Meaning of Life

Images of a Loving God and Sense of Meaning in Life

by Samuel Stroope

Although prior studies have documented a positive association between religiosity and sense of meaning in life, the... more Although prior studies have documented a positive association between religiosity and sense of meaning in life, the role of specific religious beliefs is currently unclear. Past research on images of God suggests that loving images of God will positively correlate with a sense of meaning and purpose. Mechanisms for this hypothesized relationship are drawn from prior work on attachment theory, religious coping, and symbolic interaction. We suggest that these mechanisms are complementary and that secure attachment styles, reliable coping strategies, and positive self-images work in tandem to facilitate a sense of meaning and purpose. Using a random, national sample from the second wave of the Baylor Religion Survey, we perform multivariate regression analysis that controls for key religious and demographic effects. In our full model, results indicate that the dependent variable is positively associated with student status, religious non-affiliation, congregational friendship networks, and frequency of prayer. Most important from the perspective of the present study, the connection between loving images of God and a sense of meaning and purpose is consistent and robust.

İnsanın Anlam İsteminin Uyanışı: Tolstoy ne söyler? Camus nasıl açıklar? Frankl çözümü nerede bulur?

by Duygu Dincer

"only abstract"

İnsanın Anlam İsteminin Uyanışı: Tolstoy ne söyler? Camus nasıl açıklar? Frankl çözümü nerede bulur? başlıklı bildiri... more İnsanın Anlam İsteminin Uyanışı: Tolstoy ne söyler? Camus nasıl açıklar? Frankl çözümü nerede bulur? başlıklı bildiri özeti Leo Tolstoy, Albert Camus ve Viktor Frankl'ın" bakışaçılarından hareketle "yaşamın anlamı" sorunsalını irdelemektedir.

Life Absurd? Don't Be Ridiculous

by J. David Velleman

Believing moral relativism does not make life absurd. Believing moral relativism does not make life absurd.

Thomas Nagel and Absurdity

by Nicholas Smyth

Thomas Nagel has argued that our lives are necessarily absurd. He comes to this conclusion by arguing that there is a... more Thomas Nagel has argued that our lives are necessarily absurd. He comes to this conclusion by arguing that there is a set of expectations we have about our lives, and by further arguing that from an objective perspective, our lives fail to meet these expectations. In this paper, I argue that the expectations themselves are, on close examination, indefensible. Further, I suggest that the expectations are derived from a religious orientation, one which we do not need to accept.

Implicit theories of meaningful life and the development of the personal meaning profile

by Paul T. P. Wong

Music, neuroscience, and the psychology of wellbeing: A précis

by Adam Croom

Croom, A. M. (2012). Music, neuroscience, and the psychology of wellbeing: A précis. Frontiers in Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 2, 393.
http://www.frontiersin.org/Theoretical_and_Philosophical_Psychology/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00393/abstract

According to Altmetric this article is in the top 5.94% of articles included in PubMed.
http://www.altmetric.com/details.php?domain=www.frontiersin.org&citation_id=556687

In Flourish, the positive psychologist Martin Seligman (2011) identifies five commonly recognized factors that are... more In Flourish, the positive psychologist Martin Seligman (2011) identifies five commonly recognized factors that are characteristic of human flourishing or wellbeing: (1) “positive emotion,” (2) “relationships,” (3) “engagement,” (4) “achievement,” and (5) “meaning” (p. 24). Although there is no settled set of necessary and sufficient conditions neatly circumscribing the bounds of human flourishing (Seligman, 2011), we would mostly likely consider a person that possessed high levels of these five factors as paradigmatic or prototypical of human flourishing. Accordingly, if we wanted to go about the practical task of actually increasing our level of wellbeing, we ought to do so by focusing on practically increasing the levels of the five factors that are characteristic of wellbeing. If, for instance, an activity such as musical engagement can be shown to positively influence each or all of these five factors, this would be compelling evidence that an activity such as musical engagement can positively contribute to one’s living a flourishing life. I’m of the belief that psychological research can and should be used, not only to identify and diagnose maladaptive psychological states, but identify and promote adaptive psychological states as well. In this article I advance the hypothesis and provide supporting evidence for the claim that musical engagement can positively contribute to one’s living a flourishing life. Since there has not yet been a substantive and up-to-date investigation of the possible role of music in contributing to one’s living a flourishing life, the purpose of this article is to conduct this investigation, thereby bridging the gap and stimulating discussion between the psychology of music and the psychology of wellbeing.

A Return to the Self. Indians and Greeks on Life as Art and Philosophical Therapy

by Jonardon Ganeri

In Jonardon Ganeri and Clare Carlisle (eds), Philosophy as Therapeia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).

I find in several philosophical traditions a common thought: that philosophy teaches us to consider our lives as if... more I find in several philosophical traditions a common thought: that philosophy teaches us to consider our lives as if they are works of art, and provides us with the methods needed to fashion a life accordingly. I contrast the model of sculpting, which one finds in Plotinus, with the model of weaving in Plutarch. I move on to observe how a template with four constituents had wide circulation in both medical and philosophical contexts in ancient India, of which the four ‘noble truths’ of the Buddha is but one instance. The four constituents are: the disease, the cause of disease, the cure, and the state of health which ensues. I observe, however, that a voice dissident to the medicinal model comes in the form of someone who says that a life is complete at every moment. I find such a voice in Marcus Aurelius and Rabindranath Tagore. Drawing on a discussion in the Mahābhārata, I argue that Indians are not the ‘nay-sayers’ mischaracterised by Nietzsche, their appeal to notions like nirvāṇa and mokṣa being as regulative ideals in lives led in the here and now. Implicit in this essay is the sense that it is our inability to think of ourselves without fear in relationship to different cultures, nations or religions which gives shape to a distinctively contemporary malaise, to which philosophy renders a new service in the fashioning of new sorts of cosmopolitan identity. We seem to need either to domesticate or else to deride what is alien, too bound by what is our own to be able to let it ‘inform’ us.

