NDLI: Meaningfulness and Identities

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Wong, Wai hung
Copyright Year	2007
Abstract	Three distinct but related questions can be asked about the meaningfulness of one’s life. The first is ‘What is the meaning of life?,’ which can be called ‘the cosmic question about meaningfulness’; the second is ‘What is a meaningful life?,’ which can be called ‘the general question about meaningfulness’; and the third is ‘What is the meaning of my life?,’ which can be called ‘the personal question about meaningfulness.’ I argue that in order to deal with all three questions we should start with the personal question. There is a way of understanding the personal question which allows us to answer it independently of any consideration of the cosmic question, but which nonetheless helps us see why the cosmic question should be dismissed as a bad question. Besides, a recommendable answer to the general question can be derived from my understanding of how the personal question should be answered. Two notions are essential to my account, namely, the notion of identities and the notion of a biographical life. And the account can be epitomized in this enticing way: a person’s life is meaningful if it contains material for an autobiography that she thinks is worth writing and others think is worth reading.
Starting Page	123
Ending Page	148
Page Count	26
File Format	PDF
ISSN	13862820
Journal	Ethical Theory and Moral Practice
Volume Number	11
Issue Number	2
e-ISSN	15728447
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2007-12-13
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Meaning Meaningfulness Identities Identification Value Biographical life Skepticism Ultimateness Subjective Objective Intersubjective Ontology Political Philosophy Ethics
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Philosophy Social Sciences

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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