Life, Meaning of

In Henk ten Have (ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics. Springer. pp. 1-6 (2015)
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Abstract

This entry begins by indicating respects in which the concept of life’s meaning has only recently become salient in English-speaking bioethical discussions and by clarifying what talk of ‘life’s meaning’ and cognate phrases mean, at least to most of the philosophers and bioethicists who have used them. This essay then addresses six major respects in which thought about what makes a life meaningful has influenced bioethics. The first four issues concern life and death matters for human beings, and specifically involve: euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, reproductive ethics, life extension, and transhumanism. The other two topics are about respects in meaningfulness figures into somewhat ‘less vital’ medical contexts, concerning ways in which promoting health is conceived either as a way to advance meaning or as in competition with the latter value. This essay concludes by offering a brief bird’s-eye reflection on the state of the field.

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Thaddeus Metz
Cornell University (PhD)

Citations of this work

The Meaning of Life (Second Revised Edition).Thaddeus Metz - 2021 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
God, the meaning of life, and a new argument for atheism.Jason Megill & Daniel Linford - 2016 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 79 (1):31-47.

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References found in this work

Death and the Afterlife.Samuel Scheffler - 2013 - New York, NY: Oup Usa. Edited by Niko Kolodny.
Human extinction and the value of our efforts.Brooke Alan Trisel - 2004 - Philosophical Forum 35 (3):371–391.
Mortal immortals: Lucretius on death and the voice of nature.Martha C. Nussbaum - 1989 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 50 (2):303-351.

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