The Power of Positive Energy

by Poppy Valentine

This thought paper is about the importance of positivity and mindfulness in our lives and for society and what we can... more This thought paper is about the importance of positivity and mindfulness in our lives and for society and what we can do to increase our energy and make this world a better place together. Love and Peace to All! :)

THE MEANING OF LIFE: THE GIVING OF LIFE AS A CRITERION FOR ECUMENICAL HERMENEUTICS

by Peter-Ben Smit

Worthy Lives

by Lisa Rivera

Reseña de "Carta a D.", de André Gorz

by Juan Pablo Serra

Published in LA TORRE DEL VIRREY. LIBROS, serie 8, 2011/1 [review essay]

This is a review essay on "Letter to D.", the intimate confession that existentialist philosopher and... more This is a review essay on "Letter to D.", the intimate confession that existentialist philosopher and journalist André Gorz wrote to his wife some months before they jointly commited suicide. Although the book is not an essay on love nor a philosophical autobiography, I insist there are four big topics on which the book dwells. Namely, the dichotomy of life and thought, the act of writing as an communicative act of reconstruction and search for meaning, the experience of the otherness and the view of life as a faciendum rather than as a factum.

Phenomenological Sociography and Time Travel

by Peter Theodoropoulos

Related to questions of Time, structure and aspectual dimensions of relational time. Related theories that I am working on to discuss this are syntactogenerics and syntactogenesis, Syntacto generics and Semanto Generics, Syntactogenesis and Semantogenesis relations, and the nature of time as emminative, immanent and transcendent meaning both virtual and ontological. Please offer your input if you so wish.

What is time? How is time non linear? What are the relational or assemblages of subjective structure, how can we... more What is time? How is time non linear? What are the relational or assemblages of subjective structure, how can we create a taxonomy of types of relational time? By what features does time seem linear, and what is the nature of conditioning, or ritual space that instantiates regularities IN the mind? How is this relation both physical and immaterial? IS there such thing as the immaterial? Can time be said to be Immaterial and materializable? Is time instantiative or phasic, normative and bound to rules or flexible? How do we understand distinctions in subjective and objective time, how can we quantify and compare and contrast variables of each? Is there such thing as a phase shift in which ontological bias may be met with nomological or noumenal objectivity, if so what are the expectations, means of discernment and systems available to explore critique, modify and experiment with time relations? What, finally, are some means to codify and structure simulations of these relations utilizing electromagnetic fields that may interface with the Neural correlates of Consciousness study to explore results? What should our ethical considerations with regards to this sort of study be? How was your day?

The Da Vinci Skull

by Étienne Poulard

Published in 'Gaia Scienza' 3 (The Internationalist Foundation, 2010), pp. 59-64

http://www.gaia-scienza.org/index_html_files/Gaia%20Scienza%20Issue%203.pdf

'Every decoding is a new encoding' (David Lodge, 'Small World'). 'Every decoding is a new encoding' (David Lodge, 'Small World').

Heeft het aardse leven zin? (Does It Make Any Sense To Live An Earthly Life?)

by Titus Rivas

Published in Terugkeer, 2010.

Hopeloos lijden (Hopeless Suffering)

by Titus Rivas

Online paper, written in 1994.

Is God and immortality necessary for meaning in life?

by Daniel Avital

This paper is primarily focused on William Lane Craig's article The Absurdity of Life without God. The main focus is... more This paper is primarily focused on William Lane Craig's article The Absurdity of Life without God. The main focus is on challenging Craig on the grounds that 1) his assumption that moral relativism necessarily entails nihilism simply does not follow and 2) that the conditions he advances as necessary for `objective meaning' are in fact both counter-intuitive and too strict. I offer an alternative conception of `objective meaning' that draws on Wittgenstein's Private Language Argument and on MacDowell's well known essay Values as Secondary Qualities.

Journeying in the way of Love

by Alan MacKenzie

Completed for credit toward my Master in Counselling, CHC, Mansfield, Brisbane

No abstract No abstract

Transcending Technology: Looking at Futurology As a New Religious Movement

by Amarnath Amarasingam

This article argues that futurology is a new religious movement. Futurologists propose that the changes taking place... more This article argues that futurology is a new religious movement. Futurologists propose that the changes taking place in technology will radically alter human nature in the near future. The movement has its share of charismatic leaders, authoritative texts, and notions of salvation. I do not attempt to refute the vision of the future put forth by the futurologists themselves, but assume that their view of the future will unfold as they see it. This allows me more easily to gauge futurology’s future relationship with religion. Rational choice theory is employed as a tool to discern whether futurology has the potential to be competitive when it enters the market-place of religions.I argue that, if the science behind it is perfected, futurology poses a real challenge to traditional religion.

Meaning of Life: The Analytic Perspective

by Joshua Seachris

Encyclopedia entry in the 'Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'

Enactive Cognition and the Neurophenomenology of Emotion

by Brent Robbins