Table of Contents

Iddo Landau: Introduction

I. Understanding Meaning in Life
1. Thaddeus Metz: The Concept of a Meaningful Life
2. Jens Johansson and Frans Svensson: Subjectivism and Objectivism about Meaning in Life
3. Gwen Bradford: Achievement and Meaning in Life
4. Galen Strawson: Narrativity and Meaning in Life
5. Guy Kahane: Meaningfulness and Importance
6. Steve Luper: The Meaning of Life and Death

II. Meaning in Life, Science, and Metaphysics
7. Paul Thagard: The Relevance of Neuroscience to Meaning in Life
8. P. M. S. Hacker: Can Neuroscience Shed Light on What Constitutes a Meaningful Life?
9. Marya Schechtman: Personal Identity and Meaning in Life
10. Derk Pereboom: Hard Determinism and Meaning in Life
11. Ned Markosian: Meaning in Life and the Nature of Time

III. Meaning in Life and Religion
12. John Cottingham: Transcendence and Meaning in Life
13. Erik J. Wielenberg: Atheism and Meaning in Life
14. T. J. Mawson: Theism and Meaning in Life
15. Guy Bennett-Hunter: Mysticism, Ritual, and the Meaning of Life

IV. Ethics and Meaning in Life
16. Todd May: Meaning and Morality
17. Sven Nyholm and Stephen M. Campbell: Meaning and Anti-Meaning in Life
18. Lucy Allais: Forgiveness and Meaning in Life
19. Rivka Weinberg: Between Sisyphus's Rock and a Warm and Fuzzy Place: Procreative Ethics and the Meaning of Life
20. Katie McShane: Nature, Animals, and Meaning in Life

V. Philosophical Psychology and Meaning in Life
21. Antti Kauppinen: The Experience of Meaning
22. Nomy Arpaly: Desire and Meaning in Life: Towards a Theory
23. Alan H. Goldman: Love and Meaning in Life
24. Iddo Landau: Meaning in Life and Phoniness
25. Tony Manela: Gratitude and Meaning in life
26. Roy F. Baumeister Psychological Approaches to Life's Meaning

VI. Living Meaningfully: Challenges and Prospects
27. David Benatar: Pessimism, Optimism, and Meaning in Life
28. Michael Cholbi: The Rationality of Suicide and the Meaningfulness of Life
29. Michael S. Brady: Suffering and Meaning in Life
30. Saul Smilansky: Paradoxes and Meaning in Life
31. Doret de Ruyter and Anders Schinkel: Education and Meaning in Life
32. John Danaher: Virtual Reality and the Meaning in Life

About the Author

Iddo Landau is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Haifa, Israel. He has published extensively on meaning in life, and is the author of Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World (Oxford University Press, 2017).