luck may play a role in generating meaning comes, he argues, at a very high cost to our standard intuitions concerning meaningful lives.…”

Section: The Passivity Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…What reasons might be mustered in defence of these intuitions? Here I want to appeal to three aspects that have frequently been seen as built into the very idea of leading a meaningful life—namely, one that is worth‐living , admirable , and self‐transcending (e.g., Hammerton, 2022; Kauppinen, 2012, 2013; Metz, 2001, 2013; Wolf, 2010). Experiences of beauty, I will argue, meet these criteria, which lends credence to the thought that in encountering the beautiful, we do not simply make our lives happier or more pleasant but also more meaningful.…”

Section: Experiences Of Beauty As Meaning‐conferringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Next consider the idea that part of what it means to lead a meaningful life is that it is an admirable life (Hammerton, 2022;Kauppinen, 2012;Metz, 2001Metz, , 2013. Is it the case that we might admire the life of Beauty Beholder in a way that we do not admire Aesthetically Indifferent?…”

Section: E Xperien Ce S Of B E Aut Y a S Me Aning -Conferringmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Meaning and beauty

Scripter

2022

Ratio

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On November 1, I had stopped eating and was prostrate in bed … It was then that a small vessel was brought into the room, and I felt my heart leap with newfound joy. It was a painted Karatsu jar … what particularly caught my eye was the repair work that had been done on the piece. It was astonishing how much it enhanced the beauty of the jar … The flaw in the jar had clearly occurred in the kiln. The piece had been badly split during firing, creating a disjointed gap in the surface … There had been no attempt to disguise it, but rather gold-dusted lacquer had been amply employed to repair it … natural deformation has raised the distortion to the level of spontaneous beauty … Is there not anyone who would not be lost in thought looking upon this work? From it I received much food for the heart.

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Section: The Passivity Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Experiences Of Beauty As Meaning‐conferringmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Meaning and beauty

Scripter

2022

Ratio

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“…For discussions of the role of luck in relation to meaning in life see also Brogaard and Smith (2005), Himmelmann (2013), Metz (2013, pp. 68–69), and Hammerton (2022).…”

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confidence: 99%

Remorse and the Ledger Theory of Meaning

Scripter¹

2022

Philosophy

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A common idea about assessing meaning in life is that one draws up a list of those various positive values that one has achieved and subtracts from it one's negative deeds in life. The resulting balance is the meaningfulness of one's existence. I call this the ledger theory. Drawing on the work of Raimond Gaita and Julian Barnes's novel The Sense of an Ending, I argue for a phenomenology of remorse that gives us reason to reject the ledger theory. Even those agents whose lives have been exceptionally meaningful in some respects may remain haunted by their past. Certain sorts of misdeeds – those that involve significant, irreparable damage – leave life marred in such a way that the negative remains, even in the face of all the meaningful deeds of life.

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“…For example, seeMetz (2007, 211),Wong (2008),Metz (2013, 3), and Rowlands (2015, 380). The label 'meaning in life' is sometimes used for the former question, and 'the meaning of life' for the latter.3 For example, seeWolf (1997Wolf ( , 2010,Metz (2002Metz ( , 2013,Cottingham (2003, 20),Audi (2005),Kauppinen (2012Kauppinen ( , 2015,Kekes (2013),Rowlands (2015),Landau (2017), andHammerton (2022).…”

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confidence: 99%

Well-Being and Meaning in Life

Hammerton

2022

Can. J. of Philosophy

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Many philosophers now see meaning in life as a key evaluative category that stands alongside well-being and moral goodness. Our lives are assessed not only by how well they go for us and how morally good they are, but also by their meaningfulness. In this article, I raise a challenge to this view. Theories of meaning in life closely resemble theories of well-being, and there is a suspicion that the former collapse into the latter. I develop this challenge showing that it is formidable. I then answer it by offering a novel account of what meaning in life is and how it differs from well-being. The account I offer is able to resist the strongest form of the challenge while also having much intuitive appeal.

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A puzzle about meaning and luck

Cited by 4 publications

References 18 publications

Meaning and beauty

Meaning and beauty

Remorse and the Ledger Theory of Meaning

Well-Being and Meaning in Life

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