the act of enhancing or exaggerating one's own im…
The Meaning of Life
by
Terry Eagleton
July 17, 2017 - July 20, 2017
(read/owned-ebooks)
Eagleton, T. (2007). The Meaning of Life. Oxford University Press, USA.
p.100
self-aggrandizing »
p.95
agape »
(noun) a Greco-Christian term referring to "love:…
p.95
coterie »
(noun) an intimate and often exclusive group of p…
p.95
cognoscenti »
(noun) a person who has expert knowledge in a sub…
p.91
jouissance »
physical or intellectual pleasure, delight, or ec…
p.100
Is jazz, then, the meaning of life? Not exactly. …
p.89
As for wealth, we live in a civilization which pi…
p.71
‘Constructions’ of this kind are a kind of one-wa…
p.59
It is possible to see the work of Samuel Beckett …
p.53
To dig strenuously with its enormous shovel-paws …
1
Questions and answers
- talks a lot about Wittgenstein's theories on false questions + the idea of private languages (the pain example)
- on religion and how its decline ushered in a world where meaning was suddenly uncertain
- on celebrity fads and the commercialisation of the search for meaning
- on the role that sport plays in many peoples' lives
9
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7
1
Questions and answers
- talks a lot about Wittgenstein's theories on false questions + the idea of private languages (the pain example)
- on religion and how its decline ushered in a world where meaning was suddenly uncertain
- on celebrity fads and the commercialisation of the search for meaning
- on the role that sport plays in many peoples' lives
33
The problem of meaning
- splits out various common definitions of meaning as either: 1) intending; 2) signifying; or 3) intending to signify, none of which work for "the meaning of life"
- a little more on language-games (without calling them that)
- the famous soliloquy from Macbeth (sound and fury, signifying nothing, etc)
- Schopenhauer's views on mankind being victim to a malevolent greater power
- Althusser on ideology being, perhaps, necessary
- Lacan on the dichotomy between meaning and being
5
/
3
33
The problem of meaning
- splits out various common definitions of meaning as either: 1) intending; 2) signifying; or 3) intending to signify, none of which work for "the meaning of life"
- a little more on language-games (without calling them that)
- the famous soliloquy from Macbeth (sound and fury, signifying nothing, etc)
- Schopenhauer's views on mankind being victim to a malevolent greater power
- Althusser on ideology being, perhaps, necessary
- Lacan on the dichotomy between meaning and being
56
The eclipse of meaning
- how some writers like Chekhov, Conrad, Kafka, Beckett feature a "central absence" in their work, since the societal (?) slipping away of meaning was noticeable during their lifetimes
- on the other hand, postmodernism doesn't have the same issue, since it's not old enough to recall a time when there was meaning
- a lot about Beckett straddling modernism and postmodernism (Eagleton seems to really like Beckett)
- goes into what is essentially death-of-the-author stuff without referring to it by name
- also transcedence vs facticity, though again without using those words (I guess they're old ideas)
4
/
2
56
The eclipse of meaning
- how some writers like Chekhov, Conrad, Kafka, Beckett feature a "central absence" in their work, since the societal (?) slipping away of meaning was noticeable during their lifetimes
- on the other hand, postmodernism doesn't have the same issue, since it's not old enough to recall a time when there was meaning
- a lot about Beckett straddling modernism and postmodernism (Eagleton seems to really like Beckett)
- goes into what is essentially death-of-the-author stuff without referring to it by name
- also transcedence vs facticity, though again without using those words (I guess they're old ideas)
78
Is life what you make it?
on Aristotle, and inequality, and individual/common answers to the question
6
/
2
78
Is life what you make it?
on Aristotle, and inequality, and individual/common answers to the question
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